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):

Post from: EveryJoe

Benson Wins For Second Week in a Row

Image details: Built Ford Tough 225 served by picapp.com

Johnny Benson won his second race of the season and took the points lead for the first time in 2008 after making a 4-wide pass with just 32 laps remaining in the Built Ford Tough 225 Saturday at Kentucky Speedway. As the field restarted on lap 119, Benson was third in line behind Bill Davis Racing teammate, Michael Annett, and Dennis Setzer, and the lapped truck of Chad Chaffin was on the inside. Benson and Setzer both attempted the pass on Michael Annett at the same time, and Chaffin moved to the bottom of the track as well in an effort to make the pass and get his lap back. In the end, though, it was Benson getting the spot and cruising through the final 32 circuits to pickup the win.

Annett finished second – 0.475 seconds behind Benson – in just his third Craftsman Truck Series start. Matt Crafton finished third, with Setzer in fourth, and David Starr rounded out the top-five finishers. Kyle Busch failed in his bid to get his 15th overall win of the season, as he finished sixth. Mike Skinner, Terry Cook, Marc Mitchell, and Ron Hornaday finished 7th through 10th.

Making his debut for the newly formed Moss Motorsports, Willie Allen started 20th and finished 15th. Jack Sprague’s tough luck this season continued with a 22nd place run after starting 5th. Erik Darnell’s no. 99 Roush-Fenway Ford was caught up in an earlier accident and finished a disappointing 29th. And, in her third Truck Series start, Chrissy Wallace made it through just 50 laps before finding an accident of her own, and she finished 33rd.

Johnny Benson climbed up three spots in the standings to take a 1 point lead over second place, Matt Crafton. Ron Hornaday’s top-ten effort wasn’t enough, as he dropped two spots down to third, where he sits just five points out of first. Rick Crawford and Mike Skinner each moved up a spot to fourth and fifth, respectively.

Complete Ford 225 Results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

Post from: EveryJoe

Johnny Benson Wins at Kentucky With a Daring 4-Wide Pass

Image details: O’Reilly 200 served by picapp.com

Ron Hornaday started Saturday night’s O’Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park from the third position, but took the lead on lap 76 of the scheduled 200-lap race, and overcame a green-white-checkered finish to lead the final 129 laps and 139 laps overall to pick up his third win of the season for Kevin Harvick Inc. in the Craftsman Truck Series. In doing so, Hornaday also jumped up three spots in the rankings, moving past Johnny Benson, Todd Bodine, and Matt Crafton, to take over the top spot in the standings. It also extended Hornaday’s all-time record in the series to 36 career victories.

Hornaday took the lead on lap 76 as he battled side-by-side with Johnny Benson, and the two passed then-race leader Stacy Compton to take the position. On the next restart just seven laps later, however, Benson’s truck didn’t accelerate, and he was forced to retire for the day with a blown engine, finishing 33rd after leading 43 laps in the early goings.

Hornaday then held off Erik Darnell on the final restart of the evening to pickup the win. Darnell finished 2nd, giving him three consecutive top-five finishes now for Roush-Fenway Racing, and moving him up to 7th in points. Matt Crafton, Rick Crawford, and David Starr rounded out the top-five finishers, with Hornaday’s teammate, Jack Sprague, finishing 6th.

Following the race, Hornaday told reporters, “Benson had the truck to beat. He needed to break for us to win. I don’t know if we want to be in the points lead. Everybody who gets in it seems to have problems.”

Click here for the O’Reilly 200 Complete Results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Hornaday Dominates Memphis; Takes Points Lead

Image details: Camping World RV Sales 200 served by picapp.com

After losing the race last weekend to Erik Darnell in hearbreaking fashion, Johnny Benson won the Camping World RV Sales 200 at the Milwuakee Mile for the third straight year, also giving he and Bill Davis Racing their first win of the season in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Benson exited the pits with the lead after a caution for light rain on lap 146, and then NASCAR again stopped the race, this time red-flagging it for lightning with only fifty laps remaining. From there, Benson went unchallenged as he raced his way to a 2.5 second win over Matt Crafton, who finished the race in 2nd. Making only his fifth start in the truck series, Landon Cassill finished third, and behind him was last week’s race winner, Erik Darnell.  Todd Bodine finished fifth.

Benson started the race from the pole position and had a 3.3 second lead over Rick Crawford 70 laps into the race when the field began cycling through their green flag pit stops. A caution came out on lap 78 as Benson was pulling out of pit road, and because of the timing, only seven lead lap trucks were scored behind him, with the others being considered the tail end of the lead lap and were placed in front of Benson, including Crawford. Crawford would later regain his track position on a lap 96 caution, and then rallied from 16th to 8th in the closing 56 laps of the race.

Other race notables: Michael Annett made his first start of the season for Bill Davis Racing, and finished 6th; Ron Hornaday dropped another spot in the standings after finishing 7th; Mike Skinner finished 10th; Jack Sprague finished 13th; Making only her 2nd start in the series for Germain Racing, Chrissy Wallace finished 20th.

The victory was the 10th in the series for Johnny Benson, all of which have come in the last 3 seasons, and it opens up a 50 point lead now over 2nd place, Todd Bodine.

Click here for complete Camping World RV Sales race results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

Post from: EveryJoe

Benson Won’t Be Denied This Time

A caution flag with six laps remaining bunched the field up for a final restart. Darnell led the field when the green waived with just three to go, with Scott Speed and Benson following behind in 2nd and 3rd. After an exciting side-by-side battle, Benson was able to make the pass on Speed to take over second, and then began working on Darnell. The two battled side-by-side all the way to the finish line, and it was eventually determined that Darnell edged him by mere inches.

