Benson 29^th 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 17^th 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.