Benson reduced to raw rookie at Gateway

One of the most experienced drivers in the Busch Series is Johnny Benson, an eight-year veteran in NASCAR's top series. Benson is also a Busch Series champion, winning back in 1995.

But that was the last time Benson competed full-time in the Busch Series. And it came two years before the series raced at Gateway International Raceway.

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So when the Busch teams pull into Gateway for Saturday's Charter 250, Benson will be as raw a rookie as Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidates Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, J.J. Yeley, Paul Menard, Travis Geisler, Stan Boyd, Billy Parker and Rich Markle.

OK, so maybe Benson isn't that inexperienced. But at Gateway, maybe he is. And that could pose a problem this weekend, for Gateway certainly is a unique track.

"It is an interesting race track for sure," Benson said as he gets ready for Saturday's one-day show. "It is very different from what we normally race on including having to shift. That is certainly odd on a circle track."

Gateway, located just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis in Madison, Ill., is 1.25 miles long. It looks like a true oval, but Turns 1 and 2 are sharper and more banked than Turns 3 and 4.

The backstretch is 1,976 feet long, 54 feet longer than the frontstretch. There's no old minnow pond outside the track, but it does remind some drivers of Darlington Raceway.

"Both ends of the track are different," Benson said. "Turns 1 and 2 are a lot tighter than 3 and 4. It is just different.

"But that is fine with me. That is what makes it fun. That is what makes it a challenge. I really like it when we go to tracks that are different."

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Benson and the Phoenix Racing team tested at Gateway so Benson could at least get some sort of feel for the track. Saturday's race starts at 8 p.m., four hours after qualifying and nine hours after the first practice.

The one-day show makes for a compact day, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for error for a guy like Benson who hasn't raced at Gateway.

"It is a little odd-shaped, egg-shaped like Darlington," said Jon Wolfe, Benson's crew chief. "It definitely has distinctly different corners. It is hard to get a setup for both corners.

"With this being a one-day show, there is not an overabundance of time to practice. Normally, when you practice on one day and then race on the next, you can go back to the room and think about things and come back the next day and make changes for the race. But we won't have that chance at Gateway. That is why we went all the way out there to test."

That test proved to be productive for the team. Having an experienced driver, even though Benson hasn't started at this track, does pay dividends.

"We wanted to give Johnny some seat time, and we wanted to work on our shifting ratio," Wolfe said. "We didn't shift up there last year with David (Stremme). We felt like with David being a rookie and that he had never done any shifting that we didn't want to put any more on him with that being his first race at the track. We ran OK, but it did hurt us."

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Stremme finished 14th, one lap down, in the No. 1 Dodge last year at Gateway. Now, with Benson, the team hopes for more.

"The test was a big help to Johnny, and we learned a lot of things that will help Team Yellow when we go back," Wolfe said. "One of the biggest things we learned is that the car we had out there wasn't to Johnny's liking. So we are taking another car when we go back.

"We are taking the car we ran at Darlington. Everywhere we've run that car this year we've run well. So I feel good about how the Yellow team is going to do at Gateway."

And so does the "rookie" Benson.