Team owner Bill Davis wasn’t at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, when rumors swirled about the stability of his race team. A possible merger or sale to Gillett Evernham Motorsports has apparently fallen apart, and now comes whispers that Truck Series points leader Johnny Benson might leave the team at the end of the season to drive for Red Horse Racing.(AP/ESPN.com)(10-30-2008)
UPDATE: Hearing that the entire #23 team may be moving to Red Horse Racing next season. Also hearing that David Starr will be out at the end of the season, and a possible second team at Red Horse Racing will have a rookie named as driver.(10-30-2008)
UPDATE 2: During the prerace setup on SPEED/tv, while interviewing David Starr, Ray Dunlap reported Starr would not be leaving the #11. Starr said that they are working with their new sponsor Zachry through the end of the season and hoped that they liked what they saw and would be back next season with Red Horse Racing.(10-31-2008)
UPDATE 3: Craftsman Trucks Series points leader Johnny Benson is leaving Bill Davis Racing at season’s end, a source close to Benson told ESPN. This is Benson’s fifth year with Bill Davis Racing. Bill Davis Racing refused to comment on the story. Benson has not confirmed any plans for the 2009 season and has left open the possibility of retirement. Coincidentally, BDR announced Tuesday that 19-year old Tayler Malsam has signed on to drive a fourth Toyota in the Truck Series next year.(ESPN.com)(11-5-2008)
UPDATE 4: During an interview with Johnny Benson on Sirius Radio’s Tradin’ Paint with Steve Post & Chocolate Myers, Benson commented on leaving BDR”At this point in time, about three or four weeks ago I had a conversation with Bill [Davis] and, of course, the people up at Bill Davis [Racing] and I’m opting to try and do something different. Now, I threw around the idea of maybe retiring at the end of the season but when I had said that a bunch of opportunities come up. It was like, you know what, am I going to retire? Am I going to try to do a part time deal, go have some fun and spend time with the family and go do just some off races and things of this nature? The truck series is such a great series but you can go run 10 Cup races and make more money than to run the whole season. But I don’t necessarily know if I want to do that either. Some of it is up in the air but I think in the last two or three weeks there have been some opportunities for me to do something that I may like. Now it seems kind of odd to do that, to be in a situation to run for a championship and then want to leave but there’s a couple of other little issues and things of this nature. But the thing I like about this business, whether we win this championship or not, when I came over to Bill’s they were about 25th in points, 25th to 28th or something like that. We were able to build a team and move it up to a championship contender scenario. I like doing those things. But I want to win a championship. I want to finish that off. But it is very cool to do those types of things and I enjoyed that aspect of it. Obviously, I’d really like to get a championship so if we can get that done this year that’d be great. What I’m going to do next year, I really don’t know. There’s a couple things that some people had laid out in front of me that are tempting. So, that’s where I stand. It basically stands that I won’t be at Bill’s. But Bill and Gail gave me a great opportunity, along with Toyota, to come and have some fun and help build a team to make it a championship contender and I think all of us, as a group, are very proud of that and we’d like to finish this off for Bill, for sure.”(Sirius Radio)(11-5-2008)
UPDATE 5: Team owner Davis confirmed Benson’s decision in a statement. A BDR spokesman said, with this week’s announcement that teenage Sprint Car racer Tayler Malsam had signed a deal to race a BDR Toyota full-time next season, that Davis still hoped to run four trucks in 2009. Since he had his first conversation with Davis and his team managers, Benson has been unsure of what he really wants to do, insiders say; and he was equally unclear Wednesday about his reasons for leaving BDR. “Now, it seems kind of odd to do that — to be in a situation to run for a championship and then want to leave,” Benson said. “But there’s a couple of other little issues.” But Benson said he was comfortable with his decision, no matter what happened in his race with Hornaday. They are the only two men with a shot at the title, as Bodine is third, 223 points behind Benson. (nascar.com)(11-6-2008)
UPDATE 6: Sirius Speedway’s Dave Moody, reports that sources close to Bill Davis Racing say that NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point leader Johnny Benson will move to Red Horse Racing next season, taking the majority of his current team — and possibly his sponsor – along with him. Benson will race as a teammate to David Starr, reportedly with the backing of Benson’s current sponsor, Toyota Certified Used Vehicles. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point leader has declined to comment on his future plans recently, saying only that he will not return to BDR in 2009, and has contemplated retirement. However, multiple sources close to the team say that crew chief Trip Bruce has already cleaned out his desk at BDR in anticipation of a move to Red Horse, which is co-owned by Tom Deloach and Fox commentator Jeff Hammond. Starr will reportedly run a full schedule for Red Horse in 2009, with backing from Zachry Holdings, Inc., which joined the team last month.(Motorsports Soapbox)(11-10-2008)
UPDATE 7: Hearing that Trip Bruce [crew chief] and several former #23 BDR team members are already working at Red Horse Racing getting ready for the 2009 season.(12-5-2008)
UPDATE 8: Johnny Benson, who had previously announced he would leave Bill Davis Racing at the end of the 2008 season, will drive the #1 truck as a teammate with David Starr for Red Horse Racing, team co-owner Tom DeLoach confirmed Monday. Trip Bruce, Benson’s crew chief, also has joined the team. As far as sponsorship, DeLoach said that sponsors are still being courted. Benson has won titles in the Nationwide and Truck and has 274 career Cup starts.(SceneDaily.com)(12-8-2008)
