Johnny Benson gives a four fingered wave after winning his fourth Truck Series race of his career, and season. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

After starting the 2006 season looking for his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory, Johnny Benson has taken the series by storm throughout the summer months. After scoring his maiden series win at his home track in Michigan, Benson has been on a tear. He followed with wins at Milwaukee and Nashville, and picked up win number four of the season by taking the checkered flag in the New Hampshire 200 at New Hampshire International Raceway.

Starting alongside teammate Mike Skinner, who scored his fifth pole of the season earlier in the day during qualifying, Benson put the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota out front on the first lap and flexed his muscles throughout the rest of the day. Benson never ran lower than fourth, and even then patiently and methodically worked his way back towards the front. After dueling side by side with championship rival Todd Bodine for nearly a dozen laps for the second spot, Benson closed up on leader Kyle Busch during the tenth of a record twelve cautions on lap 160 and breezed by to take the lead for the final time on lap 166.

Benson withstood two final cautions once out front to beat Skinner to the line by a comfortable 0.691 seconds.

"All of those cautions really kept the guys loose," Benson said in victory lane. "In fact, we kept joking about all the horses outside the backstretch. This thing was just unbelievable. They guys wanted to make some adjustments and it was just running so good I couldn't tell them what adjustments to make. We just made a couple of air pressure adjustments and we were consistent on pit road. That got us to where we needed to be to take advantage of having such a fast Toyota Tundra."

Benson's strong afternoon netted him 30 points in the race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship as he closes the gap on leader Todd Bodine.

Johnny Benson races side-by-side with Todd Bodine at New Hampshire International Speedway. (Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

"The only way we can catch Todd is by doing what we did today," Benson said. "There is no other way. Todd and his team are consistent and they have been all season long. I don't think we've been bad by any means, but when they've had a bad race they end up 15th and 18th and we've ended up 22nd and 32nd. As long as we are in victory lane, then none of it matters. We're doing all we can do to catch him. If we get him, great. If not, well, we are going down swinging."

Benson's win combined with Skinner's runner-up finish gave Bill Davis Racing a sweep of the top two finishers.

"I knew after we qualified that if we could keep it loose enough we would have a good shot to win," Skinner said of his No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota. "We know that's been our weakness this year, keeping up with the adjustments. The first part to solving a problem is knowing you have one, and we're working on it. We have had great runs all season long, but we haven't had nearly the finishes we deserve. Today we did. We were probably a second or third place truck, so it's nice to come out of here finishing were you ought to."

Skinner was complimentary of third-place finisher Kyle Busch. Busch, driving the No. 15 Freedom Grill Chevrolet, led the race late in the going before giving way to the eventual winner and then locked in a hard race with Skinner for second.

"There are guys out there that are Chevrolet drivers that I don't get along with," Busch said. "One of them got into me and tried to wreck me early in the race. But there are drivers from other manufacturers out there that I respect and enjoy racing with and Mike Skinner is one of those. I could have got into him there but I let him go on and we gave up the spot but it was the right thing to do because that's how he races me. I don't know what it is but I just love these one mile ovals. This place and the old Chicago Motor Speedway have always been real good to me."

Series championship leader Todd Bodine was fourth in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota, while David Starr rounded out the top five in the No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota. Ron Hornaday was sixth in the No. 33 AESHR.com Chevrolet, Rick Crawford seventh in the No. 14 Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford, Matt Crafton eighth in the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet, Erik Darnell ninth in the No. 99 Woolrich Ford, and Mark Martin fought back from a trifecta of misfortunes to round out the top ten in the No. 6 Scotts Ford.

The race was slowed twelve times for numerous spins and crashes, starting on the opening lap when Bill Lester, Aric Almirola and Robert Richardson crashed hard in turn one. After a couple of debris cautions, Mark Martin spun on the backstretch to bring out the caution on lap 68. That set up a four-truck tangle on the backstretch on the ensuing restart involving Chase Miller, Terry Cook, Brendan Gaughan, and Bobby East. Boston Reid backed his truck into the turn one wall on lap 88 and defending series champion Ted Musgrave followed suit on lap 91.

Musgrave was racing with Rick Crawford at the time and expressed his displeasure with Crawford on the track, earning a NASCAR-mandated parking for his efforts. Mike Bliss tagged the turn one wall on lap 168 and a Clint Bowyer spin on lap 178 brought out the final yellow of the day.

There were no injuries in any of the incidents throughout the day, although the numerous yellows held the average speed to just 92.323 miles an hour.

Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the Smiths Las Vegas 350 at the newly reconfigured Las Vegas Motor Speedway. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting on Friday September 22 as the teams have an open test day on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Complete event coverage will continue on Saturday September 23 as the teams practice, qualify, and race all on the same day. Log on throughout the weekend for exclusive TrackSideLive! coverage.