Texas Photos:  Courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway

                             

         

BDR Post Race Report - Finished 2nd
Johnny Benson was extremely excited about heading back to Texas Motor Speedway after his second-place finish last fall at the 1.5-mile track. The Toyota Certified Used Vehicle colors adorned the hood of the No.23 Toyota Tundra for the first time this season. The truck had never finished outside the top seven, yet had never seen victory lane. Benson and the No. 23 team were hoping to take the truck on its first trip to the winner’s circle. 

The No. 23 Toyota Certified team worked to find the right balance for the race during the first of two practice sessions.  The sweltering track temperature during the day made this a hard task, since the race would be at night.   The drastic change in temperature was going to affect the balance of the trucks, prompting the No. 23 team to make some changes that would put some adjustability in the truck. 

Benson and the Toyota Certified team were among the fastest teams in the second practice session and hoped the speed would carry into the qualifying session.  Benson qualified late in the session, which the team hoped would help his time.  Benson ran a time of 29.676 seconds, placing him fourth on the starting grid for Friday night’s Chex 400.   

Benson was on a tear to the front once the green flag waved Friday night.  By lap 50, Benson sat second to teammate Mike Skinner.  He said the truck handled loose on entry of the corner, but the Toyota Certified team was reluctant to make any changes because the track temperature was slowly falling. 

By lap 100, Benson had fallen to fourth, but unlike the rest of the field, his team still had a set of sticker tires left in the pit.  Benson still complained that the truck was loose getting into the corner, so the team decided to make a small air pressure adjustment to help correct the condition.  

On lap 132, the No. 23 team made a green flag pit stop for those fresh tires, a slight wedge adjustment and just enough fuel to make it to the end of the race.  After the rest of the field cycled through their pit stops, Benson was in third and tracking the top two trucks.    

With eight laps remaining in the race, Benson was catching the leader at a half a second per lap as he closed in on his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory.  The team thought this was going to be the night the Bill Davis Racing Toyota would sit in Victory Lane, but a lapped truck blocked Benson from getting to Jack Sprague, who eventually won the event.  

It was Benson’s second runner-up finish at Texas in as many races and the team’s best effort of the season.  The team gained momentum heading to Benson’s home track, Michigan International Speedway.

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TOYOTAS ALMOST TAME TOUGH TEXAS TRACK
In Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race at Texas Motor Speedway, Toyota Tundra driver Mike Skinner dominated much of the event before a late race handling problem hindered his efforts to take the No. 5 Bill Davis Racing Tundra to ‘Victory Lane.’

Skinner, who led the 167-lap event three times for a total of 116 laps, ended up finishing fourth – two spots behind his Bill Davis Racing teammate Johnny Benson.

After starting from the pole position -- his third of the season -- Skinner led the first 31 circuits around the 1.5-mile Texas oval before pitting for fuel and tires.  The Daytona Beach, FL-based racer then led 85 of the next 86 laps, before making his final stop of the evening.

“My Tundra was just awesome -- it was almost a perfect night,” said Skinner, following the race.  “The Toyota motor ran really well and was so fast through the corners -- it was unbelievable.  Even when we slowed down a little to save our tires -- we were awfully good and still the fastest truck on the track.  Then, something happened late in the race with the right front tire and the truck started shaking.  During our final pit stop, we made the right adjustments, but my truck got really tight from that messed up front tire.”

Benson had a solid run in his No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra en route to his runner-up finish.  

“The race went pretty well for us,” said Benson, after the race.  “We started off the night and my Tundra was feeling pretty good.  Then, my truck started to get just a little loose, and we were afraid to tighten it up.  Even when it got looser, I was reluctant to make a change since this was my first night truck race at Texas.  However, near the end of the race I said:  'We’ve got to make that change.’  We made the change to tighten things up and from then on I was fast.  Unfortunately, we just ran out of time.”

Benson’s runner-up finish was the best result of his NCTS career, and duplicated his second-place finish in the Fall truck event at the track.  Skinner’s fourth-place equaled his best result of the year.

