NASCAR Cup

Atlanta II: Johnny Benson preview

This weekend's "100 Years of University of Kentucky Basketball" paint scheme on Johnny Benson's ...

Edited: Oct 25, 2002, 2:37 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

This weekend's "100 Years of University of Kentucky Basketball" paint scheme on Johnny Benson's #10 Valvoline Pontiac is the subject of much discussion among the owners of the Nascar Winston Cup team as it prepares to race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Benson's team is half-owned by Lexington, Kentucky-based Valvoline and half-owned by Georgia businessmen Read Morton, Tom Beard, and Nelson Bowers - alumni and huge supporters of the University of Georgia.

Rival Kentucky's paint scheme on the trio's car at its home race track combined with Benson being a native of Michigan where they have some pretty good college teams make for some interesting conversation on the #10 hauler.

Adding to the atmosphere will be the Kentucky-Georgia football game Saturday in Lexington and the presence Sunday of former Georgia and now Kentucky Basketball Coach Tubby Smith who plans to be in Benson's pit during the race.

Tom Beard, Car Owner & Georgia Alum:
"We like our Kentucky partners at Valvoline so much that we just wanted them to have a win in Georgia on Sunday cause it ain't gonna happen in Lexington on Saturday. We just provide the car which is like a blank billboard. If Valvoline wanted to put a picture of General Sherman's face on the side it would be just fine with us. Let me rephrase that as long as it isn't a Georgia Tech bumblebee on the car we will be fine."

Johnny Benson:
"It all kind of depends on how you look at it. We are either going to have one heck of an argument Sunday or we are going to get the fans of Michigan, Kentucky and Georgia all rooting for us to win a race. This might be the only thing fans of those colleges agree on all year but if we do well then we'll put up with those kind of arguments every weekend."

Jim Rocco, Senior Vice-President Valvoline Company:
"Valvoline is a proud Kentucky company and we wanted to nationally honor Kentucky basketball, something all Kentuckians hold dear to our hearts. We hope Johnny can give the UK fans a thrill or two like UK basketball has provided us for the last 100 years. Now I realize our Georgia partners might have to hold their tongues when they look at the paint scheme but as good of year as they are having in football they can suffer through it for a weekend."

-mbvm-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Atlanta II: This Week in Ford Racing - Busch, Rudd

Next article Atlanta II: No pumpkin for Harvick

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

2 h

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

2 h

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

Tristan McKee joins JR Motorsports in 2027 with future plans for full-time ride

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

2 h

Tristan McKee joins JR Motorsports in 2027 with future plans for full-time ride

Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux

FIA F2

F2 FIA F2 2 h

Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts