Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 Race winner Johnny Benson. (High Sierra Photo)

After coming close to victory several times in his first 58 starts but never taking home the winner's trophy, Johnny Benson has more than made amends by picking up his second consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in Saturday night's Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200. The 1995 NASCAR Busch Series champion took the lead for the final time on lap 160 and led convincingly the rest of the way, holding off 2002 series champion Mike Bliss by 2.249 seconds to take home the $55,500 winner's purse.

Benson was forced to deal with a dominant Ron Hornaday throughout the night on his way to the victory. Hornaday, who started from the pole, led a race high 102 laps but fought a loose condition in the latter stages of the race. Eventually Benson was able to size up Hornaday's weakness and take advantage, driving off to nearly a five second lead within twenty laps to go. Hornaday was not able to hold off a fast-closing Mike Bliss, who darted into second with with seven laps to go and chopped Benson's advantage in half, but ran out of laps before he could make a run for the lead and the win.

After going winless for so long in the Truck Series, Benson is overwhelmed with the success he and his Bill Davis Race team have found recently with the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota.

Johnny Benson's pit crew in action to keep their driver in the mix for the win. (High Sierra Photo)

"It's almost too much to handle," Benson said in victory lane. "Winning at MIS last week was big, no doubt about it. Winning here at Milwaukee is equally as big. This is one of the most historic race tracks in the world, and to be able to win here is a very big deal. I was fortunate enough to win here in the ASA several years ago, and to come back and win here with the Truck is incredible. It's close to home, which is nice too. I've won two here in the Midwest, now we need to get some of these wins down south and out west too."

Bliss was closing quickly in the No. 16 IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet, but ran out of laps before he could mount a challenge for the win. For Bliss, the performance was impressive after difficult practice and qualifying sessions earlier in the day.

"We really struggled here earlier today," Bliss said. "Dave (Fuge) always had a good setup here and ran well here with (Jack) Sprague here last year. But that didn't work this year and we were out to lunch. I know they made some changes because it really ran well on the long run late in the race. We got it to where it would rotate in the corner and we were really good late in the race. You never know what to expect when you're racing Sprague and Hornaday like that. They won't wreck you but they'll drive you hard. If we didn't have to race Sprague so hard we might have been able to chase down Johnny, but catching and passing is two different things."

Hornaday was relegated to third at the finish in the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet after leading more than half the race.

Johnny Benson's pit crew in action to keep their driver in the mix for the win. (High Sierra Photo)

"We learned some things here today that are going to make this team stronger," Hornaday said. "We just got too loose to run with Johnny at the end. But Wally Rogers and all of these kids we have on this team are all very young and willing to learn. We don't have an official crew chief on this team yet, but we have a lot of people who are stepping in to help out, and they deserve to have runs like this here tonight. I just wish we could have given them a win."

Jack Sprague finished fourth in the No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota. Sprague forced a smile after the checkered, happy to finish among the top five but for a three-time series champion looking for his first win in over a year, anything less than a trip to victory lane is disappointing.

"Fourth is okay, but man, I want to win a race," Sprague said. "I mean, yeah, we were okay. I just want to give these guys a win. The Wyler's came into this series a year ago here in Milwaukee, and I thought today was the day we were going to get it. We raced hard with Bliss there late. I raced here in that truck last year and I know they always have a good setup. I fought hard with him, but he had a good truck because once he got passed me he motored on to Hornaday and blew past him too."

David Reutimann finished fifth in the No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota. Combined with an uncharacteristic performance by point leader Todd Bodine, Reutimann now closes the gap by fifty points in the chase for the NCTS championship.

"Fifth is okay, but I want to win," Reutimann said. "We did some things to the truck that didn't make it very happy. We've always run well with that truck, so it's not the truck it's what we did to it. But we were able to beat on it enough to get it to do what we wanted and we came out of here with a pretty good finish."

Timothy Peters finished a career-best sixth in the No. 4 Dodge Motorsports Dodge, the best finishing Dodge driver on the evening. Defending race winner Dennis Setzer was seventh in the No. 85 GM FlexFuel Chevrolet, Rick Crawford was ninth in the No. 14 Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford, and Terry Cook rounded out the top ten in the No. 10 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford.

Aric Almirola was the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate, finishing 13th in the No. 75 Spears Motorsports Chevrolet.

There were nine cautions for 37 laps, slowing the average speed to 85.673 miles per hour. The only serious incident of the evening was on a restart on lap 96 when Matt Crafton was tapped by David Starr, who in turn was tapped by Almirola entering turn one. Crafton's No. 88 Menards Chevrolet slammed hard into the SAFER barrier in turn one, doing significant damage to the left rear. Crafton was able to drive back to the garage and salvaged a 34th-place finish, 49 laps off the pace. Others involved in incidents on the night included Bobby Hamilton, Jr. - who had just returned to the track after an extended green flag stop to replace a dead battery - who spun off turn four, Kerry Earnhardt, Joey Miller, Kelly Sutton, and point leader Todd Bodine - who spun in turn two after a tap from Erin Crocker to bring out the final caution of the night.

Bodine continues to lead Reutimann in the championship standings as Benson moves into third. Ted Musgrave has fallen back to fourth, Sprague sits fifth, Bliss sixth, Setzer seventh, Crawford eighth, Starr ninth, and Hornaday jumps into the top ten for the first time this season.

Next up for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at the Kansas Speedway on Saturday July 1. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting on Friday June 30, including TrackSideLive! practice and qualifying updates, as well as comprehensive pre- and post-race coverage as well.