Robby Benton will make his Truck Series debut this weekend as he takes control of the VOKAL Fordfor Billy Ballew Motorsports. Benton will pilot the #15 in the New Hampshire 200 at the New Hampshire International Speedway. Benton, a 24-year-old native of Charlotte, NC, is a former recipient of the Alan Kulwicki Memorial Scholarship, andhe currently serves as a crewmember for Robert Yates Racing on Elliott Sadler’s NASCAR Winston Cupteam. “We are examining several different drivers in preparation for next year,” said Team Owner Billy Ballew. “Ryan Hemphill has done a great job for us and we planto run him in some additional NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races as our equipment allotment allows us to. We had an opportunity to run Robby this weekend in our Ford and we think he has a lot of potential. Robby has been around racing most of his life, he has had some great runs in ARCA, and we wanted to provide him with a chance to run in the truck series.” Benton has made several NASCAR Busch Series starts this year, driving for owner Ken Alexander. His most notable stock car finishes came in ARCA with a fourth place finish at Talledega in 2001 and another fourth place finish at Charlotte in 2002. Benton got his start in go-kart competition, progressed on to the Legends Car series and moved up to the NASCAR Winston Racing series in 1999. Benton was an engineering student at UNCC from 1997-1999.(PR)(9-12-2003)
