Norm Benning - Modern Day Last American Hero?

NASCAR returned to dirt track racing for the first time in over 40 years on Wednesday night at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The night was a huge success for NASCAR in terms of fan excitement, ticket sales, television ratings, social media output, etc. I don’t have the exact numbers, but I’m willing to bet this race was the most-watched race in the almost 20 year history of the Camping World Truck Series.

The race itself was entertaining and surprisingly low on carnage, with the truck series regulars picking up the art of racing on dirt without having too many wrecks or cautions. Unsurprisingly the race was won by one of the so-called “dirt ringers,” though one who also had much experience and success in the truck series, 2011 series champion Austin Dillon.

However, the most exciting part of racing on the dirt at Eldora came before the main event, during the qualifying race called the LCQ or last chance qualifier. Only 30 trucks would make the main event. Twenty-five had already locked themselves in via owner’s points and five heat races. That left 10 trucks fighting for the final five spots into the race. This lead to one of the most epic racing battles I’ve ever seen in NASCAR period, and believe it or not it wasn’t for first place, but merely fifth place – the last position that would qualify a driver into the main.

The battle was between two guys who regularly compete in the truck series, but with underfunded equipment that is often forced to start and park and almost never can compete with the big boys of the series. Those drivers were 61-year old veteran Norm Benning and 29-year old Clay Greenfield. The battle lasted basically the entire 15-lap LCQ, but really got exciting in the final few laps with Benning realizing he had to hold off Greenfield to make the show and Greenfield doing everything he could, included potentially wrecking Benning to also make the show. The two rubbed and scraped and made so much contact that their trucks would almost be spent by the end of the LCQ, but it didn’t really matter because the winner would go on and the loser would go home. It’s an image and excitement that my words can’t truly describe, so you must go to YouTube and watch it for yourself. 

Benning eventually held off Greenfield in one of the most riveting final laps of racing I have ever seen and again it was only for fifth place to make the big race. His intensity and hard driving in the LCQ just goes to show the casual NASCAR fan that even these guys who struggle to make races and compete with higher funded teams are true wheelmen. Norm Benning is the true American underdog story who has worked his butt off for years to simply get to where he is now. He may have only finished 26^th out of 30 drivers in the main race, but he put on the best show of the night just getting into it. He also got his name trending nationwide on Twitter … not bad for an old vet who most had never heard of going into the night.