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Bill Davis Racing Event Preview
Race/Date:
Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 – June 22, 2007
Location:
The Milwaukee Mile – Milwaukee, W.I.
Johnny Benson and his No. 23 TCUV team wanted to make
history and become the first team to win back-to-back
races at The Milwaukee Mile. The team utilized the same
truck that won at the Wisconsin track last year.
Benson and his Tundra shot straight to the top of the
speed charts during Friday morning’s practice sessions.
Realizing the importance of qualifying position at this
track, Benson and his crew set their truck up for that
afternoon’s qualifying run.
With an early qualifying draw, Benson gave it all he had
and put down a great lap of 29.639 seconds. He would
start Friday night’s race in the fourth position.
Benson would start his charge forwards immediately upon
the drop of the green flag. By lap 17, Benson reported
to his crew that he needed grip. Despite the truck’s
need for adjustment, Benson soon began battling for the
lead.
Benson joined the rest of the field on pit road after a
caution flag waved for debris on lap 68. The crew added
a round of wedge to the left rear during the four-tire
stop, and Benson restarted second on lap 72.
Benson passed Mike Skinner for the lead on lap 104
during another long green flag run. He held his
position well and stretched out his lead each lap.
Benson also let his crew know that he was a touch tight
off the corners.
After the fifth caution flag of the night waved on lap
159, Benson came down pit road for the last time. The
No. 23 team flew through the four-tire stop— this time
with an air pressure adjustment— and Benson regained the
lead for the restart on lap 165.
Benson lengthened his lead on the rest of the field
until the final caution flag waved on lap 194. With
three laps to go on the restart, Benson fought off a
hard-charging Ron Hornaday Jr. and become the first
driver to ever win back-to-back races at The Milwaukee
Mile.
Benson and the rest of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
teams will head to Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park this
weekend. The race will be televised on SPEED Saturday,
June 30.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johnny's Comments After Win
Last year's Milwaukee Mile race-winner Johnny Benson began
the race third on the grid and ended up in victory lane in
the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra.
How does it feel to win again at
Milwaukee?
"It feels great. The engine ran awesome. It was pretty
close to last year. I think last year we were a little
better, but not by much. I knew Ron (Hornaday, Jr.) had the
same set-up we ran last year with Rick (Ren, crew chief)
being over there. (Ren was Benson's crew chief last year.)
Those guys did a tremendous job coming from where they did.
The guys right here at Bill Davis Racing - all the guys did
a tremendous job this week. Not often do I do the Polish
victory lap, but being here in Milwaukee - where Alan
Kulwicki is from - I had to do it. He's somebody I always
looked up to for what he's accomplished, and he's done a lot
here at this track. So, I had to do that for him."
Were you worried on the late race
restart?
"I know he's (Hornaday, Jr.) pretty good on those restarts,
but I don't think I'm horrible either. I felt okay. I knew
as long as he wasn't beside me going into turn one, I was
going to be fine. Ron did everything he could, but our
Tundra was pretty good. It was a great day."
Have you won races with this
Tundra before?
"This is the truck we won a couple of races with last year.
We won at Phoenix and a couple others. It's one of my
favorite trucks."
Did you expect to be that good at
the end of the race?
"We thought we would be good by the end of the
race. I don't care about leading every one, I just care
about the last one. Mike (Skinner) was pretty good at the
beginning and we were decent. I know when we got up to
second we would be okay. I knew Ron was going to be pretty
good. I was a little worried about that. We were in good
clean air at the end."
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has
raced at The Milwaukee Mile every year since 1995, and in
all those years no driver has ever been able to score
back-to-back wins. That is until tonight.
Johnny Wins Back to Back in Milwaukee!
Mikayla, Debbie and
Katelyn join Johnny in victory lane
Johnny Benson dominated the second half
of the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200, leading all but one of
the final 96 laps in the Bill Davis Racing No. 23 Toyota
Certified Used Vehicles Toyota en route to his first win of
the 2007 season. Benson won this race last year, the second
win of his 2006 season which helped propel him to a
runner-up finish in the final championship standings.
Benson's main competitor at the end was
Ron Hornaday, the driver he defeated here last year. But
Hornaday is now working with crew chief Rick Ren, who crew
chiefed Benson's win here last year. "I think last
year we were a little better, but not by much," Benson said
in victory lane. "I knew Ron (Hornaday, Jr.) had the same
set-up we ran last year with Rick (Ren, crew chief) being
over there. Those guys did a tremendous job coming from
where they did. The guys right here at Bill Davis Racing -
all the guys did a tremendous job this week. Not often do I
do the Polish victory lap, but being here in Milwaukee -
where Alan Kulwicki is from - I had to do it. He's
somebody I always looked up to for what he's accomplished,
and he's done a lot here at this track. So, I had to do that
for him."
