NASCAR veteran, Johnny Benson, held off Ron Hornaday in a two-lap shootout for the checkers to win the Power Stroke Diesel 200 on Friday night at O’Reilly Raceway Park. Hornaday took the lead from polesitter Bobby East back on lap 5 and went onto lead a race high 153 laps before surrendering the lead to the charging Benson on lap 162.

There were a record-tying 11 cautions during the event, the last of which came on lap 195 when Benson’s Bill Davis Racing teammate, Michael Annett, spun while trying to race Rick Crawford for position inside the top-five. The accident setup a restart on lap 198 of the 200 lap race, with Hornaday still running in second. Hornaday attempted a final charge, but he slipped high up on the track, and Benson pulled away for the victory. Hornaday went onto finish 2nd, followed by Erik Darnell, Matt Crafton, and Shelby Howard completing the top-five.

Other Notables:
Kyle Busch finished 8th in the race after stirring up a bit of controversy earlier in the evening, sending Chad McCumbee into the wall back on lap 136 as the two raced for position. Mike Skinner rounded out the top-ten in 10th place. Rick Crawford finished 12th. Hornaday’s Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate, Jack Sprague, was 17th.

Johnny Benson’s victory now opens up a 15 point lead over Hornaday in the points standings. Hornaday jumped past Matt Crafton to take the 2nd spot in the standings as Crafton drops down to 3rd. There were no other changes through the top-six in points. For Benson, the win gave him his second in a row, and his third in the past four weeks.

Complete Power Stroke 200 Results

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

We all know that Joe Gibbs Racing has established themselves as the powerhouse of the field at this point in time. We know that Roush-Fenway Racing has come a long way in figuring out this new car and that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have lost the edge that they had on everyone else last year. We’ve analyzed potential contractual signings every which way we could, and still found ourselves locked in a guessing game. Been there, done that, but perhaps one of the stories that we haven’t talked nearly enough about are two teams that are holding out hope of getting a driver into contention for the Chase for the Cup for the first time in their team’s history, and another that hasn’t fielded a Chase contender since 2004.

Once considered one of the top organizations in NASCAR, Yates Racing last visited Victory Lane back in the Fall of 2005 when Dale Jarrett drove the no. 88 car to a win at Talladega and the last time they were able to land a driver inside the top-12 in points was with Elliott Sadler back in ‘04. Since those days, the team has gone through a horrendous rebuilding stage and continue to struggle week in and week out to find primary sponsorship of their cars driven by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Both are highly regarded as “underdogs” every Sunday when the series hits the track, and both have failed to land a top-five finish all season long. Still, they’ve continued to push forward, and have managed to turn a few heads along the way, particularly Kvapil. Coming into the season as a driver that nobody really paid much attention to, Travis admittedly got off to a rather slow start. But, something seems to have clicked within this team ever since a solid run at Phoenix turned sour and he finished 22nd. After that race, Kvapil sat 24th in points, but four finishes of 16th or better in the last six races - highlighted with a 6th place run at Talladega and an 8th place run in Darlington - have now moved Travis up six spots in the standings. He’s now 18th in points and trails 12th place, Tony Stewart, by only 150 points.

Red Bull Racing has been the team that quite a few people have been talking about as of late. With Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel for the organization, the team managed to qualify for only 40 races in a combined 72 attempts in their inaugural season in 2007. Coming into the season with both cars outside of the top-35 in points and forced to qualify on time, Allmendinger again missed out on the first three events of ‘08 before being replaced temporarily by veteran driver, Mike Skinner. Despite failing to finish inside of the top-25 in any of the five races that Skinner filled in, the move appears to have paid dividends. AJ has been able to take what he’s learned from Skinner and put it to good use on the track, first winning the All-Star Showdown at Lowe’s to make the cut for the All-Star event itself, and then scoring a career best 12th place finish last week at Pocono. Still, the focus of the media on this team has been placed with Brian Vickers, who appears to be on the verge of scoring the second Cup victory of his career. After a disappointing 2007 that brought him only 1 top-five and 5 top-ten’s, Vickers has been impressive on several occassions this year, though it may not always show up in the results column. He’s been strong on all of the superspeedways, but the team really started to turn heads when they established themselves as one of the dominant cars in the Coca Cola 600 before an equipment failure ended their day. Since then he’s bounced back with a 13th place effort at Dover and finished 2nd last week at Pocono. Brian has now moved up to 17th place overall and trails 12th by a mere 112 points.

