 |
 |
| | Thursday, February 24 | |||||
| ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- It was a sight to behold. The Daytona 500 was nearing its end and right at the front of the field was
Johnny Benson.
Benson, whose main claim to fame in four previous seasons on NASCAR's top stock car circuit was winning Rookie of the Year
honors in 1996, had never been this close to taking the checkered flag.
It would have been one of the greatest upsets in Winston Cup
history, particularly because Benson's Pontiac was outracing a
horde of the powerful Ford Tauruses that supposedly have an
aerodynamic advantage.
But a caution flag gave the mighty Fords, led by defending
series champion Dale Jarrett, one more shot at Benson on a restart
with four laps remaining. He led until the second turn on the
2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and suddenly felt like a
leaf being buffeted around in a hurricane as the Fords flew by.
"What was doubly bad was that I was out front and I knew
exactly what was going to happen," Benson said. "Would we have
won without the caution? I think I'll be asking myself that when
I'm 80 years old watching races on television."
Instead of getting his first win in 129 starts, Benson wound up
a fading 12th.
It was the call of James Ince, Benson's new crew chief, that
gave the driver the lead when he chose to only take two new tires
on his last pit stop.
Losing the way they left Ince downcast -- but not for long.
"I woke up Monday morning and thought, 'Darn, we nearly won the
Daytona 500.' I was kind of depressed," he said. "But, after I
started thinking about it, I realized we were there at the end with
a real chance to win the race."
It was a pretty good start for Benson in his first race with
Tyler Jet Motorsports and its new Lycos sponsorship.
The developing team will see if it can remain competitive
Friday, when practice and qualifying begin for the Dura Lube-Kmart
400 at North Carolina Speedway.
"Nobody should forget that this team has made some pretty
dramatic improvements," Benson said. "This team won a pole with
David Green last year in Homestead (in November), and then, just
two races later, we end up leading the biggest race of the year.
"I've been impressed with James Ince from the beginning, but
more so now than I was a month ago or three months ago. He's really
sharp and keeps everything pretty calm in the pits. And, as you saw
on Sunday, he isn't afraid to take a chance every now and then."
Of course, Benson won't be the favorite on Sunday. That honor
should go to Jarrett, who continues to show the kind of consistency
and power that carried him to a virtual runaway in the series
standings last year.
Jarrett has yet to win on Rockingham's 1.017-mile oval, but he
has been close numerous times.
In fact, Jarrett's No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford has finished
second in six of his last eight starts here.
"Surely, the law of averages is going to catch up," Jarrett
said. "If we keep running up front, eventually we're going to win
in Rockingham.
"It's kind of funny, though. We always seem to start out
really, really strong and, as the race goes on, somebody else
invariably catches up and, in the end, we fade a little and they
win. Somehow, we've got to figure out a way to keep that edge."
It could be that the guy Jarrett will have to beat is the
surprising Benson.
"We've always felt that we were in better shape to go to
Rockingham, as opposed to Daytona," he said. "Your setup at a
place like Rockingham is real critical. At a place like Daytona,
it's horsepower and the (car) body.
"We just need to see where we shake out compared to everybody
else."
| ALSO SEE Weber: Tale of two teams Another dynamic duo forming in 88 garage Furr: Tempers short on short track Dura Lube 400 Breakdown Driver's Forum: A question of popularity  | |||||