Benson's race setup nearly enough for pole

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Johnny Benson didn't really care about Friday's qualifying session.

	Johnny Benson became a first-time winner with his victory in the Pop Secret 400 at Rockingham last fall. Credit: Autostock

With rain likely to wipe out all of Saturday's NASCAR Winston Cup practice, Benson and his MBV Motorsports team preferred to work their race setup.

Benson had some history on his side, too. The last time the Winston Cup cars ran at North Carolina Speedway, he qualified 26th. But after 393 laps around the 1.017-mile track, Benson found himself in victory lane for the first time in his career.

And besides, with only 43 cars here for Sunday's Subway 400, Benson was guaranteed a starting spot.

So when the team rolled out its Pontiac for Friday's rain-delayed practice, the first case on the docket was race setup. Benson ran the 25-30 laps of the session in race trim, ignoring a qualifying setup.

"We thought it didn't matter," Benson said. "We didn't qualify that good last year. We started in the back in the fall, and it's not a huge deal where you qualify here. It's nice when you're on the front row, but we were just going to take our chances.

"I ran a run in qualifying trim and wasn't that happy. We made some changes, and the changes were right. It was pretty good."

Subway 400  Lineup  1st Practice Speeds

Pretty good? That Benson is a master of understatement. His "pretty good" lap was .02 seconds of Dave Blaney's pole-winning run, and Benson will start second Sunday.

But he'll be driving a different car than the one he had last November, when he held off Mark Martin to win for the first time in his seven-year career. As with most new cars, it takes some time to wring out the top speed.

STORE  Johnny Benson Merchandise!

That was no different Friday, as Benson was only 38th-fastest at 150.475 mph.

"It is a new car," Benson said. "It takes a little bit of time. When we unloaded, we were ready for qualifying. We watched the weather and switched everything over to race trim just because the car had never been on the race track. We were concerned about the weather for (Saturday)."

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Benson had some more concern as he tried to pull off pit road to take his qualifying laps.

"It was starting to rain a little bit," Benson said. "When I started, they stopped me. I thought, 'Well maybe it is raining.' It was wet on the window."

The tracked stayed dry, and Benson scorched it, turning a lap of 154.553 mph to take the outside of the front row. He wondered what might be left on the track, especially those elusive .02 seconds.

Then again ...

"I don't really care," Benson said. "I've missed it by a second before, so a couple thousandths ain't all that bad.

"I did say, 'You know, I wish I could have run that again.' But I might have screwed it up, too. I'm happy with it."