Johnny Benson keeps moving, but not forward. That's too bad, because he's a driver who's not without some accomplishments and a decent sort besides. He's won awards, poles, even a race as recently as 2002. He finds himself now on the fringes of the Nextel Cup experience. It's not where he seemed to be headed a half-dozen years ago.

He's been bounced around a little bit. Locals might remember Benson was TKO'd during a nasty Busch-circuit wreck at RIR two Mays ago, missed five starts and stumbled throughout a season salvaged only by his breakthrough win at Rockingham. He's also bounced from team to team, four in all, since he landed on the tour in 1996. Now - as of several days ago - he has no ride to call his own. It's not the recommended pattern as career progressions go.

His most recent gig was with Phoenix Racing, a threadbare operation that's got the wherewithal to make 12 legitimate attempts - one of them last night's Chevy 400 - and otherwise trots backup driver Joe Ruttman onto the starting grid to turn a couple of laps and park the No. 09 Dodge. The checks keep coming. Continuity doesn't.

Until this week, Benson was the team's "serious" driver - the guy who took the wheel when the goal was something more than dropping out early with vibration issues (uh-huh) or faulty brakes (tee-hee). But last night, the 09 was steered by Bobby Hamilton Jr. Benson, whose best finish had been 27th in the season-opener at Daytona, was nowhere to be seen - pink-slipped by car owner James Finch and set adrift.

It wasn't long ago Benson was on an upwardly mobile course. He was the Busch Series' top rookie in 1994 and its champion a year later. He accelerated to Cup rookie-of-the-year status in 1996. He finished 11th in the points standings - and a mere one point out of 10th - in'97. He joined the Roush Racing stable the following season. All systems were go.

He's had trouble avoiding speed bumps since then. Only Mark Martin and Jeff Burton were winning races for Roush during Benson's two seasons of marginal returns with the operation, and he became odd man out when Matt Kenseth was deemed ready for full-time Cup duty.

Benson then hooked up with MB2 Motorsports. He finished 13th and 11th in the standings his first two years, then faded. Two humdrum seasons ended last fall when he was sacked and replaced by Scott Riggs, a rookie who'd built - like Benson before him - a promising worksheet in Busch cars.

Riggs is 33 - the same age Benson was when he landed on the Cup circuit. He's closing in on 41 now, his once-promising career sidetracked. He's with a team that's impossibly underfunded. His star has waned. He claims his spirit hasn't.

"I personally don't worry about that," Benson said during a test session last week at RIR. "Some people do. I know my stint with Roush wasn't as good as what we wanted. I came from within one point of 10th in the standings to not running well with them. Last year wasn't the year we were expecting to have. We ended up 24th in the points, so they felt they needed to make a change. I don't know what the future holds. I've just got to be optimistic and look at it that way. I can't worry about the past. I can't change it."

There's matter-of-factness in his voice. That's not stepping out of character. Benson is a no-frills, son-of-a-racer type from Grand Rapids, Mich., and part-owner now of the track - Berlin Raceway - where he became a local hero. He drives souped-up cars for a living. It doesn't seem to trouble him that he's not in the fast lane these days.

"I'm going to race till they tell me I can't," he said. "Whether I run in the Cup Series or the Busch Series or I run on my own track, I don't care."

The woulda/coulda stuff is behind him. He's not looking back. But he's not accelerating, either.