Even heavy thunder and lightning couldn't deter Johnny Benson Friday night, as the Michigan native claimed victory from the pole in the Camping World RV Sales 200, his third consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at the Milwaukee Mile.
After finishing second last week by just .005 seconds, Benson sealed the deal at Milwaukee on a sweltering night, defeating Matt Crafton, Landon Cassill, Erik Darnell and Todd Bodine.
Benson got off to a strong start in his Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra. He took the lead on Lap 3 and by Lap 40 opened a margin of 1.6 seconds over Rick Crawford's Power Stroke Diesel International by Ford F-150, Colin Braun's Con-Way Freight F-150, Mike Skinner in the Toyota Tundra Toyota and Jack Sprague in the RVs.com Chevrolet Silverado. All told, Benson led 47 of the first 50 laps.
At the one-quarter distance, Mike Bliss, one of the pre-race favorites, was mired back in 16th, complaining of either a tire going down or a power steering problem in his Miccosukee Resorts Toyota.
On Lap 77, Benson pitted from the lead, and a lap later the caution flew for the stalled truck of Paul Poulter. That left just seven trucks in the lead pack: Darnell, last week's winner in the Northern Tool + Equipment Ford; Benson, Bodine in the Lumber Liquidators Toyota; David Starr's Pit-now.com Toyota; Michael Annett in the Pilot Travel Centers Toyota and Marc Mitchell's Hyprene Ergon Inc. Toyota.
The caution flew again on Lap 95, just before the halfway point of the race. Darnell pitted from the lead on Lap 97, while Benson took fuel only and Crawford too four tires. Mitchell inherited the lead briefly, then chaos broke out on Lap 100.
Sprague got spun by Brendan Gaughan in Turn 4, which caused a melee that snared Braun, Hornaday, Ted Musgrave, Starr, Mike Skinner and Brian Scott. Once the other drivers saw Sprague go around, they checked up, blocking the track and ensuring that the crash was on in a big way.
The order on the restart was Darnell, Mitchell, Benson, Annett and Crawford. A brilliant flurry of passes quickly Crawford to second ahead of Benson, as Darnell held the point.
But as rain began to threaten the Milwaukee Mile, Crawford turned the heat up on Darnell, last week's winner at Michigan. After trying low and trying high, Crawford finally got the deal sealed on Lap 118. Two laps later, Matt Crafton's Menards/Super Clean Chevrolet took third from Benson and by Lap 127, Crafton was around Darnell and into second place.
By this time, Crawford's margin over Crafton was 1.5 seconds, which he increased to 1.8 seconds on Lap 133. At the same time, Benson moved back to third, dropping Darnell to fourth.
On Lap 146, the caution flew for light rain and two laps later, the leaders pitted, with the top three trucks all taking four tires. Benson emerged from the pits in the lead, followed by Crawford and Crafton. But Crafton was too fast exiting pit road and got sent to the tail end of the longest line.
And then the red flag came out for heavy lightning and thunder. Once the green came out, though, no one had anything for Benson, who scored his first NCTS victory of the year in convincing fashion.
VIDEO: Last Lap at Milwaukee on SPEED
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of "Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED," and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association.
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