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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):

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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:

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):

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie, Donny Lia, took home his first checkered flags in the series during the Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motor Park with a last lap bump on David Starr to get the win. The race drew a record 15 caution flags throughout the day, the last of which came from a Brendan Gaughan spin with 11 laps to go. At the time, Lia was running in second behind Starr, but was able to nudge him up the track on the final circuit to make the pass successfully. He then had to hold off Starr and Todd Bodine as they got three-wide going into Turn 3, and eventually picked up the win for TRG Motorsports.

Starr went onto finish second, followed by Bodine in third. Fourth place went to Terry Cook, and Mike Skinner completed the top-five. Skinner had an earlier incident with Ron Hornaday, who came into the race with the points lead. As the two battled for the race lead with Johnny Benson back on lap 49, the they made contact, and Hornaday ended up in the wall with a wrecked truck. He went onto finish 35th, and dropped four spots in the standings. Todd Bodine’s third place run bumped him up two spots into the points lead.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

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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):

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Tony Stewart came into the 2008 season with only four tracks on the Sprint Cup Series schedule that he’d never won either a Cup race or a Nationwide race at in his career, but he won the Nationwide Series races at Fontana and Talladega, and now he can go ahead and mark Darlington off his list as well.

Stewart started Friday night’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200 from the second row, but finished 0.815 seconds ahead of the series points leader, Clint Bowyer, to secure his fourth checkered flag in the six events he’s competed in the series this year. Stewart led the most laps on the day, but may not have actually been the car to beat. Matt Kenseth held more than a two-second lead over Tony when he came in for an unscheduled pit stop for four fresh tires on lap 121. Trying to catch the first car a lap down to be in position for the luck dog, Kenseth wrecked going through turn 4, ending his hopes for a victory.

With only three laps remaining, Stewart led Mark Martin to the green flag after the field came out of caution from a David Ragan spin. Martin stalled out on the restart, which set-off a six-car pileup and setup NASCAR’s notorious green-white-checkered finish. Stewart was able to pull away from Bowyer to get the win. The win gives Joe Gibbs Racing their sixth consecutive victory, and their 8th overall. David Reutimann, Todd Bodine, and Steve Wallace finished out the top-five.

Defending Nationwide Series champion, Carl Edwards, came into the race second in points, but blew a tire on lap 2 and smacked the wall. The wreck ended his day, and he finished dead last, dropping him down to third in the rankings. Kyle Busch leap-frogged Edwards in the points and took over the second position.

For more of this race coverage, please read Stewart Wins at Darlington over at the Finish Line.

Nationwide Series Standings (from nascar.com): 

After leading the previous 18 laps heading into lap 76, Todd Bodine – winner of the Craftsman Truck Series’ season debut in Daytona – lost the lead to the 22-year old Kyle Busch, who coincidentally headed into this weekend’s race at California Speedway in a three-way tie for first place after Bodine was docked 25 points by NASCAR for a rule infraction at Daytona. Busch closed out the remaining 11 laps of the race at the helm and was able to bring his no. 51 Billy Ballew MotorsportsToyota to victory lane to give Toyota its second win in the series to kick off their 2008 campaign.

Johnny Benson – the other party involved in that three-way tie for first coming into Cali – finished the race in third. Terry Cook and Ron Hornaday rounded out the top five in the San Bernardino Co. 200. Thanks to the efforts of Ted Musgrave, Mike Skinner, and Philip McGilton, Toyota proudly managed to land four drivers in the event’s top-five and seven inside the top-ten. Meanwhile, after a disastrous day in Daytona last week, Kevin Harvick Inc. could at least crack half a smile this weekend thanks to a top-five finish from Hornaday, but his teammate Jack Sprague showed off another disappointing finish by running in 22nd.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):