Rounding out the list of underdogs making a charge towards the Chase is non-other than Petty Enterprises. Despite the fact that this team has more wins than any other organization in the history of the sport and a slieu of championships from when “the King” himself, Richard Petty, drove the car, the company hasn’t celebrated a win since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville, and the closest they’ve come to a bid for the Chase was an 18th place finish in the standings last year from Bobby LaBonte. Now, nobody’s really sure who will drive the no. 45 car next year as Kyle Petty, Chad McCumbee, and Terry LaBonte have all failed to do much with the ride, but Bobby continues to press forward. Though he’s failed to score a top-ten all season long, he does have seven top-15’s and has gone the entire year without a DNF, something that has hindered the team in recent years. Additionally, he’s got six finishes of 18th or better in the last eight races, which started with a 12th place run at Phoenix, and LaBonte now resides in 19th in the standings, trailing his former Gibbs teammate in 12th by 159 points.

As many of the drivers in the top-12 continue to experience their share of misfortunes as they bounce back and forth between the bubble spots, this could be a prime opportunity for one of these teams to capitalize. But, with the recent emergance of guys like David Ragan, the resurgance of Matt Kenseth, and other perrenial Chase hopefuls such as Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. standing between them as well, the guys currently in the top-12 may not be all they’ll have to contend with.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Which driver in these 3 organizations will be the first to score their first / next win?
2. Are consistent top-15 and top-20 runs going to be enough to land a driver in the Chase field?
3. Which of these teams has made the best organizational move(s) in the last 2 years?
4. Will any of these 3 teams get a driver into the 2008 Chase? If so, who?

*Credit photos to Newscom.

Greg Biffle turned the fastest lap during Friday’s Sprint Cup Series qualifying session at Dover International Speedway by clocking a lap in just 23.193 seconds, and in doing so, will start Sunday’s Best Buy 400 from the pole position. This is the second time Biffle has won the Coors Lite Pole Award this season - the first of which was at Darlington, where Biffle was arguably the best car on the track before running into mechanical issues.

Starting next to Greg on the outside of the front row will be former Roush-Fenway Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, who came in 0.188 seconds slower than Biffle. Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-six qualifiers for the race. In rows four and five will be the cars of Jeff Gordon, AJ Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, and Jeremy Mayfield, who is filling in for the injured Dario Franchitti in the no. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing car.

Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jeff Burton couldn’t find the speed they were looking for, as they all qualified 14th, 22nd, 25th, and 38th respectively. Failing to make the race were Jason Leffler, who got behind the wheel of the no. 70 Haas CNC Racing car this week, and Chad McCumbee, who was subbing in for Kyle Petty.

Image details: North Carolina Education Lottery 200 served by picapp.com

It took awhile - 178 races to be exact - but, Matt Crafton has finally won his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race by holding off Chad McCumbee in a green-white-checkered shootout Friday night in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch appeared as though he was headed for another victory, leading 86 of the 136 laps, but he was involved in an accident with Ron Hornaday back on lap 104 that sent both trucks spinning into the Turn 3 wall. Busch suffered significant damage to the right side of his truck, essentially knocking him out of contention for the win.

Erik Darnell was leading the race with just 7 laps to go, spun his tires on a restart and gave up several positions. As this was happening, Johnny Benson passed Darnell for the lead, but was black flagged by NASCAR for jumping the restart and was ordered to make a pass through penalty in the pits. The series of events handed the lead over to Crafton, with Todd Bodine and Hornaday battling it out for second place just behind him.

With just three more trips around the 1.5 mile track left to go, Bodine spun Hornaday heading into Turn 1, and NASCAR froze the field under caution for the final time of the evening, sending the race into overtime. From there, Crafton held off Chad McCumbee, who made a run down the backstretch during the final lap in an effort to catch the race leader, but all for naught. Crafton crossed the finish line and secured his first official set of NASCAR checkered flags.

Brendan Gaughan finished third, followed by Erik Darnell and Rick Crawford to complete the top-five. Kyle Busch was able to get enough out of his car after the earlier accident to hang onto an 8th place finish. Bodine was still able to finish up in 12th, and Hornaday was relegated to a 23rd place finish.

Following the race, Crafton said, “Finally, we can shut them up. Now they can say, ‘When’s the second one coming?’  Track position was everything. I have a really good group of guys. We’ve been together for two years now. We’re a small group of guys, but we’re going to win more races. I can promise you that.”

Despite Bodine’s claims that his tangle with Ron Hornaday was unintentional, an irate Hornaday stated, “There’s no excuse for that. He flat tried to kill me,” Hornaday said. “You don’t do that on the straightaway. We were pretty good friends, but I don’t know now.”

