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Benson, Kvapil Lead Truck Test
Johnny Benson spent Friday and Saturday nights racing at the Milwaukee Mile, actually winning Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on the historic track.
Monday morning, though, he was back in uniform at another of NASCAR's most historic tracks, Martinsville Speedway.
This time the veteran of NASCAR's top three series wasn't racing for points or money, though. He and fellow Craftsman Truck Series driver Travis Kvapil were on hand at the historic half-mile helping NASCAR work toward a more economic engine package for the series.
"We're just doing the engine test for NASCAR with a couple different options they have going on," said Benson, who had five wins in the truck series in 2006, but scored his first of this season at Milwaukee.
"Anytime NASCAR wants to do a test, I'm more than happy to be involved with it. I'm glad they appreciate the work we do and the input we give them so they can make the decisions they need to make to keep the series growing."
NASCAR is in the early stages of taking a look at a more economic engine package for the series that would keep smaller teams on more equal footing with larger, well-heeled teams.
"I think this is important. If they can cut costs, and they probably need to, it's something we need to look at. The big teams will always be here, but we have to help the little guy."
Saturday's win in his Bill Davis' Toyota was a big boost for Benson and his team.
"We've been running pretty good all year, but we've just had some odd things happen. We've been quick almost every track and some of the places we had failures, we were running in the top five," said Benson, who finished second in a NEXTEL Cup race at Martinsville in the 1990s and has several top five runs here in the Truck Series.
"It's been up and down for us here at Martinsville. We had some good runs. It's a neat track with a lot of great history. The fans enjoy it … it's bumper-tag racing a lot of the time."
Even with a long, busy weekend, Benson said he didn't mind not having Monday off.
"It's what we do, so it's alright. We work on these days anyway, so it's better to be at the track driving a race truck than sitting in the house doing that type of work. So it's a good day for us.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to Martinsville on Saturday October 20 with the running of the Kroger 200, the day before the SUBWAY 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race. Tickets for both events are on sale and may be purchased by calling 1.877.RACE.TIX or visiting www.racetickets.com on line.
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