Benson Pocono Preview

If momentum really exists then #10 Valvoline Pontiac Driver Johnny Benson and his teammates have it this weekend as they race at Pocono International Raceway. Benson posted a season-best, fifth-place finish on Sunday in Dover utilizing a fast car and some quick pit stops to climb up from his 30th starting spot.

Ryan Newman secured the victory at Dover by not allowing Tony Stewart to make up a lap he lost after a mid-race penalty. Benson said the "gentlemen’s agreement" not to race back to the caution and giving lapped cars their lap back is a two-way street that in practice often benefits the leader and the lapped car.

He explains how the agreement works during a race.

Benson On The Leader And Lap Cars:

"I don’t think I would have done a thing different than what Ryan did. You don’ t mind giving back laps to cars that are struggling, but when a car is as fast as Tony’s was on Sunday I think it was pretty smart to do what Ryan did. Hey, on Sunday keeping Tony a lap down may have won him the race.

"If you are about to go down a lap and you see the leader in your mirror what happens more often than not is the leader’s spotter will tell your spotter that if you let him around he will give you the lap back when the caution comes out - assuming you are reasonably close to him at the time. The flip side of that is if you think that leader won’t give you that lap back then you are going to race him as hard as you can to stay on the lead lap. That allows the second- and third-place guys to catch up to him and it also increases the chances for a wreck.

"It’s a judgment call. I’m not sure there is anything Nascar can really do about that. It’s something between us drivers. You remember who was good to you and who isn’t good to you. I’ve been on both sides of the fence. We got messed up by lap cars last year and it costs us a victory in New Hampshire and I’ve gotten out of the way for leaders before when they greed to give me a lap back and it ended up working to both our advantage."

Benson on Momentum:

"I don’t know if momentum really exists. But I do think you can take a more positive attitude into a weekend than you would normally - a good run the weekend before will make you think better about everything. I think we will have that this weekend. To finish fifth at Dover was good for us. It got us back to the level where we expect to be. (Crew Chief) James (Ince) came up with a good setup and strategy, the guys on the pit crew gained us a ton of spots during the race and I think I held up my end so we all took something positive
out of Dover. Now we hope we can carry that over to Pocono. After runs like Dover you can’t wait to get to the track. It’s all good after running well."

Pocono:

"I think we have qualified in the top ten five of the last six times so I hope that continues this weekend. Pocono is a pretty important place because we will race there in two of the next seven races. It’s a place we all know pretty well. You don’t see a lot of teams going there to test because everyone knows what they want to do setup wise at Pocono. It’s three different turns connected by straight-aways. You pick which turns you want to get through the quickest and then you hope your engine will carry down the straightaway faster than the other guys."


Benson Career At Pocono

Race Year S F
Second Race 2002 6 30
First Race 2002 27 20
Second Race 2001 9 5
First Race 2001 7 24
Second Race 2000 9 12
First Race 2000 21 34
Second Race 1999 34 14
First Race 1999 38 30
Second Race 1998 36 33
First Race 1998 37 36
Second Race 1997 40 13
First Race 1997 21 27
Second Race 1996 6 5
First Race 1996 40 25


THE RACE: Pocono 500
Winston Cup Race #14 of 36 for the 2003 Winston Cup season
Race: Sunday, June 8, 2003 in Long Pond, PA
TV: Fox - 1:00pm/et

Pre-Race Show: Fox - 12:30pm/et - with hosts Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond
Race Re-Air: June 11th at 8:00pm/et on Speed Channel, June 12th at 1:00am/et and 3:00pm/et on Speed Channel
Announcers: Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds
Pit Reporters: Dick Berggren, Matt Yocum, Steve Byrnes, Jeanne Zelasko
Hollywood Hotel: Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond
Purse/Race Awards: (was $3,621,051 in 2002)

2002 Race Winner: Dale Jarrett, 143.426mph, started 13th
Race Record: Alan Kulwicki, June 1992, 144.023mph
Track/Race Length: 2.5 tri-oval, 200 laps, 500 miles
Pit Road Speed: 55mph

Practice
Practice: Friday, June 6th, 11:20am - 1:20pm/et; and Saturday, June 7th, 9:30 - 10:15am/et
Happy Hour Practice: Saturday, June 8th, 11:15am - 12:00noon/et on TV-FX via tape at 6:30pm/et.

Qualifying
Qualifying Draw: Friday, June 6th, 10:20am/et


First Round Qualifying: 2 laps for positions 1-36, Friday, June 6th at
3:00pm/et, TV-Speed Channel live, no re-air, and live via MRN radio/internet.


Second-Round Qualifying: there is no longer a 2nd round of qualifying (since
the 2001 season)
Event Qualifying Record: Rusty Wallace, June 2000, 171.625mph
Track Qualifying Record: Tony Stewart, July 2000 172.391mph
June 2002 Pole Sitter: none - rained out

Track Specs:
Superspeedway: 2.5 mile tri-oval
Banking: turn 1: 14 degrees, turn 2: 8 degree, turn 3: 6 degrees;
Straights: Front - 3740 feet, Long Pond(between turns 1 and 2) - 3055 feet,
North(between turns 2 and 3) - 1780 feet
Grandstand Seating: 100,000


10 Valvoline Pontiac Team Television Information

Pit Contact: James Ince or Drew Brown
Owners: Valvoline (Jim Rocco)/MB2 Motorsports (Tom Beard, Nelson Bowers, Read Morton)
Crew Chief/Car Chief: James Ince
Engine Builder: Hendrick Motorsports
Spotter (Race Day) Jay Guy
Spotter (Practice Only) Russell Hoekwater
Engine Tuner John Kendrach

Over The Wall Pit Crew
Front Tire Changer Bobby Burrell
Front Tire Carrier Shane Cooke
Rear Tire Changer Greg Burkhart
Rear Tire Carrier Steve Genenbacher
Gasman Jimmy Watts
Tire Specialist Skippy Johnson
Catch Can Steve Mann
Jackman Brian Perry

Other Crew Members
Truck Driver: Gale (Bandit) Wilson
Mechanic: Jerry Hess
Mechanic: David Baum
Shocks: Mike Cluka
Tires: Jeff (Skippy) Johnson
Engineer: Tim Turner
Computers & Gas Runner: John Hayes
Scorer: Terry Lane
Pit Stop Coach: Gary Smith
PR Rep: Drew Brown