BENSON POSTS TOP 10 MILWAUKEE FINISH SUBBING FOR YELEY

Veteran driver Johnny Benson substituted for J.J. Yeley Saturday in the #1 Miccosukee Gaming and Resort/Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet and came away with a solid, 9th place finish in the AT&T 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at the famed Milwaukee Mile.

With Yeley obligated to his Nextel Cup Series ride with Joe Gibbs Racing and in Sonoma, CA for the Sunday race on the Infineon Raceway road course, Benson agreed to drive the Phoenix Racing machine – a correct choice considering the many years of success Benson enjoyed driving ASA Late Models on the 104-year old paved and flat mile oval.

Coming off of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory the night before, Benson had one of the fastest race cars throughout the daytime practice sessions and qualified the James Finch-owned Chevy seventh on the 41-car starting grid.

Only twice during the race did Benson find himself outside of the top 10.The first came after a longer-than-normal pit stop on lap 150 when Benson came into the pits eighth on the grid and lost three spots while competing with a cluster of strong race cars driven by Bobby Hamilton, Jr., fellow Craftsman Truck Series competitor Todd Bodine, Jason Keller, Shane Huffman, Stephen Leicht and David Ragan. Some cars elected to change only two tires during their pot stops while Benson took on four new tires and fuel.

After just six laps of green flag racing following the re-start, Benson moved back into the top 10, was ninth for a brief time some 10 laps later and then dropped back to 10th once again with 51 laps remaining as Nextel Cup Series regular David Reutimann got by in his Toyota Camry that is owned by Michael Waltrip.

With just 29 laps to go, the Chevrolet of rookie driver Frank Kreyer crashed on the front stretch to bring out yet another yellow flag, and with 27 laps left, Benson, who had fallen back to 11th place, pitted his machine with all of the other leaders for the final time. He came out 10th and set the tone for an aggressive stretch of racing that saw the Grand Rapids, Michigan chauffeur pick off two spots and up to eighth by lap 233.

Current Busch Series point’s leader Carl Edwards, who rallied from being two laps down mid-way through the event after having to pit under green to replace a flat right rear tire, did manage to get past Benson for position with two laps to go relegating the #1 car back to ninth at the checkers.

“I had a lot of fun tonight and really want to thank James (team owner Finch) and the team for thinking about putting me into their race car,” Benson said. “We made a lot of changes to the car during practice to give me the feel that I was looking for, and for the most part, those changes did help me run up front. We just came up a little short trying to contend with some of those better cars, but I’m happy to bring home a top 10 finish for them,” he added.

The 9th place finish was the best of the season to date for the #1 car in 16 starts as Yeley had only managed a best of 12th place three times so far.

Nextel Cup Series veteran Denny Hamlin rallied from a lap down to overtake late-race leader Scott Wimmer and win the race in the Joe Gibbs Racing #20 Chevrolet. Hamlin, who flew into Milwaukee on a private jet from California to race the Rockwell Automation-sponsored machine but was too late getting to the track because the venue’s helipad was filled with cars and had his helicopter land at the International Airport, lost that lap while replacing rookie Aric Almirola behind the wheel during a lap 60 pit stop.

Almirola, who sat on the pole after leading qualifying runs earlier in the day, led the first 46 laps and was credited with the victory. Wimmer, Jason Leffler, rookie Brad Coleman and Keller rounded out the top five finishers.

Edwards extended his lead in the championship driver point’s battle to 776 over second place Reutimann. The idle Yeley, now with two races less than most of the leaders dropped two positions in the standings to 15th.

Yeley will be back in the #1 next weekend when the Busch and Cup Series teams move to Loudon, NH for the running of Saturday afternoon’s New England 200 at the New Hampshire Int. Speedway. That race is scheduled to take the green flag at 3 p.m. and will be telecast live nationally over the ABC-TV network.