6/22/07
Milwaukee Déjà Vu For Benson

Johnny Benson made Craftsman Truck Series history at The Milwaukee Mile when he became the first driver to win back-to-back races on those hallowed grounds since the series’ inception in 1995. Current point leader Mike Skinner kicked off race day on Friday with his seventh pole of the season and paced the first 103 of 200 laps to wrap up the bonus points for leading the most. After that, however, it was all Benson as he led 96 of the final 97 laps to score his sixth career victory.

Jack Sprague’s hard luck season continued with a crash on Lap 194 and that set up a four-lap sprint to the end with Benson showing the way and Hornaday, Todd Bodine, Skinner and Rick Crawford running in his tire tracks. Hornaday is legendary for his restart prowess but Benson kept his focus on the track ahead and successfully held off the competition for his first victory of the season. “I know (Hornaday) is pretty good on those restarts, but I don’t think I’m horrible either,” said Benson. “I knew as long as he wasn’t beside me going into Turn 1, I was going to be fine. Ron did everything he could, but our Tundra was pretty good.”

The road to the runner up finish was quite eventful for Hornaday who qualified 14th but spun out on Lap 2 and had to rally from the back of the field. By Lap 140 he was back up to second and that was as far as he could get. “I thought I had something for Benson and I just burned the brakes up on this thing trying to caught back up for a stupid thing I did earlier,” Hornaday explained. “Man, is that thing fun to drive. I just had to burn it up to try to run with those guys.”
Skinner ran his top-10 finish streak to eleven consecutive races and lost just five points to Hornaday to maintain a 108-point advantage in the title chase. “We did an air pressure adjustment I didn't really want to do,” Skinner said. “Then we got the last set of tires and did what I wanted to do, and that wasn't right either. I think we just got a tight set of tires there at the end of the race.”

Skinner and his fellow truck competitors will go short track racing next weekend when they meet up in Tennessee at Memphis Motorsports Park.