| Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 - Official Results |
 |
|
Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 Race winner Johnny Benson (High Sierra Photo) | Benson Takes Two with Win in Milwaukee 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 Craftsman 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. Mike 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. Hornaday was relegated to third at the finish in the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet after leading more than half the race.
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.
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. 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.
|
|
F |
S |
# |
Driver |
Team |
Laps |
Points |
Bpts |
Money |
Status |
|
1 |
4 |
23 |
Johnny Benson |
Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota |
200 |
185 |
5 |
$55,500 |
Running |
|
2 |
18 |
16 |
Mike Bliss |
IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet |
200 |
175 |
5 |
$34,725 |
Running |
|
3 |
1 |
33 |
Ron Hornaday Jr. |
Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet |
200 |
175 |
10 |
$28,550 |
Running |
|
4 |
2 |
60 |
Jack Sprague |
Con-way Freight Toyota |
200 |
165 |
5 |
$16,300 |
Running |
|
5 |
14 |
17 |
David Reutimann |
Team Tundra Toyota |
200 |
160 |
5 |
$14,725 |
Running |
|
6 |
29 |
4 |
Timothy Peters |
Dodge Motorsports Dodge |
200 |
150 |
|
$12,375 |
Running |
|
7 |
25 |
85 |
Dennis Setzer |
FlexFuel E85 Chevrolet |
200 |
146 |
|
$11,875 |
Running |
|
8 |
21 |
11 |
David Starr |
Red Horse Racing Toyota |
200 |
147 |
5 |
$11,775 |
Running |
|
9 |
12 |
14 |
Rick Crawford |
Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford |
200 |
143 |
5 |
$11,650 |
Running |
|
10 |
10 |
10 |
Terry Cook |
Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l Ford |
200 |
134 |
|
$12,900 |
Running |
|
11 |
6 |
5 |
Mike Skinner |
Toyota Tundra Toyota |
200 |
130 |
|
$11,100 |
Running |
|
12 |
3 |
51 |
Johnny Sauter |
Bowen Family Homes Chevrolet |
200 |
127 |
|
$8,665 |
Running |
|
13 |
5 |
75 |
Aric Almirola # |
Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet |
200 |
124 |
|
$13,515 |
Running |
|
14 |
31 |
07 |
Chad McCumbee # |
Green Light Racing Chevrolet |
200 |
121 |
|
$10,715 |
Running |
|
15 |
15 |
22 |
Bill Lester |
Bill Davis Racing Toyota |
200 |
118 |
|
$8,865 |
Running |
|
16 |
24 |
59 |
Steve Park |
Melling Engine Parts Ford |
200 |
115 |
|
$10,515 |
Running |
|
17 |
30 |
21 |
Bobby East # |
State Fair Corn Dogs/Edy's Dibs Ford |
200 |
112 |
|
$10,465 |
Running |
|
18 |
9 |
20 |
Marcos Ambrose # |
Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards Ford |
199 |
109 |
|
$10,340 |
Running |
|
19 |
19 |
77 |
Brendan Gaughan |
Orleans Racing Dodge |
199 |
106 |
|
$10,290 |
Running |
|
20 |
7 |
30 |
Todd Bodine |
Lumber Liquidators Toyota |
199 |
108 |
5 |
$10,640 |
Running |
|
21 |
27 |
40 |
Ryan Moore # |
Key Motorsports Chevrolet |
199 |
100 |
|
$7,940 |
Running |
|
22 |
26 |
63 |
Justin Allgaier |
Dave Porter Truck Sales Ford |
199 |
97 |
|
$7,865 |
Running |
|
23 |
20 |
12 |
Joey Miller # |
Curb Records Toyota |
199 |
94 |
|
$8,815 |
Running |
|
24 |
13 |
9 |
Ted Musgrave |
Team ASE/Germain Motors Toyota |
199 |
91 |
|
$9,765 |
Running |
|
25 |
33 |
98 |
Erin Crocker # |
Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge |
199 |
88 |
|
$7,740 |
Running |
|
26 |
28 |
25 |
Boston Reid # |
Red Rocks Cafe Dodge |
198 |
85 |
|
$7,715 |
Running |
|
27 |
16 |
99 |
Erik Darnell # |
Roush Racing Ford |
198 |
82 |
|
$7,690 |
Running |
|
28 |
32 |
46 |
Kraig Kinser # |
Centrix Auto Finance Chevrolet |
198 |
79 |
|
$7,665 |
Running |
|
29 |
11 |
15 |
Kyle Krisiloff # |
Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevrolet |
197 |
76 |
|
$7,640 |
Running |
|
30 |
8 |
6 |
David Ragan |
Scotts Ford |
197 |
73 |
|
$7,615 |
Running |
|
31 |
35 |
18 |
Bobby Hamilton Jr. |
Fastenal Dodge |
195 |
70 |
|
$7,590 |
Running |
|
32 |
23 |
02 |
Kelly Sutton |
Sutton Motorsports Chevrolet |
193 |
67 |
|
$7,565 |
Running |
|
33 |
36 |
1 |
Robert Richardson # |
winyourmortgage.com Chevrolet |
193 |
64 |
|
$7,540 |
Running |
|
34 |
17 |
88 |
Matt Crafton |
Menards/Energizer Chevrolet |
151 |
61 |
|
$7,515 |
Running |
|
35 |
22 |
13 |
Kerry Earnhardt # |
| | | | | |