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BENSON RUNS OUT OF GAS,
FINISHES 21ST AT CALIFORNIA
A
late-race gamble did not pay off for the Yellow
Transportation team Saturday in The Stater Brothers 300 at
California Speedway.
As a result, Johnny Benson
finished 21st after running in the top 10 for most of the
race.
Crew chief Jon Wolfe, in a
move to try and win the race, decided to try and run the
final 58 laps on one tank of gas. "I really thought we had
a chance to run that far," said a dejected Wolfe after the
race. "I knew if we were the only team that ran to the
finish without stopping we would win the race. But our
calculations (on the team's fuel mileage) must have been a
little off."
With six laps left in the 150-lap event, Benson told Wolfe
via the team radio "I am out of gas." At the time, he was
halfway down the backstretch on the two-mile facility.
Benson coasted into the pits. With one crewmember spraying
ether into the carburetor and another adding fuel, Benson
was finally able to get the car restarted. But by this
time, he was a lap down.
"Trying to run the rest of
the way on one tank of gas was our only chance to win the
race," said Benson. "It just didn't pay off.
"We had about a tenth-place
car, and that was probably where we were going to finish,"
added the driver of the Yellow Transportation Dodge. "It
would have been nice to get another top-10 finish. But
Wolfie wanted to gamble. So we did.
"The Yellow team wants to
win races, and that was our only chance to do that today."
Benson did think the team
learned some valuable lessons during the race that will
help them when they return to California Speedway in early
September. "Wolfie and the Yellow team made some real good
changes to the car, and we were a lot better during the
middle of the race then we were at the start," said
Benson. "So we've got a good starting point for when we
come back later this year."
The next race for the
Yellow team is a 250-lap event at Gateway International
Raceway in Madison, Ill. on May 8. The night race will
start at 8 p.m. (EDT) with the telecast beginning at 7:30
on FX.
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