Benson beats Hornaday in final laps of NASCAR truck race

CLERMONT, Ind. — Johnny Benson waited until just the right moment to pull to the outside of Ron Hornaday Jr. He knew he might not get another chance.

Benson survived a late flurry of cautions and held off Hornaday in a two-lap shootout at the finish to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Power Stroke Diesel 200 on Friday night. His first win on O’Reilly Raceway Park’s .686-mile oval also avenged his narrow loss to Hornaday in the same race a year ago.

“I spent a lot of time, a lot of time, behind him,” Benson said. “But it gave me an opportunity to see what he was doing, where his weak spots were, where his strong spots were.

“I took a gamble, and I thought I had nothing to lose at that point,” he said of his move to the outside. “I had to give everything I had to just take a chance, and once I got alongside him I felt I was going to be in good shape.”

Benson, the truck series points leader, scored his second straight win and third in the past four races, even though Hornaday dominated the early going.

Hornaday had led all but eight of the first 161 laps, but he could never pull away for good because of the string of yellows. Benson finally pulled around him on the 162nd lap after a restart and stayed in front through four more yellows, beating Hornaday to the checkered flag by .484 seconds after the final restart with two laps to go.

The win was worth $58,125.

Erik Darnell finished third, followed by Matt Crafton and Shelby Howard.

“When we did pass him and got the caution again, it was like, ‘Here we go again,’” Benson said. “We were able to keep him at bay and do what we had to do.”

Hornaday started fourth, moved up to second on the first lap and took the lead four laps later, staying in front until the first pit stop during a caution flag on the 85th lap. Benson, coming off a win last week at Kentucky Speedway, beat Hornaday out of the pits for the lead, but it didn’t last long.

As soon as the green came out again four laps later, Hornaday rocketed past Benson and resumed the lead, apparently on his way to a record third win at O’Reilly.

After 100 laps, the halfway point of the race, Hornaday and Benson had a comfortable lead over the rest of the field, but that’s when the yellows started coming.

There were nine of the record-tying 11 cautions in the second half of the race, including one that took pole-starter Bobby East out of contention. Hornaday was still in front when Justin Marks hit the wall on the 153rd of the 200 laps, and Benson finally passed Hornaday for the lead shortly after the restart and stayed ahead the rest of the race.

“Second stinks, but we’ll take it,” Hornaday said. “Johnny had a dominant truck all day. We watched him in practice, and then he drove it a little better than we did at the end of the race.”

The win gave Benson a 15-point lead over Hornaday after 14 races this season.

“He was smart enough to go to the top, and both of the trucks came out clean,” Hornaday said of the decisive pass. “We knew he was going to be strong all night. Johnny’s so good on these (short) tracks and he was really quick at the end.”

Because of all the cautions, Benson’s average speed was 74.859 mph, some 14 mph slower than Greg Biffle’s track record set in 1999.

“Ron pretty much dominated the race,” Benson said. “But we got the trophy. That’s the cool part of it.”

Friday at O’Reilly Raceway Park

Clermont, Ind.

Lap length: 0.686 miles

(Starting position in parentheses)

1. (8) Johnny Benson, Toyota, 200 laps, 132.6 rating, 190 points, $58,125.

2. (4) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 200, 144.6, 180, $36,700.

3. (3) Erik Darnell, Ford, 200, 115.4, 165, $26,320.

4. (11) Matt Crafton, Chevrolet, 200, 81.6, 160, $17,160.

5. (6) Shelby Howard, Chevrolet, 200, 96.7, 155, $17,035.

6. (15) Brendan Gaughan, Ford, 200, 69.7, 150, $13,435.

7. (17) T.J. Bell Jr., Chevrolet, 200, 83.2, 146, $12,310.

8. (12) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 200, 79.5, 142, $9,885.

9. (24) Donny Lia, Chevrolet, 200, 69.3, 138, $13,060.

10. (9) Mike Skinner, Toyota, 200, 73.1, 134, $13,435.

11. (13) Terry Cook, Toyota, 200, 80.1, 130, $11,935.

12. (7) Rick Crawford, Ford, 200, 98.4, 127, $12,135.

13. (27) Chad Chaffin, Chevrolet, 200, 57.6, 124, $11,810.

14. (28) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 200, 73.4, 121, $9,535.

15. (5) Colin Braun, Ford, 200, 81.2, 118, $12,685.

16. (23) David Starr, Toyota, 200, 62.2, 115, $11,835.

17. (2) Jack Sprague, Chevrolet, 200, 100.4, 112, $11,385.

18. (30) Jason White, Dodge, 200, 46, 109, $11,310.

19. (1) Bobby East, Ford, 200, 94.5, 111, $13,160.

20. (32) Ted Musgrave, Toyota, 200, 39.7, 103, $11,910.

21. (16) Michael Annett, Toyota, 200, 82, 100, $9,660.

22. (14) Todd Bodine, Toyota, 200, 85.9, 97, $9,585.

23. (20) Stacy Compton, Dodge, 199, 53, 94, $8,535.

24. (26) Keven Wood, Ford, 198, 37.1, 91, $8,460.

25. (19) Marc Mitchell, Toyota, 198, 48.4, 88, $8,435.

26. (10) Dennis Setzer, Dodge, 197, 77.1, 85, $8,385.

27. (31) Sean Murphy, Chevrolet, 196, 30.2, 82, $8,360.

28. (25) Mario Gosselin, Chevrolet, transmission, 177, 36.8, 79, $8,335.

29. (21) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, accident, 162, 45.7, 76, $8,310.

30. (18) Justin Marks, Toyota, accident, 151, 46.9, 73, $8,295.

31. (22) Chad McCumbee, Chevrolet, accident, 136, 52.4, 70, $8,285.

32. (34) Nick Tucker, Dodge, engine, 19, 30.7, 0, $8,270.

33. (33) Derrike Cope, Dodge, power steering, 9, 29, 64, $8,260.

34. (29) Johnny Chapman, Chevrolet, rear end, 2, 26.4, 0, $8,250.

Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 74.859 mph.

Time of Race: 1 hour, 49 minutes, 58 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 0.484 seconds.

Caution Flags: 11 for 48 laps.

Lead Changes: Four among three drivers.

Lap Leaders: B.East 1-4; R.Hornaday Jr. 5-86; J.Benson 87-90; R.Hornaday Jr. 91-161; J.Benson 162-200.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): R.Hornaday Jr., 2 times for 153 laps; J.Benson, 2 times for 43 laps; B.East, 1 time for 4 laps.

Top 10 in Points: 1. J.Benson, 2,071. 2. R.Hornaday Jr., 2,056. 3. M.Crafton, 2,040. 4. R.Crawford, 1,916. 5. M.Skinner, 1,914. 6. T.Bodine, 1,867. 7. E.Darnell, 1,846; 8. T.Cook, 1,825. 9. J.Sprague, 1,787. 10. D.Starr, 1,749.

NASCAR Driver Rating Formula

A maximum of 150 points can be attained in a race.

The formula combines the following categories: Wins, Finishes, Top-15 Finishes, Average Running Position While on Lead Lap, Average Speed Under Green, Fastest Lap, Led Most Laps, Lead-Lap Finish.