MARTINSVILLE, Va. – A bold strategy proved gutsy for Kyle Benjamin in Saturday afternoon’s Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, but the decision to keep the DGR-Crosley out on old tires persevered with a fifth-place finish in his last scheduled race of the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season.
With inclement weather wiping away any hopes of practice at the historic paperclip on Friday, teams were left to improvise with just qualifying and the race on Saturday. Circling back to his setup from the spring, where he finished a career-best second, Benjamin overcame a spin in the opening minutes of knockout qualifying to start fifth for the 20th race of the season.
In the early laps of the race, handling plagued Benjamin as he dipped from fifth to eighth.
At the end of the first stage, Benjamin pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment, restarting 20th. A quick caution to begin Stage 2 saw Benjamin top off on fuel to conquer his fight to the finish.
Restarting deep inside the top-25, Benjamin had to use patience to remain on the lead lap to finish 2. While others pitted during the third caution of the event, the NASCAR Next alumnus jumped from 22nd to the race lead for the start of Stage 3.
Benjamin’s old tires were no match for Johnny Sauter on four fresher tires who swiped the lead from the 20-year-old on Lap 112.
There was no going back on the team’s strategy and over the course of the final 88 laps, Benjamin survived two late race cautions and the challenges of Brett Moffitt, Myatt Snider, Ben Rhodes and Justin Haley to fight for his place near the front.
With a 33-lap green flag run to the finish, Benjamin was able to keep Hayley at bay and finish fifth on 150 lap tires.
Climbing from his truck, the five-time K&N East winner was satisfied with his finish.
“I feel pretty good about it. Trying to maximize opportunities and I feel like we did that today,” he said. “Did the most I could do right there, especially on old tires. I think it hurt us firing off there on restarts. I didn’t have any right-front grip and those 150 laps were a long ways here.”
Reflecting on his second top-five performance of the year, Benjamin felt he had a truck capable of finishing second which would have backed up his spring effort at Martinsville, where he led 74 laps before finishing second to John Hunter Nemechek. On Saturday, however, the weekend circumstances and strategy were different.
“I really think we had a second-place truck and I can’t say enough about the guys to bring a truck that fast again with no practice and again to have a shot at it.”
Despite being on the sidelines for much of 2018, Benjamin has made headlines in his five NASCAR national series runs this year. In addition to his two truck runs at Martinsville, he also ran three Xfinity Series races for Joe Gibbs Racing where he earned one top-five and two top-10 finishes.
He also finished 13th in his lone Xfinity road course start at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course after starting 12th.
Benjamin said he made most of what was on the table in 2018 — but is hoping an opportunity comes along that will keep him in the seat consistently where he believes he can win races and compete for a championship.
“I feel like I’ve made the most out of the few opportunities I’ve had in 2018,” he explained. “I had two top fives’s and four top-10’s in five races. It’s tough having long gaps between races. I feel like I could win races and compete for a championship if I was a weekly racer.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
