Seconds for Benny
Gordon
(August 13, 2007) - DuBois, PA.
It was an evening of second place finishes for Benny
Gordon and his North-South MotorSports Team Saturday
night at the Miller Lite 250 in South Boston,
Virginia. Benny finished second in the race and
second in the Northern Division Championship point
race.
“I hoped we could have found a way to win the
race and championship, but it was not in the cards
for us tonight”, said Benny. “I want to congratulate
Gary St. Amant on winning the division title, he has
had a good year and he is class driver.” |
 |
Entering the night Benny was 65 points behind St. Amant in second
place. It would take some very good luck for Benny and some
misfortune for St. Amant to erase that big of a lead in one night.
It looked like that misfortune was going to take Benny out of the
hunt early in the race when he had an uncharacteristically poor
qualifying effort of 19th. “The car felt good during practice and
the last spring change we made really picked up the handling”, said
Benny. “I do not know what put us so far down the speed chart
because I thought both laps were fast. The car felt solid”
Starting 19th would test Benny and his team to get to the front
without damage to the car and to get there in short order. For Benny
to have any chance of taking his fourth division title he would have
to; lead a lap, lead the most laps, lead at half way and win the
race. There were five more bonus points available however taking the
Hard Charger points never entered his game plan. “While the
additional 5 points would help, coming from the back is not a smart
way to get them,” said Benny. “The potential of tearing up your car
is too great and tonight we had 10 rookies in the field which makes
it more of a challenge.”
The starting position dictated the pit strategy. For a chance to
move up though the field without tearing up the car, pitting early
would be the best opportunity for Benny. That was the plan and it
worked to perfection. Stopping on lap 28 with just six other cars
allowed Benny to have quick access to his pit where a fast stop for
tires put him back on the track with just one lap to go. Staying
with the game plan Crew Chief Todd Gordon called Benny back in for
fuel as the field was lining up for the restart. It was close, very
close but Benny was able to get back on the track at the tail end of
the lead lap cars as the green flag flew in the air. Ready to move
to the front of the field looked to be in jeopardy when the tires
did not come in as planned. “The tires were terrible for the first
30 or so laps”, said Benny. “I thought we were in big trouble and
may even have to come in and put the first set back on they were so
bad.”
Some sixty laps and two more cautions later found Benny had moved up
to second place on the next restart behind the 38 car of Shane
Wallace. Taking just four laps after the restart Benny moved to the
front of the field on lap 89. Benny held onto the lead through lap
146 during which he earned the second of the needed five bonus
points as the halfway leader. With two of the four bonus points
categories in hand, Benny was focused on taking all three bonus
point categories of; leading the most laps, Hard Charger and wining
the race. However, Jeff Agnew and Gary St. Amant had other plans.
Agnew moved into second place and was “knocking on the back bumper”
to let Benny know that he wanted to take the lead with a faster car.
St. Amant was close by, moving into third place. On lap 147, Agnew
was able to slip by Gordon for what turned out to be the last pass
for the lead of the evening. St. Amant was solidly in third and at
times moving up to Benny’s rear bumper.
“I ran the car hard into the corners to get it to stick”, said
Benny. “Jeff was just better in the corners and what track I could
gain on the straight away, I gave up in the corners. Our early pit
stop had us on tires with 50 to 60 laps more than Jeff’s. There was
little chance to catch and pass him. There was no need to overdrive
the car and wreck it hoping to catch Jeff when we need this car for
the championship. I really wanted to win our fourth division
championship but it just did not work out for us.”
Benny and his team will head to Bristol on Monday the 13th for an
open testing session and return on the 22nd for the Food City 150.
This will be Benny’s second trip to Bristol in a Hooters ProCup car
and his sixth appearance at the Bristol Motor Speedway.
About Samuel
The Samuel Company is a family owned metal processing and
distributing company headquartered in Ontario, Canada with more than
80 facilities located throughout Canada and the United States and
more than 4500 employees. For more information about Samuel,
please visit www.samuel.com.
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