After last week’s second place finish at Michigan International Speedway, Johnny Benson and the No.23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra team were hungry for a win.  The team could not think of a better track to capture its first win of the 2008 campaign than The Milwaukee Mile.  Benson has seen victory lane at the one-mile oval in both of his previous two trips to the “Cheese State”, and the team was gunning for a third victory Friday night. 

The team unloaded its red-and-black Tundra Friday and immediately knew it had a good truck.  Benson told crew chief Trip Bruce that the truck had great forward bite, and he could really hustle it into the corners.  His only complaint was the truck handled a little loose getting into the corners.  The team thought as the day went on that the truck would gain grip, which would, in turn, help the loose condition.  At the end of practice, Benson and the Toyota Certified Used Vehicles team was optimistic about the race and getting their third straight win. 

Benson went out in the middle of the qualifying session, which he thought was to the team’s advantage because the track temperature was rapidly declining, thus adding grip to the track.  Benson ran a time of 29.732 seconds, which put the Grand Rapids, Mich., native on the pole position.  It was the team’s second pole of the season, and it gave Benson more reason to look forward to the 200-lap event. 

Benson led the 36-truck field to the green flag and immediately showed his muscle.  He led 81 of the first 85 laps and put a three-second margin between himself and the second-place truck of Rick Crawford.  His only complaint was the truck was a little loose off turn two, but he felt like the truck would be really good for the end of the race.   

On lap 77, Bruce called Benson to pit road.  During the ensuing four-tire stop, the team made an air pressure adjustment in an effort to correct the loose condition Benson was battling.  As the No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Tundra was leaving pit road, the caution flag waved, leaving only seven trucks on the lead lap. 

Benson retained the lead, but he was stuck in the middle of the field.  The veteran driver knew he must take his time getting through traffic, even though he had the dominant truck.  On lap 105, he told his team that he did not like this set of tires.  With one pit stoop remaining in the race, Benson knew he had one more chance to fine tune the truck. 

That opportunity came after the caution flag was displayed to the field on lap 144.  Benson was running third when he came off the track and to the attention of the No. 23 crew.  The team did a fantastic job getting Benson off pit road quickly, and Benson regained the lead.  He would not relinquish the lead and took his third consecutive victory at The Milwaukee Mile.  The win kept Benson in the lead for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship.  He now has a 50-point advantage over second place Todd Bodine. 

The Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra team heads south to Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park for the O’Reilly 200.  The race can be seen live on Speed Channel Saturday, June 28 at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Johnny On the Spot At Milwaukee
By:  Tom Jensen
Even heavy thunder and lightning couldn't deter Johnny Benson Friday night, as the Michigan native claimed victory from the pole in the Camping World RV Sales 200, his third consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at the Milwaukee Mile.

After finishing second last week by just .005 seconds, Benson sealed the deal at Milwaukee on a sweltering night, defeating Matt Crafton, Landon Cassill, Erik Darnell and Todd Bodine.

Benson got off to a strong start in his Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra. He took the lead on Lap 3 and by Lap 40 opened a margin of 1.6 seconds over Rick Crawford's Power Stroke Diesel International by Ford F-150,  Colin Braun's Con-Way Freight F-150, Mike Skinner in the Toyota Tundra Toyota and Jack Sprague in the RVs.com Chevrolet Silverado. All told, Benson led 47 of the first 50 laps.

At the one-quarter distance, Mike Bliss, one of the pre-race favorites, was mired back in 16th, complaining of either a tire going down or a power steering problem in his Miccosukee Resorts Toyota.

On Lap 77, Benson pitted from the lead, and a lap later the caution flew for the stalled truck of Paul Poulter. That left just seven trucks in the lead pack: Darnell, last week's winner in the Northern Tool + Equipment Ford; Benson, Bodine in the Lumber Liquidators Toyota; David Starr's Pit-now.com Toyota; Michael Annett in the Pilot Travel Centers Toyota and Marc Mitchell's Hyprene Ergon Inc. Toyota.

The caution flew again on Lap 95, just before the halfway point of the race. Darnell pitted from the lead on Lap 97, while Benson took fuel only and Crawford too four tires. Mitchell inherited the lead briefly, then chaos broke out on Lap 100.

Sprague got spun by Brendan Gaughan in Turn 4, which caused a melee that snared Braun, Hornaday, Ted Musgrave, Starr, Mike Skinner and Brian Scott. Once the other drivers saw Sprague go around, they checked up, blocking the track and ensuring that the crash was on in a big way.

The order on the restart was Darnell, Mitchell, Benson, Annett and Crawford. A brilliant flurry of passes quickly Crawford to second ahead of Benson, as Darnell held the point.

But as rain began to threaten the Milwaukee Mile, Crawford turned the heat up on Darnell, last week's winner at Michigan. After trying low and trying high, Crawford finally got the deal sealed on Lap 118. Two laps later, Matt Crafton's Menards/Super Clean Chevrolet took third from Benson and by Lap 127, Crafton was around Darnell and into second place.