Hornaday’s lead in the points standings has now been reduced to a mere 5 points over Rick Crawford, and Todd Bodine now trails by only 38. The win by Crafton has placed him 4th in points, and the top-five run by Erik Darnell puts him into the top-ten, as he moves up four spots to ninth.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Image details: Dickies 500 served by picapp.com

Petty Enterprises recently announced that Kyle Petty will take a leave of absence from the no. 45 Dodge beginning on the June 1st race at Dover until July 12th when the Sprint Cup Series heads to Chicago. The reason for Petty’s leave from the team is to attend his daughter’s wedding, and he will then join the TNT booth to report from broadcasting duty.

The void in the no. 45 car will be filled by NASCAR rookie, Chad McCumbee, at Dover and Chicago, with Terry LaBonte to drive the car for the five races in between. Chad filled in for Petty during his injury last season with very little success, and attempted to replace him at Texas earlier this year, but he failed to qualify for the event.

For Terry LaBonte, this is his first opportunity to team up with brother, Bobby LaBonte, at the Cup Series level. The two-time former champion last competed in a Cup Series race at Watkins Glen in 2007. He ran three races that season, resulting in a pair of 30th place finishes and another 35th. He competed in 31 events from 2005-2006. His last full-time season was 2004 with Hendrick Motorsports, in which he finished 26th in points. His last victory came in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in ‘03.

Ryan Newman’s no. 12 Alltel Dodge failed post-race inspection on Sunday when officials discovered that his car was too high. Newman – who finished fourth in the race – was docked 25 driver points, and Crew Chief Roy McCauley was fined $25,000 and placed on probation until December 31, 2008.

Officials at Penske Racing did not reveal any plans to appeal the penalty, but did appear that they’re ready to move on from the incident. Penske Racing VP, Mike Nelson, stated, “It is always our intention to follow NASCAR’s rules, and we regret this mistake. We look forward to getting back to the track this weekend, and we are focused on having a strong run at Phoenix.”

Newman had moved into 8th place in the points standings after Sunday’s race, but now drops to 10th. He is 189 points behind points leader Jeff Burton, and only 56 points ahead of 13th place Matt Kenseth.

In other news:
- After racing for the team for less than a year, Jeremy Mayfield has parted ways with Haas-CNC Racing. After finishing 5 of the 7 races this year in 30th or worse and dropping down to 36th in points, Mayfield decided it was time to move on in search of a more promising opportunity. The empty seat in the no. 70 ride is now being returned to the same driver that occupied it last season, Johnny Sauter. Last season Sauter had an average finish of 26th and finished 30th overall in the drivers points standings. This weekend at Phoenix will be his first time driving a Cup car in 2008, but will now be forced to qualify on speed due to the team’s position in the standings.

- After a rigorous week in the news last week, Kyle Petty will reassume the driving duties behind the wheel of the no. 45 Dodge this weekend for Petty Enterprises. After a lot of talk about what they needed to do to improve the race team, they decided to give Kyle the week off at Texas and replace him with Chad McCumbee, who failed to qualify for the race. This week they’re trying something new, and have hired Stewart Cooper as the team’s new Crew Chief. Cooper has no experience as a Crew Chief in the Cup Series, but did work a stint in the Nationwide Series with Braun Racing. He replaces Billy Wilburn, who has been reassigned as the Crew Chief for one of Petty’s test teams.

- Bill Davis Racing has named Marty Gaunt as the team’s new Vice President. Gaunt has held similar roles with Penske Racing and Team Red Bull. They’ve reassigned the former VP,  Mark Chambers, to be the new General Manager, and they’ve also hired Jim Thomas to be the team’s director of marketing. Thomas was previously the director of business development for Sullivan Worldwide Marketing Group. The team currently fields only one Sprint Cup Series team (Dave Blaney) and 4 Craftstman Truck Series teams, though they still aim to lock on long-term sponsorship for Jacques Villeneuve to drive a second Cup car for them in the Cup.

Richard Childress Racing won the fifth race of the season prior in Bristol prior to the Sprint Cup Series’ off-week, and after last week’s run in Martinsville, they’re now in control of the top two spots in the Sprint Cup points standings. But, that’s not what’s got them in the headlines this week. For a few years now Richard Childress has expressed interest in fielding a fourth race team in the Cup Series, and on Tuesday afternoon, they made that decision final.

