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Johnny
Benson |
Three short years ago, Johnny
Benson sat at a crossroads of sorts. Behind lay years of
both championship triumphs and missed opportunities. Ahead
of him, Benson faced an uncertain path as the driver of the
Tyler Jet Motorsports Pontiac, a struggling, un-sponsored
race team.
Benson stayed the course, and
despite a few more setbacks along the way, his career
appears to be back on the upswing as he returns to North
Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C. where he scored his
first Winston Cup victory after 226 career starts last
November.
Benson will start second in the
#10 Valvoline Pontiac Grand Prix behind pole-sitter Dave
Blaney in Sunday’s Subway 400.
“Rockingham has always been a track where we've ran pretty
decent at,” said Benson during a teleconference with the
media on Tuesday. “We've always ran good there. I was
finally glad we were able to win. We've been close in the
Busch Series and had had a bunch of top fives in Winston Cup
too.”
Benson is proof you can be a nice guy and win races.
He showed tremendous patience after being bumped out of the
lead by younger, more aggressive drivers, not once, but
twice, just weeks before his victory at North Carolina
Speedway, last year.
Benson led in the waning laps in the New Hampshire 300 at
New Hampshire Int’l Speedway in September before Ryan Newman
nudged his way to the front to win the race. A month later
at the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville, Kurt Busch pushed
his way past Benson to take the checkered flag
In both cases, Benson had opportunities to retaliate and
re-take the lead, but he didn’t.
"That's just the way I am.” Benson said, “If I had been a
bad guy and won 20 races, I'd be happy with that. But, I'm
not that guy. I just am what I am and that's just the way it
is”
“Maybe I could have won one if I had wrecked the guy. But, I
wasn't going to do that.”
Benson spent much of 2002 on the sidelines, missing five
races with an injured shoulder suffered in the Hardee’s 250
Busch Series race at Richmond in May and missing another two
races after another crash in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in
July.
Despite his injuries, Benson came back stronger than ever,
picking up several top five finishes before scoring his
first Winston Cup victory at the Pop Secret 400 at North
Carolina Speedway last November.
Now, Benson is back to 100% and looking forward to the
season.
“I was 100 percent before the year was out.” Benson said,
“It was, as far as in the race car, two or three weeks after
getting back into the car where I felt I was in pretty good
shape. It just took a couple of weeks is all.”
In whatever series he has raced in, Benson has always found
success.
Benson, after honing his skills on the short tracks of his
home state of Michigan, moved through the American Speed
Association (ASA) and NASCAR’s Busch Series, where he won
both rookie and championship titles. In 1996, Benson moved
up to the Winston Cup ranks with Bahari Racing, finishing
21st in points en route to the rookie title.
In 1998, Benson signed on with Roush Racing, but what should
have been the pinnacle of Benson’s career turned into two
years of frustration and disappointment.
In two seasons with Roush, Benson’s team posted just three
top five victories and ten DNF’s. In 1999, he finished 28th
in the points standings, lowest among the five Roush Racing
drivers. In July of that year, Benson was released from his
contract with Roush Racing to seek other opportunities
elsewhere.
"Jack gave me an opportunity to go race their race cars and
it's a great organization. I'm glad that that happened.”
Benson said, “Unfortunately, it wasn't the right thing for
me and him. We struggled, we had some problems and at that
point in time, I think he knew what was best. I knew what
was best.
“At that point in time, I felt like they were doing
everything they could for all their race teams, but I didn't
think it was going to work for us. That's when I chose to go
do something different.”
Benson signed on with Tyler Jet Motorsports, a struggling
organization that was once owned by Darrell Waltrip.
Arriving at Daytona for SpeedWeeks in 2000 without a
sponsor, Benson surprised everyone by nearly winning the
“Great American Race”, losing the lead with just four laps
to go and eventually finishing 12th.
Benson and his team soldiered on through 2000 scraping
together just enough sponsorship opportunities to keep them
going through June. The team was sold to MB2 Motorsports in
July. By season’s end, they had secured sponsorship from
Valvoline, who bought a controlling interest in the team.
The team picked up three 3rd-place finishes in 2001, ending
the season 11th in points at seasons end.
Despite his victory, Benson hoped for better in 2002. Now
fully recovered from his injuries, he and his team can focus
on their goal – winning the Winston Cup Championship, and
not necessarily winning races.
“I would rather go through the season and maybe only win one
(race) and win the Winston Cup Championship as opposed to
winning four races and finishing out of the top 10.” Benson
said, “ It depends how you want to view it. Yeah, the goal
is to get in the top 10 and eventually work your way to a
Championship.”
"We're looking forward to the 2003 season and just moving
on. We've got a new Grand Prix and we're trying to get back
into the swing that we ran in 2001 and how we ended up in
2002.”
If it’s true nice guys don’t always finish last, this could
be the year for Johnny Benson for claim his third major
driving championship.
The author can be contacted nascar@autoracing1.com
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