Craven

	Benson

With the departure of Joe Gibbs Racing, the handful of teams that decided to run cars from auto manufacturer Pontiac took a bit of a gamble. After all, one of the biggest advantages to running a certain manufacturer is the ability to see what other talented teams are doing with the same base setup.

Joe Gibbs' boys were the headliners for General Motors' Pontiac brand, and when they switched to GM's other brand -- Chevrolet -- it left a spot open for somebody else to showcase a brand new design for the Grand Prix.

For MB2 and PPI Motorsports, two teams that have had fleeting moments the past few years but no form of steady success, the gamble might be starting to truly pay off. Driver Johnny Benson, who had run Pontiac the year before, and driver Ricky Craven, who switched over from Ford, are getting the best equipment Pontiac has to offer, and the two are poised to make some noise -- especially Craven, who has already won a race this year.

On Sunday, Benson finished fifth in the MBNA Armed Forces Family 400 at Dover International Speedway. Craven finished eighth. Through 13 races, that puts Benson about 50 points out of the top 20 in the standings. Craven, who got off to a fast start this year before having mechanical and other trouble in the past couple of races, is a remarkable 27 points outside of the top 10.

"It was a long way back where we had to start, but I'm real proud of my guys," Benson said after the race. "Our pit stops were great all day long. I was making a couple of spots on the track and they made up a couple of spots in the pits. ... I held up my end and they held up theirs, and we got a top-five out of it."

"There were times during the day when I felt really good about what we had, and then there were times when things just didn't match up," Craven said. "That last set of tires just didn't match up for us. It was a bit frustrating. But the best part of the whole day was the fact that the pit crew shined at the end when we needed them.

"... The more we work together, the better we seem to get. It was nice to get out of that slump. Man, we had a couple of tough weeks, so nothing gets you over that any better than a good finish."

Craven, the 1995 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, has never finished better than 15th in the standings. Benson, the 1996 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, has never finished better than 11th -- and he finished 29th last season.

	Craven scored his fourth top-10 of the season on Sunday.

By positioning themselves to receive the best Pontiac has to offer, they might be in their best position, yet, to succeed in stock-car racing's elite tier.

Though it's easy for them to say that, now, both actually had a hunch at the start of the year.

"The old Pontiac was developed in 1996," Benson's crew chief James Ince said at the start of the year. "All the development was used up in that car. We got all the potential out of it. So, we're excited because the future is a lot brighter for us. Even if we're off a little bit now (and) if there's a possibility that the other teams have done a better job, we at least know that we've got time on our side to improve on our car as we go."

"The balance of the car seems to be a little bit better than what we had last year," Benson added. "And it's running about the same speed. So that, to us, is a positive -- knowing that the new Pontiac has a lot of potential in it yet. We've got to do a lot of work to get the potential out of it to get it as fast as we can as quick as we can. We feel good about it."

The work is being put in and the teams are feeling a lot better about it, now. Especially the folks in charge of the Pontiac initiative.

"I worked for two years, with the help of Gibbs and with James Ince's guys getting the (new) Pontiac approved with NASCAR," said Ray Smith, program manager for Pontiac's Cup efforts. "All along, we knew the car was going to be good, but wow. You know me -- I don't say 'wow' very often, but I'm pretty pumped up."

On Sunday, it was easy to see why Smith and Co. are so ecstatic.

Both cars ran among the top-10 late in the race and, when the final caution came out with about 10 laps to go, both pitted for new tires. That brought them back on the track a little bit lower in the field than they were before the caution -- but the teams were willing to gamble since fresh tires seemed to make a big difference all day long.

This gamble, too, worked out well for both teams. The top-10s give each a head of steam heading to Pocono Raceway -- and they came at a time when each needed a little boost. Benson, who won his first career race last year, hadn't posted a top-five all year until Sunday. And Craven, whose first victory came two years ago, was coming off consecutive 38th-place runs heading into Sunday.

"It's really great what these guys have been able to do," said PPI owner Cal Wells. "Remarkable, really. I think we're on schedule to do what we thought we could before the season, and that's put together some strong runs here and, really, watch everything come together in the Fall."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rups@theraces.com.