Friday, August 02, 2002
Benson ready for Indy turnaround
Indy's friendly confines give Benson some hope
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS - Johnny Benson and his crew haven't had much to cheer about this season. They hope the Brickyard 400 can change all that.
A 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and sixth at Michigan in June are Benson's only top-10 results in 2002. The former Winston Cup rookie of the year also has been injured twice, forcing him to miss eight races.
“It's not like we've been terrible,” Benson said. “We've just had bad luck. It seems like every time something could happen to us, it happened. We could use a little more speed, too.”
Practice begins today for the 400, with qualifying for the 43-car field Saturday.
With most of the second half of the season remaining, Benson and his team are looking at Indianapolis as a track where they can gain some momentum.
Not only did his team have the fastest car in one of the test sessions on the 21/2-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval (with Jerry Nadeau filling in for the injured Benson), but he also has three top-10 finishes in six Brickyard starts, including third last year.
Benson led 70 laps in 1996 on the way to an eighth-place finish, then led two laps the next year while finishing seventh.
“I like flat, fast racetracks,” the driver said. “For whatever reason, that just fits my style of driving.”
Benson is just about back to normal after his second rib injury of the season.
He missed six races after cracking three ribs in a crash in May during a Busch Series race in Richmond. Benson returned for four races before breaking a rib and cracking two more in a crash July 6 in Daytona.
That kept him out of the car for only two races. He returned Sunday and was 30th at Pocono Raceway.
“There's still some pain, but not bad,” Benson said. “I expected some small problems at Pocono, but there was nothing at all. I'm fine.”
Victory Lane is a place that has eluded Benson in his 212 Winston Cup starts, but a victory Sunday would go a long way toward healing any remaining wounds.
“If we win this weekend, that will change the way a lot of people have looked at our season and might go a ways to changing the way we look at our season,” he said. “Whether you are having a good or bad season everyone wants to win at Indy, as much as they want to win at Daytona.”
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