Well, we were in Michigan last week, but didn’t get to Brooklyn. Instead we went to Berlin Raceway in Marne. It was a special race that featured Michigan’s favorite son, Johnny Benson and America’s favorite, Bobby Labonte.

That’s right our favorite (or at least mine), Bobby Labonte was trackside for the ASA race. There was quite a bit of hype going into this one. I guess everyone thought that the Winston Cup Champion of 2000 was going to show the little guys how it’s done.

Johnny Benson, co-owner of Berlin Raceway sponsors these types of events multiple times a year, much like Kenny Schrader does with his home track. Watch Inside Nextel Cup on the Speed Channel and you will hear them talk about this from time to time. Anywho, this is Benson’s home track where he raced for years along with his Dad and won the ASA Championship a few years before moving into the Busch series and then later to Winston Cup. So I guess you can say he cut his teeth here, and it showed. Benson pretty much dominated the entire race while Labonte got all of the cheers, he didn’t get around the track very well. I believe he finished up 15th or so out of a whopping 20 some odd cars. Not a very good show from the younger Labonte brother. Maybe it’s Benson’s way to get back at all of his former colleagues? Invite all of these big name drivers from the Nextel Cup Series and embarrass them by running circles around them on his home track.

I don’t know if that is actually fair or not, but it seems to be working. Michael Waltrip did one of these about a year ago and I believe Schrader has also joined in on the showdown of the big boys and little kids. Funny, but it seems like the kids win the majority of the time. Much like here at home. Even though Labonte did not perform well on the track, he was a very gracious sport about off the track.

Our roving reporter, Shelly Torres, and crack photographer, Christine Smith, got their first assignment, get to the pits and get the story of the week. I urged them to make sure that they asked one very important question, does Labonte think that he and the other drivers would like to use our points system over NASCAR’s point system?

Here is an excerpt from the compelling interview Shelly performed after the race…

Labonte: “Hey.”
Torres: “Hi.”
–Labonte signs her jacket—
–click—
Torres: “Thanks.”

Great job guys! Way to dig out the dirt. We’ll have to see if we can get Shelly into another situation to ask the hard questions and take no prisoners. Christine, great job with the camera, you shutterbug.