1996 Brickyard Heartbreak Stung Benson for Years after Checkered Flag
August 30, 2019 | By Zach Horrall, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
When the Indianapolis Motor Speedway breaks your heart, and at some point it will, you have to move on.
That’s the mentality of former NASCAR driver Johnny Benson, who almost won the 1996 Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard in his first start at IMS.
Benson arrived at the Racing Capital of the World that year with yellow rookie stripes on his rear bumper, though they might have been hard to see. Benson was driving the bright yellow No. 30 Pennzoil Pontiac for Chuck Rider. But he wasn’t driving like a rookie.
Benson started 14th and jumped through the field. He took the lead for the first time on Lap 32, becoming the first rookie driver to lead the Brickyard. For the next 80 laps, Benson led Ernie Irvan around the historic 2.5-mile oval. The two traded the lead back and forth when Benson surrendered the lead for pit stops.
“The car drove perfect,” Benson said, looking back to that race 23 years ago. “We had great race cars. Everything went very smooth that week. Whether we just hit it right or not, I don’t know, but it was very good.”
In a race that featured five caution periods and 18 lead changes, Benson tallied the most laps led with 70. He last led on Lap 120, when he relinquished the top spot to make a green flag pit stop. Six laps later, the caution came out for debris on the backstretch. All the leaders dove on pit road, and Benson’s day, for all intents and purposes, would be done.
Benson’s pit crew had a slow pit stop. To make matters worse, Benson stalled the car leaving pit road. He lined up 18th on the single-file restart at a place where track position is so important. Benson said he knew the moment he took the green flag for the restart on Lap 130 that his day was done.
“You’re mad, and it’s just like, ‘Man, I can’t believe that just happened,’” Benson said. “Oh, man, it was heartbreaking. Those last 10-15 laps just knowing that we had control of the race, and then we had that slip away. Still, the experience to be here and run that good was awesome for my first time. It was something you can’t take away, but in the same token you think, ‘Man, we had a shot at winning the race.’”
Benson finished eighth as Dale Jarrett took the lead late in the race and claimed his first of two Brickyard wins. Benson said he tries not to think about what could have been. It took years to get over the thought of throwing away not just any race, but the Brickyard 400. Eventually, he made himself accept what happened.
“It (stung) for about four or five years, and then you got to let it go,” he said. “It was a great day; we led a lot of laps, and it was cool. You just got to move on and carry on. It was a great weekend, but it just ended not exactly how we wanted.”
Benson returned to Indy in 1997 and saw success yet again. He led two laps in the No. 30 car and finished seventh. Then, in 2001 he scored his best Indy finish with third place while driving the No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac.
In all, Indy proved to be one of Benson’s best NASCAR Cup Series tracks. It’s tied with New Hampshire Motor Speedway for his best average finish with 17.1. He ended his Cup career at Indy with one top-five, three top-10s and 72 laps led, almost identical to his New Hampshire stats. Benson, who is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, said Indy’s unique, rectangular layout fit his upbringing.
“This track is hard, especially in a stock car, but the corners fit my driving style,” he said. “You’re sliding around and moving around. And I had a lot of experience with lapped car-type stuff. I think that fit my driving style.”
Although Benson only scored one Cup Series win, at Rockingham Speedway in 2002, he went on to have a successful NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series career. From 2006-08, he scored 14 wins, was named the series’ most popular driver all three years and was the 2008 series champion.
That 1996 Brickyard race proved to be a historic one, because it was that year that Jarrett started the tradition of the NASCAR winner kissing the bricks. Benson said kissing the Yard of Bricks likely wouldn’t have been the first thing he thought about had he won that year, but he said he believes someone eventually would have started the historic tradition.
“Indy has always had a special place for anyone that’s involved in motorsports,” he said.