Following Toyota pilots Benson and Skinner to the finish line were Tundra drivers David Reutimann (10th) and Brandon Whitt (15th).  Reutimann, who led four laps during the later stages of the race, registered his second straight top-10 finish.  Whitt, who ran a portion of the race within the top-10, equaled his best result of 2005 with his 15th-place finish at Texas.

In the NCTS championship point standings following the first nine races of the 2005 campaign, four Toyota drivers are among the top-15 in the standings.  Johnny Benson is ninth with 1,128 points, 193 points behind leader Ted Musgrave.  Following Benson in the standings are Tundra racers David Reutimann (1,043 points) in 12th-place, Mike Skinner (1,039 points) in 13th-place, and Todd Bodine (1015 points) in 14th-place.
 

Toyota Finishing Positions @ Texas Motor Speedway
2nd, JOHNNY BENSON, Bill Davis Racing, No. 23 Toyota Certified Tundra
4th, MIKE SKINNER, Bill Davis Racing, No. 5 Toyota Tundra
10th, DAVID REUTIMANN, Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, No. 17 NTN Bearings Tundra
15th, BRANDON WHITT, Red Horse Racing, No. 38 McMillin Homes/Cure Austism Now Tundra
22nd, BILL LESTER, Bill Davis Racing, No. 22 U.S. Army Tundra
23rd, CHAD CHAFFIN, Germain/Arnold Racing, No. 30 Germain Toyota/Arnold Development Tundra
28th, ROBERT HUFFMAN, Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, No. 12 Toyota Tundra
30th, TODD BODINE, No. 66 Fiddle Back Racing Tundra
35th, ROBERT HUFFMAN, Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, No. 12 Toyota Tundra
35th, SHIGE HATTORI, Germain/Arnold Racing, No. 9 AISIN/AISIN AW Tundra

Toyota Drivers in the NCTS Point Standings – following Texas Motor Speedway**

9th,   JOHNNY BENSON, No. 23        1,128 points
12th, DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 17        1,043 points
13th, MIKE SKINNER, No.  5        1,039 points
14th, TODD BODINE, No. 66         1,015 points
17th, CHAD CHAFFIN, No. 30        961 points
18th, BILL LESTER, No. 22        937 points
23rd, ROBERT HUFFMAN, No. 12         843 points
25th, BRANDON WHITT, No. 38        783 points
32nd, SHIGE HATTORI, No. 9        472 points


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BDR Preview

• This week’s race truck for Texas Motor Speedway is Chassis No. 23-37. The truck was raced three times in 2004 with Johnny Benson behind the wheel and never finished outside the top-seven.

• Photo Finish … In Benson’s only start in a Toyota Tundra at Texas Motor Speedway he finished second to fellow Toyota driver Todd Bodine.

• Certified in Texas … Toyota Certified will act as the primary sponsor of Johnny Benson and the No. 23 Toyota Tundra this weekend in Texas.  In the month of May, Toyota Certified surpassed the 1.5 million mark in used cars sold, which makes them the leader in the used car market.

• Eight races strong … Johnny Benson has been in the top-10 in points for the entire 2005 season.  Benson fell to 10th in points after getting caught up in a wreck on the first lap of the event at Dover International Speedway.

• Listen and Watch … The Chex 400k is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. EST Friday, June 10.  It will broadcast live on Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio channel 144.

Johnny Benson on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
“I am looking forward to going to Texas Motor Speedway.  We ran second in the race there last year so I am excited to get back behind the wheel of the Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra.  It is a track that I really like to race.  Greg Ely and the guys at Bill Davis Racing have found a great setup there so I am really looking forward to it.  After the bad luck we had last week, we need to get the monkey off our back and I think that Texas could help do that.”

Crew chief Greg Ely on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
“Texas brought us our best finish in 2004, and we are looking to improve one spot which would put us in Victory Lane.  I think we are bringing a really good truck and an engine package that is second to none.  We have had good race trucks all year but have not had the finishes representative of how good our trucks have been.  Hopefully, this weekend we will show the rest of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage that we are a contender.”