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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.”
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