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Young Benjamin Hits Growth Spurt On and Off Racetrack Heading into Rubber and Specialties 100

By Chuck Corder

A quick glance at Kyle Benjamin and you realize the 14-year-old short-tracking phenom has grown a few inches the last few months.

“I used to be shorter than the roof of the cars,� the teenage sensation quipped, only half joking.

Eerily, Benjamin’s fledgling racing career has soared to new heights in recent weeks.

Fresh off a resume-topping victory and riding a two-race winning streak, Benjamin comes back to Five Flags Speedway looking for more at the Rubber and Specialties 100.

Super Stocks, Sportsmen and Bombers also return to the famed half-mile, asphalt oval when the gates open at 5 p.m. Friday.

Admission to the grandstands is as follows: $15 adults, $14 seniors, $12 military/students (ages 12 thru 17), $5 children ages 6 to 11 and free for kids under 6. Pit passes are $25.

Benjamin arrives in Pensacola this week fourth in the Blizzard Series points standings, but with not-so sparkling finishes (fifth, 11th) in the two previous races.

“We’re satisfied, but we wanna contend for the win,� Benjamin said. “We’ve been off at Five Flags this season. It’s a tough track and we’ve been missing on the setup. But we’ll get it figured out for this weekend.�

You’d be foolish to bet against the kid.

Benjamin burst onto the Pro Late Model scene throughout the southeast last year with a breakthrough victory at Mobile International Speedway and followed it up with a watermark win a few weeks later at Five Flags, hallowed ground for short trackers.

But it’s what he has done lately that has raised plenty of pairs of eyebrows.

In his first — first! — extended weekend in a Super Late Model seat, Benjamin stole the Speedweeks show in February at New Smyrna Speedway.

He won three of the six races to become the youngest driver to capture the 46th Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.

“I didn’t expect to get one. We went just for the seat time,� Benjamin said. “It was really cool and definitely a confidence booster.�

The Easley, S.C., resident headed back up the Atlantic Coast on cloud nine and hasn’t come down yet.

Benjamin once again won in Mobile in late April and earned his biggest win to date at the Winchester 100 for a JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour race May 6 at the revered Indiana short track.

He led the final 57 laps and bested a star-studded field that included young guns, such as Daniel Hemric, Anderson Bowen and Erik Jones.

“I was thinking, ‘If I win at this track, that’d be really cool,’ � Benjamin said. “You see all these things about that track and it’s just the coolest track. But the last 10 laps, we had a right rear going down and I could feel it coming off the corner. That was really scary.�

Not to worry, though. Benjamin had a cool-tempered veteran bringing him home.

Crew chief Freddie Query was a heck of hotshoe in his driving days and he has molded young talent since he put on a headset.

Forever respected as a late model driver, Query helped Pensacola’s Johanna Long find her late model footing before she won the 2010 Snowball Derby and made the leap to NASCAR.

“He’s so cool,� Query said of Benjamin. “He has ice water in his blood veins.�

Like Long before him, Query has been just as invaluable to Benjamin.

When the team pulls into a track Benjamin has never seen before, chances are Query has.

“(Query) can show me the lines without me having to figure it out,� Benjamin said. “He’s not shy to tell me what I did wrong. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am. He has taught me so much with driving.�

Query’s tutelage has freed up Benjamin’s parents to take care of the growing buzz that hovers above their precocious son.

Steven Benjamin, Kyle’s father, does a little bit of everything. From turning wrenches to drumming up sponsorships, such as his efforts to have McDonald’s on the black No. 71 for Friday’s race thanks to several Pensacola-area franchises led by Donna Stump.

“It’s amazing how much work it is. It’s worse than a full-time job. We’re coming off a break, and I enjoyed every minute of it,� Steven Benjamin joked. “We’ve run 18 races already this year. We did 20 alone all year last season. When we’re on, we’re. When we’re not, we’re not.�

They come into Pensacola at an unprecedented height for the young team with the young driver.

Kyle Benjamin’s appeal goes beyond the racetrack walls. Just as he moves the gauges inside his rides, Benjamin certainly moves the needle with fans.

Especially those of his peers. Especially those of his female peers.

At his win at Five Flags last season, high-pitched squeals from the grandstands could be heard all around the speedway.

“(The Benjamin family) look at the Chase Elliott pattern and they’re trying to parallel it,� Query said. “I told ’em … they have to step up to the plate and dad-gum if he hasn’t done it in style.�

Beiber Fever, make room. You have company in the wobbling knees of teenage girls, making their hearts fly as high as the feats of the object of their affection.

Let’s call it, the Benjamin Condition.

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