THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090548
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
With everything else on Johnny Benson's mind, one could have forgiven him if he put racing on the back burner.
But the first-year Winston Cup driver from Grand Rapids, Mich., celebrated the birth of his first child a day earlier, as well as his continuing recovery from pneumonia, with his first Winston Cup pole on Friday.
Benson put his Pontiac Grand Prix in the top starting spot for Sunday's Purolator 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a lap of 185.434 mph .
``The last 24 hours have been pretty exciting,'' Benson said. ``We had a little baby girl last night a little after 10 o'clock. That's been the greatest part of the weekend no matter what happens.''
Benson's wife, Debbie, gave birth to Katelyn Rae Benson at Charlotte Medical Center. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces.
``I was there all the way,'' Benson said. ``I got home (in Charlotte) about 1:30 last night, got up about 5 a.m., and flew down here.''
As for the pneumonia, Benson said, ``I've still got a cold, but it's going away slowly. I'll be OK by Sunday, but it's going to be another week or two before I get up to 100 percent.''
``The cold weather stinks,'' he added. ``I'm going to stay in as much as I can.''
As for the weather, NASCAR might as well be holding this race in northern Wisconsin. It didn't get above freezing all day Friday, and a brisk wind kept the wind-chill index in single digits. The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies today with a high near 40.
Benson won the pole - the first for Pontiac in 2 1/2 years - with the second of his two qualifying laps. His speed was just shy of the 185.830 mph Greg Sacks posted in 1994 at the 1.522-mile superspeedway.
``It wasn't wide open all the way around,'' he said. ``Earlier in practice, I thought maybe we could do it. I know you could in the Busch cars. But with the weather being as cold as it is, it wasn't possible.
``Instead of going in as deep as I wanted to, I just lifted a little bit early and I got in the gas earlier, and it seemed to work out fine.''
Mark Martin was second-fastest at 185.183 in a Ford Thunderbird, despite having almost no practice Friday morning due to ignition problems.
``Fortunately, we had a half-day test down here, and I had something to base a qualifying setup on,'' Martin said. ``Then I reached deep down to get everything I could get for qualifying.''
Terry Labonte was third-fastest in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo at 185.096 mph, followed by Jeremy Mayfield (184.946) and Geoff Bodine (184.777), both in Fords.
Completing the top 10 were Bobby Hamilton, John Andretti, Bobby Labaonte, Hut Stricklin and Wally Dallenbach Jr.
Joe Nemechek qualified 12th-fastest on his first lap at 183.761 mph, then crashed hard in turn 4 on his second lap.
``All of a sudden it just busted loose,'' Nemechek said. ``There wasn't a thing I could do about it. It was almost like I hit a patch of ice or something. We'll just get the backup car out and try to go fast with it.''
Jeff Gordon, the defending race champion who is coming off a victory last Sunday at Richmond, was 21st-fastest at 183.116 mph. Dale Earnhardt, who ran away with the season-ending race here last November, was 18th at 183.435.
A second round of time trials is set for 11 a.m. today. There are 43 cars for 42 spots, so it seems certain that all of Winston Cup regulars will make the field. Jeff Burton was 42nd-fastest on Friday; Randy MacDonald, the 43rd-fastest driver, was almost 3 mph slower than Burton. by CNB