NASCAR Cup

Dover: Johnny Benson preview

The Nascar Winston Cup Series visits Dover, Del. this weekend bringing its usual assortment of drivers, teams, exciting racing and of course rain. Reports say rain has altered racing during 8 of the 14 Nascar weekends in 2003. On Sunday, Nascar ...

Published: May 28, 2003, 4:57 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

The Nascar Winston Cup Series visits Dover, Del. this weekend bringing its usual assortment of drivers, teams, exciting racing and of course rain. Reports say rain has altered racing during 8 of the 14 Nascar weekends in 2003.

On Sunday, Nascar stopped the 600-mile race in Charlotte after 276 of the 400 scheduled laps. And there's a 30 percent chance of showers every day in Dover this weekend.

#10 Valvoline Pontiac driver Johnny Benson looks forward to racing at Dover, but is satisfied to leave any of the decision making up to the Nascar officials. Although he wouldn't mind if Nascar changed the official completion of a race from the halfway point to the two-thirds mark.

Benson On Rain Policy:

"Rain makes it tough. Nobody in the garage wants to stay overnight and finish the race the next day because we usually have to be somewhere in a few days and the hotel costs are normally pretty high. Plus you have to bring the police, track workers and all the folks behind the scene back another day. But by the same token we want to make our fans as happy as possible. I'm sure making a race official after two-thirds instead of half way would make the fans happier so maybe we should think about that. If we did two-thirds then nobody could complain that they didn't get a chance to race for the win.

"By having more night races and moving the starting times back on the day races we have less time for delays and increased our chances of having rainouts. If you started these races earlier we would have more time in the day or the night, but I know the television folks want to start later to help the audience. So, I don't know the answer. I'm glad it's Nascar and not me who has to decide that. Maybe the answer is rain tires. I wouldn't dare drive, but I'd pay money to sit in the stands and watch."

Benson On Dover:

"For a track its size, it's amazing how important qualifying at Dover has become. Most of your race winners start up front. We look at it as the race starts on Friday. We've got to get a good lap in and get a good starting spot. It also helps in picking a pit. If we qualify well then we get to choose a pit before the other teams. We finished second here in 2000 and it's a track I like. I think the major key is to start out front, avoid trouble and race the last 100 miles."

-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 Dover: Jack Sprague preview

Next article Dover: Jeff Gordon preview

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

Zara launches new Ayrton Senna clothing collection inspired by F1 legend

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

Zara launches new Ayrton Senna clothing collection inspired by F1 legend

Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

40 min

Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

1 h

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 1 h

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

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