At 17 years old, making only his seventh K&N Pro Series East start, Kyle Benjamin, driver of the No. 27 Eibach Ford, raced side-by-side with William Byron, driver of the No. 9 Liberty University Chevrolet, with less than 30 laps remaining. But the pressure didn’t break him.
Benjamin was able to hold off Byron on the last restart and went to score his first career win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East taking the checkered flag in the PittLite 125 Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The win was the first in seven career starts in the series and also the third different winner in as many races this season.
Benjamin, who is a Roush Fenway development driver, won by 0.910-seconds over Byron who entered the race as the most recent winner in the series at Greenville Pickens last month.
Scott Heckert followed in third with Kaz Grala and Brandon Jones completed the top five.
Eddie MacDonald, last year’s winner of this race, rebounded from a spin early in the race to finish sixth with Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric, J.J. Haley and Rico Abreu completing the top 10.
Bryon takes over the points lead by three points over Hill (128-125) with Benjamin third with 119 points. Gray Gaulding and Grala complete the top five in the standings.
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