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):

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):

Image details: RVs.com 200 served by picapp.com

Tony Stewart has given the media something else to talk about for a day, as he conquered Camping World RV Sales 200 on Saturday, to become the Nationwide Series’ 22nd winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in just as many races. With Joey Logano sitting out of the no. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota for the next few weeks, Stewart answered the call this weekend and led his JGR teammates to the finish line.

After leading the most laps on the afternoon, Stewart took the white flag as he tried to hold off teammates, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. (Hamlin was actually racing the no. 32 car for Braun Racing, which included an all-black paint scheme in mourning of the loss of Todd Braun’s mother, Linda Braun). Shortly after taking the white flag on the final lap of the race, Greg Biffle crashed while racing Brad Keselowski for position, ending the race and giving Stewart his fifth Nationwide victory of the season.

Hamlin, who had pulled to within a half a second of the leader, wound up finishing in 2nd, with Kyle Busch in third. Kevin Harvick ended a solid day in 4th with his self-owned Kevin Harvick Inc. no. 33 Chevy. And, Carl Edwards finished 5th, after using some pit strategy with a no-tire stop during the final caution to gain track position with a little more than 30 laps remaining. David Ragan, David Reutimann, Mike Bliss, Clint Bowyer, and Brad Keselowski completed the top-ten.

David Reutimann and Carl Edwards each leap-frogged Brad Keselowski for position to take over 2nd and 3rd in the points standings. Clint Bowyer still holds a 182 point lead in first, though. Check here for the Camping World RV Sales 200 complete results.

Nationwide Series Standings (from nascar.com):

It took NASCAR officials a couple of looks to determine the winner of the Cool City Customs 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at Michigan on Saturday, and at the end, they finally determined that Erik Darnell fended off Johnny Benson in a photo finish. The win is the first of the season for Darnell and the second in his career.

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:

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

For the third consecutive week, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crowned a first-time winner, and this time in came in the form of former F1 Series driver, Scott Speed. In only his sixth career start in the Truck Series, Speed drove away from the field after a late restart in the race, and cruised on into Victory Lane to win the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover, topping his best previous finish, which was 8th at Kansas.

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):

Denny Hamlin won Friday night’s Lipton Tea 250 in the Nationwide Series by passing Kevin Harvick on lap 242 of the 253 lap race, and then held off the former Nationwide Series champ in a green-white-checkered finish. Hamlin’s lead prior to the lap 247 caution had opened up to more than two seconds, but he finished just 0.790 seconds ahead of Harvick after the two-lap dash to the finish.

The win makes Hamlin nearly perfect at his native tracks this year in Virginia. Denny won his first race of the season in April by winning the race in Martinsville, he won Friday’s Nationwide race in Richmond, and he will start Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race in Richmond from the pole position. The win also gives Joe Gibbs Racing five consecutive victories in the series.

For Harvick, it was a bit of disappointment despite finishing 2nd. He is still in search of his first win of the year, and more importantly, the first win while driving his own car for Kevin Harvick, Inc., and he almost had it – leading nearly a hundred consecutive laps before being passed by Hamlin with 11 laps to go.  Kyle Busch had found himself a lap down earlier in the night, but was able to bounce back for a third place finish. He held off Steve Wallace on the final lap of the race, who finished fourth. David Ragan completed the top-five.

Nationwide points leader, Clint Bowyer, finished ninth, while his pursuer, Carl Edwards, finished two spots ahead in seventh. Edwards was able to gain a few more points on Bowyer in the standings and now trails first place by only nine points.

Nationwide Standings: