Johnny Benson's car that started Sunday's 500-mile Nascar Winston Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway represented countless hours of work to his crew.

Three Wide Racing at Talladega
Photo:  By Autostock Image

And when it was over the high-speed racer looked like something found in your neighborhood junk yard.

Result of the big wreck on Lap 3
Photo:  By Autostock Image

Crew Chief James Ince had spent two years designing and developing the 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix. The crew had made numerous trips to the wind tunnel massaging the body for the aerodynamic demands of the superspeedway and during the days leading up to the race the crew burned the midnight oil perfecting the mechanics of their superspeedway package.

But it took restrictor plate racing at Talladega Superspeedway less than five minutes Sunday to ravage Johnny Benson's Valvoline Pontiac leaving the team with a 41st-place finish.

Benson and 26 other cars in the 43-car field were wrecked in a pileup in turn two Sunday on just the fourth lap of the 188-lap race. The wreck started when Ryan Newman's car spun into the wall after cutting a tire.

Benson was riding mid-pack in the opening laps at the time of Newman's problem and could do nothing but survive the ride that saw several cars bounce off the Valvoline Pontiac.

"At first I thought somebody may have screwed up, but I guess it was a tire. We saw one in the Busch race and saw one today, so I don't know what to think. It's just a terrible deal to wreck a lot of race cars. We felt we had a pretty good car and we were looking forward to it."

Benson made a trip to the infield care center than back to the garage where Ince told him the car was in no condition to resume racing. Benson said normally you can blame the drivers for the massive wrecks that routinely occur at superspeedways. But not this time. "It's one thing if guys start bumping and banging, which is usually what we get yelled at for. But, like I said, yesterday and today - I don't think you can blame any of that on us - and not that we're trying to blame anybody, either.

But, in the same token, we saw a couple problems yesterday and we saw a pretty big one today. Man, it's just tough."

While Benson's crew packed up and returned to North Carolina, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a fourth consecutive race at Talladega. Benson fell to 23rd in the points standings.

Results from Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway:

1. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 180 - 5 bonus points

2. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 175 0 5 bonus points

3. (38) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 170 - 5 bonus points

4. (32) Ricky Craven, Pontiac, 160

5. (5) Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 160 - 5 bonus points

6. (40) Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 155 - 5 bonus points

7. (22) Ward Burton, Dodge, 151 - 5 bonus points

8. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 147 - 5 bonus points

9. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 143 - 5 bonus points

10. (31) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 134

11. (45) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 130

12. (88) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 132 - 5 bonus points

13. (9) Bill Elliott, Dodge, 129 - 5 bonus points

14. (43) John Andretti, Dodge, 126 - 5 bonus points

15. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 128 - 10 bonus points

16. (74) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, 115

17. (23) Kenny Wallace, Dodge, 112

18. (19) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 114 - 5 bonus points

19. (97) Kurt Busch, Ford, 111 - 5 bonus points

20. (1) Steve Park, Chevrolet, 108 - 5 bonus points

21. (25) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 100

22. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 97

23. (77) Dave Blaney, Ford, 94

24. (15) Michael Waltrip, Chevrolet, 96 - 5 bonus points

25. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 88

26. (6) Mark Martin, Ford, 85

27. (42) Jamie McMurray, Dodge, 82

28. (54) Todd Bodine, Ford, 79

29. (30) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 76

30. (09) Mike Wallace, Dodge, 73

31. (4) Mike Skinner, Pontiac, 70

32. (18) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 67

33. (49) Ken Schrader, Dodge, 64

34. (0) Jack Sprague, Pontiac, 61

35. (99) Jeff Burton, Ford, 58

36. (01) Jerry Nadeau, Pontiac, 55

37. (2) Rusty Wallace, Dodge, 52

38. (7) Jimmy Spencer, Dodge, 49

39. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 46

40. (41) Casey Mears, Dodge, 43

41. (10) Johnny Benson, Pontiac, 40

42. (21) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 37

43. (02) Hermie Sadler, Chevrolet, 34

2003 Points Standings

1. Matt Kenseth, 1233

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 1104

3. Kurt Busch, 1046

4. Jimmie Johnson, 1013

5. Jeff Gordon, 1011

6. Ricky Craven, 1000

7. Michael Waltrip, 994

8. Kevin Harvick, 977

9. Tony Stewart, 937

10. Elliott Sadler, 895

11. Ryan Newman, 894

12. Dale Jarrett, 884

13. Robby Gordon, 871

14. Mark Martin, 858

15. Bobby Labonte, 851

16. Sterling Marlin, 850

17. Joe Nemechek, 841

18. Rusty Wallace, 823

19. Ricky Rudd, 817

20. Dave Blaney, 801

21. Jeff Burton, 798

22. Jamie McMurray, 790

23. Johnny Benson, 788

24. Terry Labonte, 785

25. Greg Biffle, 779

26. Ward Burton, 773

27. Steve Park, 760

28. Kenny Wallace, 756

29. Jeremy Mayfield, 748

30. Jimmy Spencer, 740

31. Jeff Green, 722

32. Bill Elliott, 716

33. Jerry Nadeau, 683

34. John Andretti, 648

35. Casey Mears, 625

36. Todd Bodine, 619

37. Kyle Petty, 594

38. Jack Sprague, 578

39. Ken Schrader, 575

40. Mike Skinner, 566

41. Tony Raines, 527

42. Larry Foyt, 287

43. Mike Wallace, 211

44. Brett Bodine, 201

45. Derrike Cope, 144

46. Christian Fittipaldi, 107

47. Hideo Fukuyama, 64