Benson's first Winston Cup win
comes at Rockingham_11/3
 No. 8 Budweiser Team struggles to 34th place.
Johnny Benson grabbed his first Winston Cup victory Sunday in a thrilling late-race dual
with Mark Martin. The likeable Benson took the lead for the first time with less than 30
laps left in the race, and then held off Martin for the victory. Kurt Busch was third
while Winston Cup points leader Tony Stewart struggled to a 14th place finish. As for Dale
Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team, it was a day they will likely choose to
forget. From the drop of the green flag, the red machine was not its usual speedy self, as
Dale Jr. struggled with the evil-handling four-wheeled beast, bringing it home 34th, four
laps behind Benson. The finish breaks a career-best string of five consecutive top-10
finishes for Dale Jr. and the team. They remain in 11th place in Winston Cup points with
two races remaining. The Key Moments:
Dale Jr. and the Bud team started 22nd and showed some promise early on, climbing
into the top 15 before the race was 50-laps old. However, the handling on the car soon
went away, and the team was forced to make their second pit stop much earlier than
planned. The early stop knocked them out of sequence with the rest of the field for the
remainder of the afternoon. Like a rag doll at the end of a bungee cord, they would make a
stop, fall back as low as 38th, then climb back up through the ranks as the rest of the
field made their subsequent stops. Dale Jr. made it as high as the top-10 for a single
lap, and then fought hard to keep from free-falling quickly back through the pack. The day
went from bad to worse when the yellow flag flew only two laps after the team had made a
pit stop on lap 228, trapping them three laps behind the leaders.
Dale Jr's Quotes: "I tried hard every
lap, but that was a long day. We were tight early on, and it felt like the car was rolling
over onto the right-front tire through the middle of each corner. Then, the changes we
made just sent it from bad to worse. The car eventually got loose, loose, loose. It was
like all of the magic we seemed to have in the last five or six weeks just
disappeared.`We'll forget this and move on. We've got two more chances to get into the
top-10 in points..."
Best Radio Conversations
Because of the struggle for much of the day, there was very little conversation
between Dale Jr. and the crew... or at least very little we can reproduce here for use in
family publications.
A yellow flag flew on lap 230, only two laps after Dale
Jr. had been in the pits for four new tires.
Tony Eury Jr. (car chief): "How did that feel for those couple o'
laps?
Dale Jr.: "heh heh heh Great. It felt like it had four new
tires."
Tony Jr: "OK... so you want four more new ones on there?"
Dale Jr: "Yeah - every 10 laps or so would be great..."
Another yellow flag flew on lap 292, prompting a sigh
of relief from the driver.
Dale Jr.: "PHEW! Thank god for that! It's getting really really
really really really loose. It's just jumping onto the right front..."
Today's Stats
Started: 22nd
Finished: 34th
Points Position: 11th (no change)
Money Won: $59,100
Laps Led: --
Best Pit Stop: Lap 23 / Stop #1 of 8 / 4 tires, Fuel / 13.97 seconds
Special "King of Beers" Bonus Coverage
Celebrity of the Week / Bud Pit Area: No
mega-babe guests this weekend, however, bad-ass music video and commercial director Wayne
Isham attended as a guest of Dale Earnhardt Inc. Isham has directed recent commercials for
Budweiser and Target, but is most famous as director of music videos for a seemingly
endless list of rock stars and bands such as Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd,
Michael and Janet Jackson, Metallica, Def Leppard, Whitney Houston, (:::::brief stop to
catch a breath:::::), Kid Rock, Ricky Martin, N'Sync and a youthful up-and-coming combo
from England called the Rolling Stones. MTV recently voted Isham as music video's
"All-Time Best Director."
Don't forget the King of Beers on the internet at:
www.Budweiser.com
-Budweiser
Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser
Rockingham Preview_10/29
Dale Jr. Quotes for Rockingham
"This is a place that can chew up the tires, so you have to be aware of that for the
entire race. We seem to be getting better all the time at getting the car set-up and the
driver's brain into that type of mind-set, so I think we have a chance to do well. I mean,
who would have predicted that we would get two top-fives at Martinsville before this year,
so we should be able to have that same kind of improvement here this week, shouldn't we? I
can't seem to put my finger on why we haven't had better results because we did run well
here in the Busch Series. I do like it that you can run in a variety of grooves - kind of
like Atlanta - where you can go where your car is working and you're not just out there
playing follow-the-leader.
"Five-straight top-10s (and nine finishes of 11th or better in the past 11 races) is
really good for our confidence right now. The Bud team has never had a better streak of
finishes, so we are trying to do everything we can to keep the string going. We're
determined that the top-10 in points is ours if we keep up what we've been doing lately.
When things are going so well, you want to go right to the next track after each race is
done. It helps the attitude of everyone on the team, and we have as much or more momentum
as anyone on the track right now. We believe we should be up there racing for the win
every week, and we're putting up the numbers to back up what we have believed all
along."
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Rockingham
Previous Winston Cup Starts: 5
Best Start: 7th (February, 2000)
Best Finish: 15th (November, 2001)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 21st FIN: 15th
It's Getting Better All The Time
Despite a well-documented mid-season slump, this year has actually been the most
productive of the first three full Winston Cup seasons for the entire Budweiser team. With
three races left in 2002, the team has already equaled or surpassed last season's numbers
in the following categories:
| - |
2002 |
Previous Best (all in 2001) |
| Top-5
Finishes |
10 |
9 |
| Top-10
Finishes |
15 |
15 |
| Laps
Led |
917 |
765 |
| Races
Led |
20 |
16 |
| Bud
Pole Positions |
2 |
2 (also 2000
season) |
| Top-10
Starts |
17 |
12 |
What:
Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400
1.017-mile oval / 393 laps / 400 miles / Race #34 of 36
Where:
North Carolina Motor Speedway, Rockingham, NC
When:
Sunday, November 3 / 1:00 p.m.
Watch:
TNT / Pre-race 12:30 p.m.
You can also tune in on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) on a radio or computer near
you… you know the drill by now…
Bud Pole Qualifying:
Bud Pole qualifying can be seen live Friday at 3:00 p.m. on TNT and heard on MRN
affiliates across the nation.
(All Times: Eastern)
-Budweiser |
