Benson Finishes 36th in Talladega

A dejected Johnny Benson summed his view of the Aaron’s 312 Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway best when he said “just in the wrong place.”

As a result, Benson finished 36th in the race.

Benson and Team Yellow had high hopes of a much better finish in the second restrictor-plate race of the season, and for the first 99 laps of the 117-lap event, it looked as if they were going to accomplish their goal.

But then on lap 100 disaster struck as Mike Wallace was squeezed into the side of Mike Bliss as they attempted to pass the lapped car of Jimmy Kitchens as the field raced through the tri-oval at the 2.66-mile facility.

The contact between Wallace and Bliss triggered what all of the drivers call “The Big One.” Benson, running the low groove, thought he was going to get through the multi-car accident. But he was hit by Bliss’ spinning car. The damage was so severe that Benson was unable to continue.

“We had followed our game plan to perfection until then,” said Benson. “We dropped back at the start of the race to try and miss The Big One. We just wanted to stay on the lead lap until the last 20-25 laps and then run as hard as we could and see what happens. Unfortunately, this time The Big One happened in the last 25 laps instead of the first 25 as it did at Daytona.”

Benson also was caught in a multi-car accident in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. “The Big One” at Daytona occurred on lap 11 resulting in a 41st-place finish for Benson and Team Yellow.

The team had rallied from this bad start to the season to move into tenth place in the race for the Busch Series championship after four top-10 finishes in the next six races.

The 36th-place finish at Talladega dropped Benson to 13th place in the point standings.

“We will just have to go to California and get us another top-10 or better,” said Benson. “The Yellow team still believes it can contend for the championship. We have run well at every track except Vegas, so we expect to have a good day at California. Even with the two bad finishes in the two restrictor-plate races, Team Yellow still has plenty of time to put ourselves in position to win the championship.”