Johnny Benson celebrates with his family in Victory Lane after winning the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 at the Milwaukee Mile. (Ronda Greer Photo)

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has raced at The Milwaukee Mile every year since 1995, and in all those years no driver has ever been able to score back-to-back wins.

That is until tonight.

Johnny Benson dominated the second half of the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200, leading all but one of the final 96 laps in the Bill Davis Racing No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota en route to his first win of the 2007 season. Benson won this race last year, the second win of his 2006 season which helped propel him to a runner-up finish in the final championship standings.

Benson's main competitor at the end was Ron Hornaday, the driver he defeated here last year. But Hornaday is now working with crew chief Rick Ren, who crew chiefed Benson's win here last year.

"I think last year we were a little better, but not by much," Benson said in victory lane. "I knew Ron (Hornaday, Jr.) had the same set-up we ran last year with Rick (Ren, crew chief) being over there. Those guys did a tremendous job coming from where they did. The guys right here at Bill Davis Racing - all the guys did a tremendous job this week. Not often do I do the Polish victory lap, but being here in Milwaukee - where Alan Kulwicki is from - I had to do it. He's somebody I always looked up to for what he's accomplished, and he's done a lot here at this track. So, I had to do that for him."

A late caution brought out when Jack Sprague got crossed up in turn two set up a four-lap dash to the checkered. Benson was forced to hold off a last-ditch effort by Hornaday, who is the acknowledged master of restarts.

"I know he's (Hornaday) pretty good on those restarts, but I don't think I'm horrible either," Benson said. "I think we can get going pretty well when we need to too. I knew as long as he wasn't beside me going into turn one, I was going to be fine. Ron did everything he could, but our Tundra was pretty good. It was a great day."

As for Hornaday, the driver of Kevin Harvick's No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet was left to ruminate about what could have been for the second consecutive year.

The No. 33 Camping World Chevy Silverado team springs into action at Milwaukee. (Ronda Greer Photo)

"Second sucks," Hornaday joked during his post-race press conference. "No, actually we're pretty happy with that. We had to come from the back after getting spun early. I don't know if I came down on Willie (Allen) or what, but we spun on lap two and had to come from the back. We just had to use the truck up a little too much getting back through there to make a run at him at the end. They weren't telling me anything about what lap we were on or anything, and I finally had to ask. Here I thought we were getting near the end and it was only lap 70 and we were already out of brakes. I tried on the last restart to get to him, but I locked the brakes up and couldn't ever get close to him."

But Hornaday differentiated his runner-up finish in 2007 very clearly from his result in 2006.

"Last year Johnny passed us," Hornaday said. "This year we just couldn't quite catch him."

Todd Bodine had a solid evening, finishing third in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota to score his first ever top-ten finish at Milwaukee.

"Finally we had a good finish here," said a relieved Bodine after the race. "We just missed it a little bit. The Hillmans made some good calls for us tonight and we learned a lot. Johnny (Benson) and Ron (Hornaday) had good trucks and we couldn't quite get to them at the end. The bad part is we beat Mike (Skinner) in the race and lost points to him because he led the most laps here tonight."

For Skinner, the fourth-place finish in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota was a disappointing end to a race in which he led the opening 104 laps.

Johnny Benson gets by Mike Skinner at Milwaukee. (Ronda Greer Photo)

"We're happy, but disappointed," Skinner said. "We struggled here but brought our truck home in one piece. We just got off there a little bit. We did an air pressure I didn't really want to do. Then we got the last set of tires and did what I wanted to do. I just think we got the right set of tires at the end. I thought we could make a show of it at the end, but Johnny is awfully good here."

Rick Crawford finished fifth in the No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford.

"We made some bold moves out there in this Ford F-Series pick-up truck and appreciate all the guys, Kevin "Cowboy" Starland [crew chief] and all the guys," Rick Crawford said. "They made some good adjustments in the two pit stops we had; we were really close to making green flag pit stops on both. We had a good top-five finish - the best in class."

Erik Darnell held off Mike Bliss in a ferocious battle for sixth, with Travis Kvapil in eighth. Matt Crafton finished ninth, and David Starr rounded out the top ten.

There were six cautions for 25 laps, all for minor incidents on the track. The most controversial incident of the night involved 2005 series champion Ted Musgrave and Raybestos Rookie contender Kelly Bires. The two made contact entering turn one and both slammed the outside wall. After the incident, Musgrave's truck made contact with Bires' driver's side door which got him benched for the remainder of the race by NASCAR officials.

Skinner continues to lead the series championship standings with a 108 point lead over Hornaday going into the next series event at Memphis. The race is slated for a 9 P.M. Eastern start on Saturday June 30 and will be televised live on SPEED. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting with TrackSideLive! updates during practice on Friday, and Live! Bud Pole Qualifying Saturday at 6 P.M.