Norm Benning has been a staple in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for more than a decade-and-a-half. At 73 years old, he is still showing up to the racetrack because that is what he loves to do.
At Daytona International Speedway, he started the season off well by scoring a 16th-place finish, which is his best result since 2018.
So far this season, he has tied the amount of starts he’s made in the previous three seasons combined. At Martinsville Speedway, he made his 250th career start in the Truck Series.
Benning faces the difficulty of racing with older equipment. The main truck that he uses the most is almost 16 years old. With purses being low in the Truck Series, it is difficult for Benning to expand his schedule.
You can watch the interview or read it below.
Jared Haas, Frontstretch: Starting your season off with Daytona, you had a pretty good finish. You finished 16th, which is your best since Daytona in 2018. You’ve had some interesting history with that truck, as it was an old Henderson Motorsports truck.
Norm Benning: I purchased it two years ago. It’s a 3-year-old truck. We originally went to Talladega with it and had a really good run there, and we went to Daytona this year.
I actually crossed that start-finish line in eighth. They gave me 16th, but there was a crash on the last lap coming off turn 4. Guys that were in the crash that never crossed the start-finish line that finished ahead of me. I’m still upset about it and tried to appeal, but they were busy with [the No.] 75 truck [of Parker Kligerman].
It’s been a great truck, and I can’t wait to get to Talladega with it, ’cause at the end of the race there at Daytona, they were three-wide, five deep and there was really nowhere to go. I had a lot better trucks than than that. I didn’t wanna force my way in there and end up crashed.
We qualified 22nd and beat a lot of really good trucks qualifying. We were pretty impressive that weekend and got a lot of interviews, and it was a lot of fun.
I look forward to Talladega. We have no major sponsorship, which I think when I go to Talladega, we’re gonna be a big story. I just hope I can get somebody on board with us to enjoy the exposure.
Haas: The Rockingham truck is an old Kevin Harvick, Inc. truck. Talk about some of your other trucks that are in your fleet.
Benning: There’s the dirt truck. Unfortunately, we don’t run dirt anymore. It’s just sitting in the shop with Circle B all over it. We had a really good run there at Bristol [Motor Speedway]. That was a lot of fun to race all day. The track was great; it was smooth.
I don’t know who made the decision not to run any dirt anymore, but that was very anticipated. Those races, I wish [NASCAR would] do it some more.
I have the old speedway truck which had the pole at Daytona in the first-round qualifying when they did the group qualifying; we were on the pole. That was pretty cool. We couldn’t go out in the second round because we got some damage later on in that run that we had to fix it. We started last because of the repairs. That was a legitimate pole in the first round. That truck is sitting in the building, not doing anything because I have this new speedway truck from Don Henderson.
I have the Kevin Harvick truck, which Is my workhorse right now. We’ve taken it to the last three races, and we can’t get the monkey off her back for some reason. We went to Martinsville [Speedway]. We were really, really fast and the right rear brake caliper started to leak. That took us out of the race.
We went to Bristol and it rained for hours and hours. At one point, we thought we were gonna get out to practice. We put all the radio equipment in it, and it started raining again. It sat there until they lined us up to race. I put the earplugs in, and it was just terrible. There’s a bunch of gargling. I could just barely make out the spotter.
Once, I got on the racetrack under power, I couldn’t make it out at all. We needed to come in and change that stuff out. NASCAR just decided we were done, but we could have fixed the problem.
At Rockingham, we had an issue with the right front shock. We ran pretty good there, and we were actually 23rd in practice at one point in the beginning. We’ve had three races here; we’ve had issues.
I’m going to North Wilkesboro with that same truck and we’re working hard on it to make sure we don’t have any issues and we’re competitive.
Haas: At Bristol, on the radio, your crew members were screaming, trying to communicate with you. I want to clarify, it wasn’t defiance, but you didn’t hear him? It was just a radio issue with the rain or the humidity affecting the equipment that was in the truck.
Benning: Absolutely, it would be dumb to be defiant. They’re gonna stop scoring you. I eventually did make it out. I think the caution came out or something and they said to pit. I did, and then we went back out. Apparently, they said I was speeding on pit road, and they couldn’t get that message to me and then they black flagged me.
Why would I defy it? If I could hear it, I’d do it because it makes no sense to stay out there. What upset me is [NASCAR] wouldn’t let me fix it and go back out.
Haas: Did you have a backup radio to get out there?
Benning: It was actually the earplugs. The radio was fine. All I had to do is take my helmet off, put the earplugs in and I’ve been fine.
The other thing that was really strange about it, if you were listening to the radio communication, when he called me in and said I was done, I went back. As I was going back to my pit stall, the radio started working, the right-side radio earplugs started working.
Then I told the spotter, “quit yelling at me, because I can hear you.” That was very frustrating because again we had a good truck. We just had bad luck.
Haas: Did NASCAR stop scoring you then after after you pulled in the garage? Is that why it didn’t let you go out there?
Benning: Well, they assumed I was defying their black flag, which I wasn’t. I’m in a crowd of trucks. I was struggling to hear in traffic. It was really bad. It was just a miscommunication, and I wasn’t trying to be defiant, I just had issues and other people had issues. I wasn’t the only one. There were three or four different trucks that had the same issues because of the rain.
I wish [NASCAR] would have let me go back up, but he at the time thought I was defying his call to come in and I wasn’t, I couldn’t hear it.
Haas: You were actually not scheduled to run Rockingham. How did that come to be?
Benning: A friend of mine called and said, “Norm, there are only 34 entries, we should go there.” So I had three days to get it ready.
Early in the race, like 15-20 laps, something happened in the right front. We broke a helix or something and start falling down on the right front real bad, and I couldn’t drive it. I pulled in on pit road, and [NASCAR] said I can go back to the garage and fix it. I got back to the garage and the official said that you’re done.
I said, “It’s a mechanical problem. I wasn’t involved in a wreck.” And he said, “well, you’re done,” and that was that.
Other people came in and went back out in the garage. I don’t wanna say too much about it, but there are people running below minimum speed consecutively that weren’t pulled off the racetrack.
I’m just hoping things get straightened out and I’m competitive again. I don’t like having all these issues.
Haas: This season in the Truck Series, all but Daytona have had short fields. What has been like the biggest cost factor? Why haven’t we seen fuller fields in the Truck Series?
Benning: It’s the purses. People like me, we just can’t afford to go to these races and lose money. The purses have to improve. We’re struggling to get sponsorship. If we can get some sponsorship, purses wouldn’t be as important.
I have associate sponsors, MDIA, JZL and people like that, but it’s not enough to cover my expenses. You just have to make a decision how much you love racing or losing money.
But unfortunately, I love just crawling in these things and racing, so I do it.
Haas: Any future plans? You mentioned to me about trying to attempt Pocono.
Benning: I would. I don’t have to. It’d be nice to have sponsorship. That’s my home track, and we always do pretty well up there.
There’s no set schedule whatsoever, but the 1.5-mile tracks for me are the most expensive. I don’t have the aerodynamics that a lot of these people have in their trucks. These bodies are outrageous, what they cost and the wind tunnel time and so forth.
I’m trying to just not do too many of the 1.5-mile tracks until I get a new truck. I have no set schedule. I may run a lot of races, I may run a few. It just depends on how it works out.
Jared Haas joined the Frontstretch staff in May 2020. During his time at Frontstretch, Jared has grown the Frontstretch YouTube channel from less than 200 subscribers to well over 23,000 subscribers.