A late caution brought out when Jack
Sprague got crossed up in turn two set up a four-lap dash to
the checkered. Benson was forced to hold off a last-ditch
effort by Hornaday, who is the acknowledged master of
restarts.
"I know he's (Hornaday) pretty good on
those restarts, but I don't think I'm horrible either,"
Benson said. "I think we can get going pretty well when we
need to too. I knew as long as he wasn't beside me going
into turn one, I was going to be fine. Ron did everything he
could, but our Tundra was pretty good. It was a great day."
As for Hornaday, the driver of Kevin
Harvick's No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet was left to
ruminate about what could have been for the second
consecutive year. "Second sucks," Hornaday joked
during his post-race press conference. "No, actually we're
pretty happy with that. We had to come from the back after
getting spun early. I don't know if I came down on Willie
(Allen) or what, but we spun on lap two and had to come from
the back. We just had to use the truck up a little too much
getting back through there to make a run at him at the end.
They weren't telling me anything about what lap we were on
or anything, and I finally
had to ask. Here I thought we were getting near the end and
it was only lap 70 and we were already out of brakes.
I tried on the last restart to get to him, but I locked the
brakes up and couldn't ever get close to him."
But Hornaday differentiated his runner-up
finish in 2007 very clearly from his result in 2006.
"Last year Johnny passed us," Hornaday said. "This year we
just couldn't quite catch him."
Todd Bodine had a solid evening,
finishing third in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota to
score his first ever top-ten finish at Milwaukee.
"Finally we had a good finish here," said a relieved Bodine
after the race. "We just missed it a little bit. The
Hillmans made some good calls for us tonight and we learned
a lot. Johnny (Benson) and Ron (Hornaday) had good trucks
and we couldn't quite get to them at the end. The bad part
is we beat Mike (Skinner) in the race and lost points to him
because he led the most laps here tonight."
For Skinner, the fourth-place finish in
the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota was a disappointing end to a
race in which he led the opening 104 laps. "We're
happy, but disappointed," Skinner said. "We struggled here
but brought our truck home in one piece. We just got off
there a little bit. We did an air pressure I didn't really
want to do. Then we got the last set of tires and did what I
wanted to do. I just think we got the right set of tires at
the end. I thought we could make a show of it at the end,
but Johnny is awfully good here."
NOTES:
-
This
week’s race truck
for The Milwaukee Mile is
Chassis No. 23-60.
This truck has not yet seen action this year; however
this is the truck that Benson not only won with last
year at Milwaukee, but he won four races total with it
in 2006.
-
Last Year’s Winner… Benson
turned his season around last year as he won just his
second race ever at Milwaukee.
-
Bowling for fun…Benson will
join his teammate Ryan Mathews Thursday, June 21 at
the Blue Mound Bowling center in Milwaukee. NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series drivers will take on the media
and guests of Craftsman Tools to determine which group
boasts the better bowlers.
-
Welcome Back Toyota
Certified Used Vehicles this weekend. Benson’s truck
will once again adorn the red and black colors.
-
Double Duty…
Benson is also scheduled to compete at The Milwaukee
Mile in the NASCAR Busch Series race this Saturday,
June 23 at 8:00 p.m. Johnny will be driving the #1
James Finch/Phoenix Racing machine sponsored by
Miccosukee Resort Gaming. The race is televised live
on ESPN2.
-
Listen and watch … The
Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 is scheduled to start at 9
p.m. ET Friday, June 22. It will broadcast on the
Speed Channel (TV), MRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite
Radio (Ch. 128).
Johnny Benson on racing at
The Milwaukee Mile:
“Well, we didn’t run as well as I would have liked to
run last week in Michigan, so hopefully this week in
Milwaukee we can do much better. We started off a little
rusty last week, but ended up pretty good.”
“I like Milwaukee. We
won here last year and I hope to do the same this
year. Milwaukee is a great place to race. The
competition has gotten stronger at each race this year,
and I look forward to racing with such a competitive
group again this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. From now
on it’s all about winning and if I want to get up there
in the points we are going to have to start doing it
now.”
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