Scott Speed went onto finish 3rd, followed by Todd Bodine and Brendan Gaughan to complete the top-five. Kyle Busch – again pulling triple duty this weekend – finished in 7th, and Mike Skinner finished 8th. The Kevin Harvick Inc. duo had a rough weekend. Jack Sprague finished 8 laps down in 30th place, and Ron Hornaday spun out on the final lap, relegating him to 23rd. Hornaday’s disappointing finish dropped him out of the points lead all the way down to third, with Johnny Benson and Todd Bodine each picking up two spots to move into 1st and 2nd.

Check here for the Cool City Customs 200 complete results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

Post from: EveryJoe

Darnell Takes the Photo Finish

Ron Hornaday picked up his 35th career victory in the Craftsman Truck Series on Friday – and, his first at Texas Motor Speedway - as he held off Kyle Busch on a green-white-checkered restart to get the win at the Sam’s Town 400. The restart was setup after rookie, Scott Speed, slammed into the wall with only 2 laps remaining in the scheduled 167-lap event.

Busch had to start in the back of the field because he was not there to qualify his truck himself on Thursday, due to his commitment to run three races over the weekend in three different cities. As the team continually worked on his truck to make it fit Kyle’s style, though, he was able to work his way up to the top-ten after only 53 laps. Busch hadn’t led a lap all night long and trailed Hornaday by more than half a second when the final caution flag came out, but Hornaday pulled away on the restart, and Busch couldn’t capitalize. Kyle will also run the Nationwide race in Nashville on Saturday, and then head back to Pocono for Sunday’s Cup race.

Third place in the race went to the Bill Davis Racing Toyota of Johnny Benson, and Hornaday’s Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate, Jack Sprague, finished fourth. Todd Bodine completed the top-five. Hornaday’s second win of the season was enough to bump him up two spots in the standings, as he now assumes the points lead over Matt Crafton, who finished seventh. Rick Crawford entered Friday’s event with the points lead, but a 21st place finish at Texas has dropped him down to 6th place.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

*Credit photo to Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Hornaday Edges Busch on Restart to Get the Win

Jack Sprague held off his Kevin Harvick Inc. racing teammate, Ron Hornaday, to finish second, while Travis Kvapil finished fourth, and last week’s race winner, Matt Crafton, finished fifth. Kyle Busch had the dominant car all night long, but transmission troubles sidelined him late in the race, and he went onto finish 27th. Todd Bodine came into the race as the series points leader, but a blown tire that sent him hard into the Turn 3 wall on lap 170 relegated him to a 27th place finish, dropping him four spots in the standings. The points lead was handed over to Rick Crawford after putting together a solid 9th place run.

Speed took the lead of the race when he passed Bodine for the position on lap 150, and opened up a lead of more than 3.5 seconds before the lap 170 caution saw that lead disappear. After the restart on lap 179, Speed ran away from the field, leaving Sprague trailing by more than four seconds before he finally slowed it down on the final lap as he made his way towards Winner’s Circle.

Following the race, Speed, who later revealed that he’d had his toenails painted blue prior to the race, stated, “Today we had a good strategy and an awesome truck, and we got everything we could out of it. The learning curve I’ve had has been amazing. Everytime I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge. I’m just having an awesome time trying to learn this sport.”

Speed’s victory is the first on the season for Bill Davis Racing, whose camp also consists of veteran drivers, Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Speed Finds Speed at Dover

Horndaday – the defending Craftsman Truck Series champion – went virtually untouched the entire day, giving up the lead only three times, each of which was under caution. Hornaday led an impressive 136 of the 167 laps, and beat Sprague back to the line on the final lap by a mere 0.149 seconds.

Sprague suffered from a mid-race mistake and was sent to the back of the field, but his team used some crafty pit strategy to get him up towards the front by the end of the day. The victory for Hornaday extends his all-time wins lead on the series, now giving him 34 in his career, and he is also once again atop the points standings as he marches forward in pursuit of his fourth Truck Series championship. For Sprague – who is second on the all-time wins list – it was his best finish of the season, and he now moves up to 9th in points as he, too, is in search of his fourth championship run.

Rookie driver, Colin Braun, finished third despite angering several veteran drivers during his run (to include Sprague), and the Bill Davis Racing teammates of Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner finished 4th and 5th. Kyle Busch, who came into the day leading the points standings, did not participate in the race due to commitments at Talladega, and now drops to 6th in points.

Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

KHI Sports a 1-2 Finish in Kansas

Setzer’s no. 10 Dodge was the class of the field for the majority of the day, but had a steady pack of challengers not far behind him late in the race. Brendan Gaughan appeared to have a truck capable of competing for the checkers, but had to pit alone for fuel under caution with about 25 laps remaining. The stop sent him to the back of the pack and out of contention, though he was able to rebound to an 11th place finish. With only four laps to go, Mike Skinner ran out of gas in turn 2 while running in third place, causing a charging Kyle Busch to get into him and bring out the 14th caution of the day. Skinner was able to get back on the track, but now found himself 2 laps down.

The field lined up for the final restart of the day with Setzer still leading the way, followed by Johnny Benson and Kyle Busch. Setzer pulled away from the field and had the race well-in-hand, but on the final turn of the last lap Busch tried to get under Benson for 2nd place, and incidentally spun them both out, giving them finishes of 25th and 26th, thus ruining both their days.

After starting the race in 35th, Chrissy Wallace finished 17th for Germain Racing in her official NASCAR debut.  Ron Hornaday finished the day off in 8th, moving him into third in points. Kevin Harvick Inc. continued to experience their woes with the other driver, however, as Jack Sprague finished up in 24th after his involvement in an accident between he and Shelby Howard with about 30 to go. Cup Series regulars Denny Hamlin and Ken Schrader both made their first truck series starts of the season. Hamlin finished 21st, while Schrader finished 4th.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):