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.

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.