Cinderella story: RAB Racing, owner Robby Benton join elite company with rare win for independent Nationwide team

As RAB Racing prepared for the customary victory-lane photos following Boris Said’s Nationwide Series win at Montreal Sunday, a NASCAR employee handed out about a dozen hats and told team owner Robby Benton that he would open a new box once the rest of the team arrived.

“I looked around and said, ‘This is everybody,’” Benton said.

For Benton and his nine employees, winning a race in the Nationwide Series hopefully will translate into increased interest from sponsors and more victory celebrations, ones that include more people on the payroll.

Benton started the team in 2005 and ran three seasons in ARCA before entering the Nationwide Series full time in 2009 with rookie driver John Wes Townley. The team struggled not only with a rookie driver but a 100-point penalty for a roll-cage violation at Daytona that Benton said was inadvertent and on a car that had passed inspection for other teams in previous races.

This year has been more of a struggle financially as Townley had taken his sponsorship to Richard Childress Racing while RAB tried to piece together sponsorship. The team has used 12 different drivers, including Townley, who has returned to the team with Zaxby’s and plans to run the rest of the season with RAB.

“I’ve told myself I was crazy for doing this more than anybody else ever has,” said Benton, who is 31 and has a partner in Georgia businessman Brack Maggard. “It’s been a very tough year for us. There are a lot of Mondays when I came into the shop and I had no idea how I was going to pay everyone on Friday. It’s been hard. … I don’t think words can describe how hard it is do this on a weekly basis.

“Whether or not we’re crazy for doing this, I don’t know. It’s all I know how to do. It’s all I’ve ever done. I grew up in this sport. I’m proud to be here. I’m happy that NASCAR makes it possible for a guy like me to be able to do what we’ve done. Hopefully it says a lot for the series for a small team like this to be able to come in and be able to win.”

That’s why the victory was so special. Although the car was bought from Roush Fenway Racing, armed with a Roush Yates engine and Performance Friction Brakes, the win showed what a small team with no affiliation with a Sprint Cup team can do. Sure it had road-racing specialist Said driving, but the car was damaged in a crash three weeks earlier at Watkins Glen and the team had rush to rebuild it in less than three weeks for Montreal.

All the work, plus the hiring of an experienced crew chief in Scott Zipadelli for the race, resulted in RAB becoming only the fifth different organization to win a Nationwide race this year and the first small, independent team to win since David Gilliland and Clay Andrews Racing won at Kentucky Speedway in June 2006.

“There’s no telling what this is going to be worth just yet,” said Benton, whose team is 24th in the owner standings. “It’s obviously huge. It’s a big validation for our team. It’s big for NASCAR to show that you don’t have to be Joe Gibbs or Jack Roush to come in here and run up front and win races.

“It just shows that if you get the right pieces and the right people and put them together, things can happen.”

Said hopes that his win will give the small program a boost.

“I think he’s the youngest owner in Nationwide and he runs the team as good as [Roger] Penske,” Said said after the victory. “Everything is spotless and totally organized. I feel lucky I get to race for a guy like this. Maybe this will help him get some sponsors and good things down the road.”

Although the purse money for winning was $99,113 (about $75,000 more than a typical Nationwide purse for the team), Benton said there won’t be much left to build new cars.

“Once I get done taking care of everybody, buying replica trophies and taking everybody to dinner and paying out the bonuses, there won’t be a whole lot left over,” he said. “But the validation this win gives us, the amount of energy and confidence it injects in the team will be invaluable. It would be hard to put a price on it.

“I would like to have more people, but one win doesn’t change anything. It puts us on the map and maybe when we go talk to sponsors, maybe the fact that we won a Nationwide race … gives us an identity.”

Benton is a former driver and Robert Yates Racing mechanic. He used to visit victory lane often while working at RYR before starting his own team in 2005.

“You never know when you’re going to get your next one,” Benton said. “As hard as they are to come by, we’re going to enjoy this like it may be the last one. I didn’t realize that the last one I won might have been the last.

“I don’t want to wait another four or five years, but in case I do, I want to make this one count.”

The trophy already is on display in the shop.

“I’ve got the trophy and the champagne bottles and the flag, and anything else that wasn’t bolted down, we brought home with us,” Benton said. “Everyone’s happy, everyone’s excited about it. It’s huge for a team our size to be able to win a race in the Nationwide Series.

“These races are so damn tough to win. They’re hard to just run in the top 10 much less win. Looking around at each other, it’s a bunch of kids, we’re a bunch of young guys. I’m one of the older guys. I’m only 31. Most of the guys that work for me have grown up in the sport, they have a huge respect for the sport and NASCAR in general. For us to know that we went and accomplished what we accomplished is amazing.”

And now it’s time to get back to work at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.

“Atlanta is in Zaxby’s backyard, it’s their home track and we have to go down there and put our best foot forward and have a good, strong weekend,” Benton said. “Richmond comes on the heels of that, and it’s the third race for the Nationwide Series new car. We’ve got two very important weekends coming up that we can’t lose focus on.

“We’re happy that we were able to win but you really don’t have the opportunity to relish it as much as you may like to because you can’t lose focus on the next couple of weeks. We need to go and run well and just show that Montreal wasn’t a fluke, we’re a good team, we’re a solid team and no matter who is in the car, we can go out and be a competitive entity.”