THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503120417
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Second-year driver Johnny Benson tracked down Ken Schrader at the end of the Busch Light 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday and passed him with less than eight laps to go to earn his second career Busch Grand National victory.
Benson led only 13 of the 197 laps, but he was at his best when it counted, winning by about seven car lengths (0.47 seconds) over Schrader. Jim Bown finished third, followed by Tim Fedewa.
Hermie Sadler of Emporia, Va., was fifth, one lap down.
``I just hate trying to catch somebody with 15 laps to go,'' Benson said. ``It was just tough at the end. I think (Schrader) was trying to stay up front and was hurting his car a little bit. I think that showed up right at the end.''
Said Schrader: ``We were just a little too tight at the end. We were hoping we could hold him off, but we knew Johnny was coming. He was just faster and there was nothing I could do about it.''
The victory was the second in the Busch series for Benson, 31, who is from Grand Rapids, Mich. He also won at Dover last September on his way to becoming rookie of the year in the series.
Benson's victory gave him the lead in the Grand National championship race by 24 points over Terry Labonte, who finished 16th.
Chad Little, who won the first two Busch series races, dominated Saturday's event, leading 110 laps before losing a cylinder. Little, who finished 29th, remained third in the championship hunt, 136 points behind Benson.
SAWYER IN TOP 10: Chesapeake's Elton Sawyer, who finished 10th, one lap down, was the victim of bad timing in his final pit stop.
He lost the lap when he pitted seven laps before the final caution period, which allowed the other leaders to pit under the yellow and maintain track position.
``We had a strong engine, a good car, some fine pit stops and excellent race strategy,'' Sawyer told team publicist Randy Laney. ``We just got a bad break when that caution waved at the wrong time for us.''
ROUND 2 TO SPEED: Lake Speed led the second round of time trials for today's Purolator 500 with a lap of 182.197 mph in his Ford Thunderbird. He'll start 21st today. Had Speed made that lap Friday, he would have started 17th.
But the big second-round story was who failed to make the race. Ward Burton of South Boston, Va., who is 10th in Winston Cup points, was the only driver of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo who failed to qualify. Other non-qualifiers included Ford drivers Kenny Wallace and Ben Hess.
Provisional starting spots went to Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Randy LaJoie and Jimmy Spencer.
FAST LAPS: The five fastest drivers in Saturday's final Winston Cup practice were Terry Labonte at 181.31 mph, Mark Martin (181.13), Bobby Labonte (180.59), Dick Trickle (180.53) and pole winner Dale Earnhardt 180.47).
NEW SPONSORS: Coca-Cola announced Saturday that it has become an associate sponsor for Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet team. by CNB