BRISTOL BAD LUCK FOR BENSON AND TEAM YELLOW

Johnny Benson and the Yellow Transportation team were en route to their best finish of the 2004 NASCAR Busch Series season when disaster struck with less than two laps to go Saturday in the Sharpie Professional 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

And when the smoke cleared from the late-race accident that resulted in Benson hitting the wall and spinning down the track, the Yellow Transportation driver was credited with a 13th-place finish.

           
Benson was trying to find a way around Mike Bliss as the race entered its final two laps. As the duo raced into the first turn, they came upon David Stremme, who had spun a lap earlier after being hit by Kevin Harvick.  Bliss was able to get around Stremme, but Benson wasn’t as lucky.

Naturally, no one on the Yellow team was very happy with the late-race incident.  And several members, including Benson, expressed their unhappiness with Stremme on national television.  “We had third-place finish taken away from us, so I am not too happy,” said Benson.  “The Yellow Transportation Dodge really ran well all day, and I still felt I had a chance to get by Bliss for second.  When you have a good day taken away from you that close to the finish, you are not too happy.   I just want to know what he (Stremme) was thinking.   The Yellow team had too good a day to end up 13^th with a wrecked race car.”

Continuing, Benson said, “I knew we probably didn’t have enough laps to catch the 8  car (Martin Truex Jr.) when the green came out (with nine laps remaining).  But I still thought we might get the 20 car (Bliss).   At the worst, we were going to finish third.   Then the next thing I know the 32 car (Stremme) is slamming into me.   You can’t be too happy when that happens.

“Team Yellow has had a car capable of winning the last two races.  So from that standpoint, you’ve got to feel pretty good,” added Benson.   “But when you are running for the championship, having a third-place finish taken away from you that close to the end just leaves you in a bad mood.”

Earlier in the race, the spinning car of Ashton Lewis Jr had clipped Benson.   But Benson was able to do a 360-degree spin after being hit by Lewis and only lost one spot as the fifth of eight yellow flags came out on lap 174.  The Yellow Transportation Dodge suffered damage to the left rear corner panel when Lewis hit it.  But since it didn’t affect the handling of the car, crew chief Jon Wolfe told the pit crew “to just change four tires” when Benson pitted during the yellow flag.

Benson left the pits in fourth place. “I really thought it was going to be our day when we were able to come out of that deal with about 75 laps to go in such good shape,” said Benson.

On lap 220 of the 250-lap event, Benson got around Harvick to move into third place.  Two laps later, another caution flag was waving.   This allowed Benson to pull within a car length of Bliss with leader Truex out an additional car length in front of Bliss.

“I was glad to see that yellow as it allowed us to catch up with the 20 and 8,” said Benson.   “But at the same time, I knew it took our car awhile to get going.  So I knew we needed to run the rest of the way without a caution for us to have a chance to win.”

But that hope quickly faded as the seventh of eight yellow flags was waved on lap 234 when Robby Gordon’s Chevrolet lost an oil line.   Gordon dropped so much oil that the race was red-flagged with 14 laps to go.

“I knew we probably didn’t have enough laps to get both the 8 and 20 when the green came out (with only nine laps left),” said Benson.  “But I thought we might end up second.  But…”

The next race for the Yellow Transportation team is the O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 3.