The wheels literally came off Mike Skinner's quest for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship during Friday night's season-ending Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As a result, Ron Hornaday Jr. captured the crown for the third time in his eight-season NCTS career.

Skinner entered Friday's race with a 29-point lead over Hornaday in the standings, but he had problems early in the 134-lap race when he came to the pits because he thought he felt his right front tire going flat, putting him a lap behind the rest of the field.

Then midway through the race, Skinner's left rear tire went flat and the entire wheel came off the truck before he could reach the pits, forcing time-consuming repairs and dropping him well off the pace. Hornaday stayed out of trouble the rest of the way and went on to finish seventh, giving him the championship by 54 points.

"This is so cool to be a champion. This is unbelievable," a beaming Hornaday said afterward.

Johnny Benson also was smiling after he passed Kyle Busch on the final lap during a green-white-checkered finish to pick up his fourth victory of the season. Busch, who had won two of the previous three NCTS races, came in second, followed by Rick Crawford in third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Jason Leffler fifth.

The prospect of a final-lap dash for the championship ended early when Skinner began having his tire and wheel issues.

"We thought the right front was going down," Skinner said of his initial unscheduled pit stop. "There was a lot of vibration in the wheel. We came down pit road and they put right front tires on, and that wasn't it. It just kept vibrating and shaking. I got up next to the wall after that, because I knew it was going to break sooner or later. It finally broke, and it was actually the left rear hub that fell apart.

"We didn't have many mechanical failures this year. The guys did an awesome job on our Tundra all year. We just needed one more, and it's unfortunate that we had some sort of part failure."

Meanwhile, Hornaday said he continued to run hard until near the end of the race because he wasn't sure what was going on with Skinner.

"I kept trying to get (crew chief Rick Ren) to tell me something all race, and he wouldn't tell me anything," Hornaday said. "Finally with three (laps) to go (before the final restart) he said, 'Don't worry about it. Just run your own pace.'

"It doesn't matter how many times you go for a championship, the last 20 laps of this thing were the hardest laps I've ever drove in my life."

It appeared during those final 20 laps that Busch was heading for his third NCTS victory in four races. But a late wreck brought out an untimely caution flag for Busch, setting up a green-white-checkered finish that allowed Benson to snatch away the victory.

"The green-white-checkered saved us," said Benson, who became the 12th different winner in the 12-year history of the NCTS race at Homestead. "Kyle ran a great race, but on that (restart) I thought he was loose. Kyle held on inside of me pretty good, but I felt confident that I could (make the pass)."

Busch said he knew when the late caution flag came out that he would have a hard time keeping the lead on the restart.

"Johnny had a better truck there at the end, one that would turn and hold the bottom," Busch said. "Mine wouldn't do it, and I couldn't hold him off."

It was a bittersweet night for Bill Davis Racing, which had a race-winner in Benson but saw a championship slip away with Skinner's problems.

"He didn't look real happy," Benson said of Davis. "The title is something that has eluded them for a while. It just came down to the last race and they had some issues. Jeff Hensley and their whole crew had a tremendous year and Bill Davis Racing can be proud of what they accomplished and their season.

"I just hope next year it just comes down to myself and Mike rather than anybody else. Hopefully we can get a championship for Bill Davis Racing next season for sure."

Benson's victory helped him secure third place in the final point standings. Todd Bodine finished fourth in the standings and Rick Crawford was fifth.

Willie Allen clinched Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors. Allen was the top-finishing rookie in five races this season and placed 15th in the overall standings.

"Winning Raybestos Rookie of the Year was definitely what we set out to do when we started this season," Allen said. "It was up and down all year long … but we kept fighting. We had a lot of mechanical problems during the year and it seemed like the more problems we had the harder the team dug.

"This is real big. A lot of the big name Cup drivers came from the Truck series, and that's what we want to do. That's the main goal we set out for and we accomplished it. It was definitely a struggle, but we accomplished our goal. I'm very proud of that and proud of the guys."

Davis Starr's sixth-place finish in Friday's race enabled him to move up two spots to 10th place in the final point standings. Justin Marks finished the race in eighth place, Regan Smith was ninth and Dave Blaney 10th. Pole-sitter Jon Wood came in 13th, while Jacques Villeneuve spun and hit the wall on lap 80 and finished 36th.

In the end, all the other drivers were looking up at Hornaday and the No. 33 team. It is Hornaday's first championship since 1998, and the first one ever for Ren.

"I asked Hornaday how long does this take to sink in, because it hasn't sunk in yet," Ren said from victory lane. "This is my 18th year doing this, and I couldn't be prouder of everybody. I don't know if it will ever sink in.

"You know, they don't give these things away, and we've been trying for an awfully long time. I told Ron earlier this year, 'I know you've got some of those (championship) rings but I don't have one, and I think we need to work really hard to get one.' This is what we do this for, and it's like a dream come true."