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Benson 29th
At Talladega
Sunday wasn't a typical race
at Talladega Superspeedway for Johnny Benson and the #09
Miccosukee Gaming and Resort Dodge team.
Although he skillfully missed
the 10-car wreck on lap 84 and appeared destined for a
good finish, a broken suspension part at the front of the
car ended his day on lap about 35 laps from the end
leaving him with a 29th-place finish.
"We weren't great, but we
weren't too bad either," Benson said after the race. "We
couldn't go too far up toward the leaders but we were just
holding our own waiting for the end and then we were going
to give it our best shot."
Benson started 34th and
maintained his position in the early going.
But on lap 26, Dave Blaney
completed a two-tire stop and charged out of his pit
apparently not seeing Benson who was trying to come into
his pit ahead of Blaney's.
The pair made contact sending
Benson sideways narrowly missing his crew members. Benson
came back to the pits and crew made repairs to their Dodge
and returned to the race.
In the last few Talladega
races Benson has been a victim of someone else's mistake
that caused a huge multi-car accident. It appeared the
same thing was going to happen again on lap 84.
Tony Stewart hit Kurt Busch
sending Busch sliding up the track and the field entered
turn three. Benson was obscured by the tire smoke but
narrowly slipped through the carnage.
"That was close," he said. "A
little too close for my liking. But we made it through. I
almost forgot what it was like to miss the big wreck here.
It seems like it always gets us but it didn't today."
Things were looking good.
Benson climbed as high as 17th
and looked to be ready to go up among the leaders.
But that didn't last long.
On lap 104 Benson's tire
disintegrated coming through the tri oval and he limped
back around to the pits.
Fortunately for Benson just
ten laps later, Kerry Earnhardt’s accident brought out the
yellow. Benson, because he was the first car a lap down,
was the recipient of the lucky dog award and allowed to
return to the lead lap.
Benson used the next segment
to slowly work his way up through the field but disaster
struck.
After what he hoped might have
been his final pit stop of the day, Benson returned to the
track and reported over the team radio that he felt like a
tire was loose. He returned to the pits but the crew found
no loose lug nuts. Upon further inspection they discovered
suspension damage significant enough to warrant an end to
the race.
"We just didn't feel it was
safe enough to continue," Benson said. "I was
disappointed. I thought we could get a pretty good finish.
But at least we have a car still and we can work on it to
get it better for the next race.”
Benson was credited with 29th
place. |
