Benson Charlotte II race note

Johnny Benson was buckling himself into the Valvoline Pontiac about 12:30 p.m. Sunday for the 500-mile race at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. when word came that America had begun its military operations in Afghanistan. The NASCAR Winston Cup race proceeded as normal with Benson leading several laps before engine failure ended his day on lap 230 and left him with a 36th-place finish.

J@!ohnny Benson
"Today was strange. We learned of what was going on just as they were playing the National Anthem. A race car driver learns to tune out the rest of the world and just focus on his job. Most of the time that means driving by a bad wreck or something like that. Today it was different. The real world was more important, but all of us had jobs to do and we did it. I asked my crew during a caution if they knew what was going on but they couldn't tell me much. You know, what we do doesn't compare to what the military people are doing today. Those people allow guys like me to do what I do. Falling out of the race today probably didn't hurt as bad as it would on some other Sunday."

-Team Valvoline-