THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 26, 1995 TAG: 9508260529
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
A flat tire sent Johnny Benson to the pits with only 23 laps to go in the Food City 250 Friday night at Bristol International Raceway and gave Winston Cup regular Steve Grissom his second straight Grand National victory at this difficult track.
Benson dominated the 250-lap race, leading 113 circuits, but he went high in turn two late in the race, picked up some debris and cut the tire.
``I knew the tire was going down, but there was not a whole lot I could do about it,'' said Benson, who finished 12th, one lap down.
After taking the lead in turn two, Grissom opened a half-lap lead over Jeff Green, who finished second, 8.6 seconds behind.
``I'm not sure that Johnny's car wasn't faster when he and (Mike Wallace) were racing,'' said Grissom. ``So we just sat back a bit and watched the show.
``I was not sure I could even catch Johnny,'' the winner said. ``But I think we had a little more left (than Benson) at the end.''
When Benson, fighting his tire problem, drifted high in turn two on lap 228, ``that opened the bottom up and we took it and went on from there,'' Grissom said.
Grissom, now a Winston Cup regular, was making only his ninth start in the Grand National series this season. But he already had the victory here in April as well as two other top-10 finishes.
Tim Fedewa finished third, followed by Chad Little, who pulled within 29 points of Benson, who still leads in the Busch driver championship battle. Terry Labonte was fifth.
Seven accidents or spins, including an eight-car crash in turn two on lap 42, brought out the yellow flag seven times for 38 laps. No one was hurt. by CNB