Johnny Benson scored his second-consecutive win and third victory of the season in the No. 23 TCUV Tundra for Bill Davis Racing Saturday afternoon at Gateway. Benson also won at Milwaukee in June and last week at Bristol. The win is Benson's eighth-career victory in a Toyota Tundra.
Tundra drivers Ted Musgrave (third), Todd Bodine (fourth) and Josh Wise (eighth) also scored top-10 finishes. For Wise, it was his best-career NCTS finish.
Other Tundra drivers in the field included Ryan Mathews (18th), David Green (20th), Mike Skinner (28th), Terry Cook (30th) and Jack Sprague (32nd).
Tundras have won nine races this season. In addition to Benson's victories at Milwaukee, Bristol and Gateway, Skinner (California, Atlanta, Martinsville and Kentucky), Sprague (Daytona) and Bodine (Texas) have all registered wins this year.
The NCTS race at Bristol was the 92nd race for Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series since the beginning of the 2004 season.
Tundras have won 34 races since the beginning of the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series season. Drivers who have registered wins driving Tundras include Bodine (11), Benson (8), Skinner (7), Sprague (3), Travis Kvapil (2), David Reutimann (1), David Starr (1) and Brandon Whitt (1).
Skinner started on the pole in the No. 5 Tundra, his ninth pole of the season and 26th-career pole in a Toyota.
Johnny Benson, No. 23 TCUV Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing - Finished: 1st
How does it feel to win your second-consecutive race? "This was awesome. The Bill Davis Racing team gave me a great truck this weekend. We were fast from the time we unloaded, and it's great to get back into victory lane. Last week, we got a little lucky at Bristol, but today, we had to work our tails off. We had a little mistake on pit road that put us back for a while, but fortunately, there was a long green flag run and we were able to make up some spots. I can't thank Toyota enough for these engines. They are just awesome."
Can you talk about coming from the back to the front? "We obviously dropped a lug nut and had to come back in, and that was something that we didn't want to see. At that point in time, I believed it would've lost us the race. After I ran 10 laps, I thought that the truck was good enough to get back up there if it stayed green. I needed green flag because this thing got really good the longer it ran. Some of the guys struggled after they got a lot of heat in the tires and heat in the brakes. I abused the truck, though. It's tired right now. It's laying on the ground and it's ready for a nap."
Ted Musgrave, No. 9 Team ASE Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing - Finished: 3rd
Can you talk about your race tonight? "This is a neat little race track. I love racing here. With a top-five finish for Team ASE and Toyota, we're pretty happy. We want to be where Johnny Benson is, but sooner or later, we'll get there."
Were you hoping for contact between Johnny and Ron Hornaday to let you by? "Anytime (Ron) Hornaday is involved, it's exciting. I was watching closely to see what was going on. I feel bad for David Green there at the end. He had a heck of a run going. I'm really proud of my guys, though. We had a pretty good race. We just didn't get to victory lane, but we'll try our best next time."
Todd Bodine, No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing - Finished: 4th
How was your truck in today's race? "What we had, we adjusted through it. We made some adjustments early in the race that didn't really help us, so we went a completely different direction. On the last stop we made some major adjustments and the truck came to us. It was a good race there at the end. When we made the adjustments, the guys had a heck of a pit stop and got us out in front of some guys that made it easier on me. That's the motto of this race team, to never give up. We had a bad truck in practice and had a bad truck at the beginning of the race, but we fixed it and got a top-five."
Did the track change as the sun went down? "The track changed a little bit, but not drastically. Half of the track was in the sun and the other half was in the shade. The part in the shade had a little more grip, that's all."
Josh Wise, No. 00 Aaron's Lucky Dog Toyota Tundra, Darrell Waltrip Motorsports - Finished: 8th
Ryan Mathews, No. 22 Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing - Finished: 18th
David Green, No. 1 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing - Finished: 20th
Mike Skinner, No. 5 XM Satellite Radio Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing - Finished: 28th
Terry Cook, No. 59 Harris Trucking Toyota Tundra, HT Motorsports - Finished: 30th
Jack Sprague, No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota Tundra, Wyler Racing - Finished: 32nd