Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 - Official Results
Benson Takes Two with Win in Milwaukee

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.

Race 11 - The Milwaukee Mile - June 23, 2006 Printer Version 

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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 #