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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 13th 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.
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