Benson loses ride as Red Horse shuts down 1 truck

Quote :

Benson loses ride as Red Horse shuts down 1 truck
By Official Release
June 8, 2009
04:05 PM EDT

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Red Horse Racing has announced it is ceasing operation of the No. 1 Toyota driven by Johnny Benson. The decision is effective immediately.

"This leaves me without a ride, I'd say, and not a lot of time to put something together," Benson said.

Red Horse Racing worked to secure sponsorship for the No. 1 since this past December but has been unsuccessful in doing so.

"It hasn't been for a lack of effort," owner Tom DeLoach said. "We had several people working on finding a sponsor for the No. 1 and Johnny Benson. I've been working on it myself. We gave it our best shot, and we tried as long as we could, but nothing materialized.
"I am saddened that we were unsuccessful in accomplishing our goal but this is a tough economic climate and the cost of fielding a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team with essentially no support other than our manufacturer is too much for Red Horse Racing to bear alone."

Sponsorship for Benson was thought to be secure before the season began but the economic downturn kept that sponsor from being able to participate with Red Horse Racing.


It's the second time in seven months that Benson has been hurt by the sagging economy. He won the Truck title last year driving for Bill Davis Racing, but informed Davis before the season finale that he was moving to Red Horse because of the financial instability at BDR.

Davis sold his race teams and engine-building operation in January, and the new owners have not entered a NASCAR race this season.

Benson said he believed Red Horse gave him a good chance to defend his series title, but the team had not lived up to his expectations. Benson, who finished fourth this past Friday at Texas, is currently seventh in the standings with three top-fives and four top-10 finishes this season.

"The decision to close the team is a bit surprising because they told me they wanted to build a championship-caliber race team," Benson said. "They hired a champion driver and a champion crew, and then decide to close the team instead of building the organization around it. So I am a little confused."

Benson said he doubts he'll be able to line up a ride in time for Saturday's race at Michigan International Speedway, his home track.

Sponsorship has been difficult to find for some of the smaller organizations, and some teams are struggling to make it to the race track. The field for last weekend's race was three trucks short of capacity, and 10 of the entries were "field-fillers" that had no intention of competing for the entire event.

Norm Benning ran just three laps before ducking off the track with a handling issue, but earned $10,255 for the effort. Wayne Edwards outlasted the other field-fillers to make it 26 laps before leaving with an ignition problem. He earned $11,155 for finishing 24th.

Benson downplayed Saturday night's field as an indicator of the series' health.

"There's always been field-fillers in all three series, always. I don't think this is new," he said. "But we're all nervous about the economy in every series. It's down and it's making it tough on a lot of people. But the series is still good."

Red Horse Racing will continue to field the No. 11 Toyota, driven by T.J. Bell, as that truck does have some but not full support.

That's sad when the past Championship driver can't get a sponsor.
I like JB. I wish him luck finding a new ride.

A rumor has been going around that he may sign with Randy Moss.

I hope he finds something

well i guess this confirmed my first thoughts when I didn't see him on the track...... little did I know that at the time he was injured too or getting injured..... wow what bad timing or incredibly good..... wait more like God timing

Johnny Benson, Jr. awake and alert following crash at Berlin Raceway > http://www.berlinraceway.com/

Feel better soon Johnny.