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BENSON, TEAM YELLOW EARN
FIRST TOP-FIVE OF SEASON
A Yes We Can Attitude paid
great dividends Saturday for Johnny Benson and the Yellow
Transportation team as Benson finished fourth in the
O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
This was Benson’s first
top-five of the season.
Despite starting 39th
after encountering problems during qualifying, Benson and
Team Yellow went into the event in an optimistic mood.
“We knew we had a great car as we were fast before
qualifying and afterwards,” said Benson. “We just had a
problem during qualifying that forced us to start in the
back.”
The quick release value fitting for the engine cooling
system failed during Benson’s qualifying run. ‘We were
blowing water from underneath the car,” said Benson.
“That made it really hard to get the car up to speed.
But we still felt we had a chance to have a real good day,
and thanks to the crew we were able to get us a top-five
finish,” added Benson.
Two caution flags during the first 15 laps enabled the
Yellow Transportation crew to make several key chassis
changes to the car. And then during the third yellow
flag on lap 33, crew chief Jon Wolfe decided to change
only two tires.
“That was a brilliant decision,” said Benson as he vaulted
from 27th to seventh because of Wolfe’s
strategy. “Passing that many cars on pit road was the
key. It got us in position to battle for a top-five
finish.”
Benson had just moved into the top five when a yellow flag
was waved on lap 135 for oil from the blown engine
suffered by Greg Biffle. Benson admitted he was lucky
to miss the spinning Biffle as “I couldn’t see a thing,”
said Benson. “I was right behind him, and all the oil
and smoke just blinded me. I mean I couldn’t see a
thing. I really had to call on my spotter (Marc Reno).
He guided me until I got to the point where I could at
least see in front of the car.”
With several cars deciding to take on only two tires
during the ensuing yellow flag, Benson dropped to 12th.
But ten laps after the green flag waved again, Benson had
moved into seventh place.
He was running sixth on lap 195 when the 200-lap event was
red-flagged after an accident involving Tracy Hines,
Michael Waltrip and Kasey Kahne brought out the seventh
caution flag of the day. NASCAR quickly elected to stop
the race to ensure a green-flag finish.
“The red flag actually turned out to be a benefit,” said
Benson, “as it allowed me to cool my tires. And then I
was able to get a great jump on the restart when the green
flag came out with four laps to go.”
Benson passed two cars in the next two laps and was
closing on third-place Robby Gordon when the final yellow
flag of the race was waved on the final lap of the race.
“It is hard to believe that this is our first top-five of
the year as well as we have run this year,” said Benson.
“Our luck just hasn’t been too good. But today brilliant
work by the Yellow Transportation team and a fortunate red
flag helped us get one (a top-five finish).
“This was a big day for us point-wise, too,” added Benson,
who moved into 15th place in the race for the
2004 NASCAR Busch Series championship. Following the
race, Benson was named the Mobil 1 Command Performance
Driver of the Race for the second time this year.
The next race for the Yellow Transportation team is the
Pepsi 300 at Nashville (Tn.) Superspeedway on April 10.
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