By this time, Crawford's margin over Crafton was 1.5 seconds, which he increased to 1.8 seconds on Lap 133. At the same time, Benson moved back to third, dropping Darnell to fourth.

On Lap 146, the caution flew for light rain and two laps later, the leaders pitted, with the top three trucks all taking four tires. Benson emerged from the pits in the lead, followed by Crawford and Crafton. But Crafton was too fast exiting pit road and got sent to the tail end of the longest line.

And then the red flag came out for heavy lightning and thunder. Once the green came out, though, no one had anything for Benson, who scored his first NCTS victory of the year in convincing fashion.

Benson Tames Truckers
By:  Tom Jensen
Johnny Benson did exactly what you'd expect him to do Friday night at The Milwaukee Mile: Win the Camping World RV Sales 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Benson led 130 of 200 laps in his Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra to capture his third consecutive victory at the flat one-mile Wisconsin oval, but it wasn't necessarily as easy as it looked. Benson needed a great pit stop by his Bill Davis Racing crew on his final pit stop at Lap 148 to propel him to the front and a lead he would never surrender.

The victory was Benson's 10th in 111 career NCTS starts, and coming on the heels of his second-place run a week earlier at Michigan International Speedway, it allowed the bespectacled Midwesterner to extend his points lead to 50 over Todd Bodine.

Afterwards, Benson was suitably pleased. "It is a little overwhelming to be able to win three races here," he said. "It will sink in in a day or two. Milwaukee is not too far from where I grew up, just on the other side of the lake. It's just a neat place. I've won an ASA race here, I've come close in a (Nationwide Series) race before, but to win three truck races here in a row is just incredible, with two different people. We won one with Rick Ren (as crew chief), and two of them with Trip Bruce, in a different truck than what we ran the other two previous ones. We decided to bring something a little bit different because we were a little hard on it at Michigan even though we ran second."

And he was equally stoked about the ramifications of the victory on his aspirations to win a Truck championship for the first time. "I think it's a huge plus to be leading the points right now, for sure," said Benson. "That's what our goal is — to win the championship. That's what it's been the last two years. We've run second. We've run third. We've won a fair amount of races. I guess that's good. I think this year has definitely started off way better than it has the last two years, but we've had a couple issues too. But, we've been consistently fast, and that's really what you have to ask for — to be fast. And then just make sure things play out the way you want them to play out as the race goes."

So now, as the midpoint of the NCTS season nears, Benson is exactly where he wants and needs to be: out front and slowly putting distance between himself and the rest of the field.

 

Johnny Earns Pole at Milwaukee

Two-time track winner Johnny Benson captured the Keystone Light Pole award at the Milwaukee Mile for tonight's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Benson and his No. 23 Toyota Tundra team will lead the field for tonight's Camping World RV Sales 200 after posting a 29.732 second lap, averaging 121.082 mph on the historic, one-mile track in West Allis, Wisconsin.

This is Benson's fourth career pole in 111 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races and the second of the season after qualifying first at Mansfield Motorsports Park.  Benson's best Milwaukee start was fourth (twice, 2006 and 2007).

NOTES:

• This week’s race truck for The Milwaukee Mile is Chassis No. 23-104.  Chassis No. 23-104 carried the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles team to a second-place finish at O’Reilly Raceway Park in 2007.

• Your New Points Leader… The No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Toyota Tundra team has taken over the lead in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship standings after its second-place finish last week at Michigan International Speedway.  The team sits 15 points ahead of fellow Toyota driver Todd Bodine.

• To Close to Call… Johnny Benson was part of the closest finish in NASCAR history last weekend at Michigan.  He battled newcomer Erik Darnell to the finish line, but came only .005 seconds short of victory.

• Certified Winner… The logos of Toyota Certified Used Vehicles, the leader in used vehicle sales, will adorn the No. 23 Toyota Tundra this weekend at The Milwaukee Mile.

• Going for Three… The No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicle team will try for its third consecutive victory at The Milwaukee Mile this weekend.

• Listen and Watch… The Camping World RV Sales 200 is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET Friday, June 20.  It will broadcast on SPEED (TV), MRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio (Ch. 128).
   

  Johnny Benson on racing at The Milwaukee Mile:

  “The No. 23 team is really excited about going back to The Milwaukee Mile to try and get our third victory in a row.  Milwaukee has been a great track for me, and I love racing there.  It seems to really fit my driving style and reminds me a lot of the tracks I grew up racing on.

  “We have a lot of momentum with us right now.  After last week’s race at Michigan, my guys want to win more than ever.  We have been in position a couple of times this year to get that win, but have just come up short.  We have been really consistent, which has helped us get the point lead.  Now that we are there, we have to continue to run up front and things of that nature to have a chance to fight for the championship in November.  There are a lot of really great teams in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage, and we know we have to run strong week in and week out to keep up.  [Crew chief] Trip Bruce and all the guys on this No. 23 team at Bill Davis Racing have done a tremendous job this year, and we are looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season unfolds.”