Johnny Benson Wins Pop Secret 400

<br>ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (AP) _ Johnny Benson had to be pushed into Victory Lane the first time he ever earned the right to go there. <br><br>Benson earned the first Winston Cup win of his career Sunday in

Sunday, November 3rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (AP) _ Johnny Benson had to be pushed into Victory Lane the first time he ever earned the right to go there.

Benson earned the first Winston Cup win of his career Sunday in his 226th start, holding off Mark Martin while praying he had enough fuel to get to the finish line of the Pop Secret 400.

He did _ barely.

Benson's Pontiac ran out of gas during his celebratory doughnuts and his car had to be pushed the rest of the way at North Carolina Speedway. He knew it would be a possibility _ crew chief James Ince had warned him his gas-level was low.

``James said it was going to be within a half of a lap, but he just didn't know what side of the finish line it's on,'' Benson said. ``Well, I ran out trying to get to the pit, but it doesn't matter at that point in time.''

No it doesn't. Nor can the 39-year-old Benson keep his nickname as ``The Best Driver to Never win a Race.''

``I thought for a couple of years that I'd never get a win,'' Benson said. ``I was always going to be the best guy who never won a race.''

Benson led the final 28 laps but had to battle Martin over the final dozen laps. Martin, in the thick of the Winston Cup championship chase, was racing for the win and several times drove his Ford onto the bumper of Benson's Pontiac.

When he couldn't bump Benson out of the way, Martin tried to pass him in the lower grooves of the race track.

None of it worked and Benson beat him to the finish line by 0.261 seconds to become the fifth first-time winner this season.

``I put a lot of pressure on him there at the end and he made no mistakes,'' Martin said. ``That's what I was hoping for, but I was not expecting it because I've raced Johnny a lot.''

Afterward, Martin's No. 6 Ford failed inspection because the left-front springs did not meet the minimum number of coils. NASCAR will punish the team next week, and the standard penalty this season has been a deduction of 25 championship points.

That would be a huge blow to Martin, who sliced Tony Stewart's lead to 87 points Sunday.

Kurt Busch, who came into the event on a two-race winning streak, led 105 laps but faded and finished third.

Jeff Burton was fourth, giving Roush Racing three Fords in the top four.

Jeff Gordon finished fifth in a Chevrolet, Mike Skinner was sixth, followed by Bobby Labonte and Matt Kenseth, the fourth Roush entry. Ricky Craven and Jeff Green rounded out the top 10.

Stewart came into the event with a 146-point lead over Martin but had handling problems early in the race, and his Pontiac fell a lap down early. He fought with the car the entire race and finished 14th.

He was angry when he exited his Pontiac, stopping only to say the car was the worst he had ever driven.

``Most of the day, he kept his head and did a great job,'' crew chief Greg Zipadelli said. ``He did what he had to do. We didn't do as good of a job as we probably needed to do adjusting early. We tried, but everything we did was wrong.''

Jimmie Johnson, who was 150 points behind, had a loose wheel that dropped him 12 laps down and he finished 37th. He's now 219 points behind Stewart, probably too great a margin to overcome with just two races left.

``We knew we had a wheel loose, and when it was loose it destroyed the studs and we could never tighten the wheel back up,'' Johnson said. ``So we had to come in and change the whole hub assembly.

``I'm disappointed. We had a good car and were going to have a solid day. Stewart was struggling. Mark Martin had a great day, but we would have definitely made up some ground. It's just one of them deals.''

Benson, meanwhile, came close to victory three weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway, trying to run down Busch before settling for second place. He felt that clean racing in that chase probably played a part in Busch and Martin repaying the favor in Rockingham.

``Hopefully, Martinsville showed that I do it clean and everyone else would do it back to me,'' he said. ``Mark's the best guy out here and he raced me hard, but he was fair.''