In 2009, Childress will add the no. 33 Chevy Impala to their lineup, which already features the 07, 29, and 31 cars driven by Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Burton. About a month ago rumors began to surface that if RCR were to create a fourth team that Bobby LaBonte could be the primary candidate to drive that car for Richard based on their past relationships. LaBonte is currently in the final year of his three-year contract with Petty Enterprises where he drives the no. 43 General Mills Dodge Charger. Tuesday’s announcement from RCR have made things a bit more interesting with LaBonte, because their announcement entailed the fact that they have already signed General Mills as the sponsor of the no. 33 car for next year.

Typically losing a single sponsor may not always seem life-threatening in the case of most teams, especially when you’re talking about a team that’s compiled more Cup Series victories in their tenure than any other race team in NASCAR history, which is exactly where Petty Enterprises sits. Despite their rich history, however, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the team hasn’t won a race since John Andretti pulled into victory lane back in 1999. That stat – combined with the current situation in which many teams in NASCAR have been experiencing sponsorship woes the last couple of years – could spell trouble with a capital “T” for Petty. The scenario presently facing the team means that they’ll probably have to start looking at sponsors that are less concerned with the on-track statistics that the team puts out there, and more concerned with other things that the Petty group has to offer, mainly surrounding their charitable functions such as the Victory Junction Camp.

Therein lies the problem for Petty. It’s already no big secret that they’re middle-of-the-road in terms of funding, and they’re not fully capable of equipping their drivers with top-of-the-line equipment every week. Now, when you start talking about removing a huge sponsor like General Mills from the equation, and it starts to become about as clear as mud as to why any top tier driver in the sport would want to run under those conditions.

RCR has won six Cup Series Championships – all at the hands of the legendary Dale Earnhardt. Although they haven’t had the head seat at the Awards Banquet table in New York since the passing of “the Intimidator”, they’ve been right there knocking at the door on several occasions. In the past two seasons they’ve won a nine combined races between their three teams, and haven’t had a car finish worse than 17th in those two years, which was Clint Bowyer’s rookie season in ’06. Compare that to Petty’s nine-year winless drought and the fact that LaBonte’s 18th place run last year was the best points finish a Petty car has had in over a decade, and all the sudden the deck really starts becoming stacked against Petty Enterprises. LaBonte is a former series champion himself back in 2000, but his last win came in 2003 with Joe Gibbs Racing, and the veteran driver will turn 44 years old this May. In all reality, he may see this as an opportunity to reignite his career.

Coincidentally, the very same day that we learned of RCR’s signing of General Mills for 2009, Petty Enterprises also announced that Chad McCumbee will replace Kyle Petty behind the wheel of the no. 45 Dodge for this weekend’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway. There have been no mentions as to whether this is a one-time deal, or if the team has long-term plans of getting McCumbee some seat time in the Series, but the timing of this announcement strikes me as peculiar. The move could be merely the aftermath of Kyle failing to get his car inside the top-35 in owners points, and then missing the race in Martinsville. The other part of me, however, has a sneaking suspicion that this could be somewhat of an audition for Chad.

McCumbee is a regular to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, where he currently sits 13th in points with two top-ten’s in the four races the series has run this year. He also filled-in for Kyle last season at Pocono when he joined the broadcast team in the booth. My line of thinking here is that with the 45 car already outside of the top-35, then this team really has nothing to lose if McCumbee bombs. The organization as a whole, however, has plenty to gain in McCumbee if he were to run well and LaBonte were to leave Petty following this season.

The three RCR drivers are currently first, second, and twelfth in points with a combined 11 top-ten’s between them in the six races run so far this season. The two Petty Enterprise cars are currently listed twenty-first and fortieth in points with no top-ten’s between them.

DYN Imposes”:
This week, Do You Nascar also asks its readers …

1. Would signing with RCR in 2009 be the right career move for Bobby LaBonte?
2. What can Petty Enterprises do at this point to save their organization?
3. If RCR is unable to sign LaBonte for the no. 33 car, who are some other likely candidates?
4. Where would an RCR lineup that included LaBonte compare to Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing?

Kyle Busch made it two in a row in the Craftsman Truck Series on Friday night by holding off Ron Hornaday to win the Commercial Lines 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race went under caution on lap 112 due to rain showers, at which time Busch opted to pit. With the race being under yellow for only three laps, this forced Hornaday to pit, thus surrendering the lead. The race would later fall under red flag conditions for nearly ten minutes – again for rain – with only four laps remaining. Busch held off Hornaday in a four lap shootout, and as a result, maintains his position atop the Craftsman Truck Series points standings. Hornaday went onto finish the race in second, followed by Mike Skinner, Matt Crafton, and Chad McCumbee to round out the top-five.

Complete Results (credit nascar.com):

 Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):