Old Guys Rule in Craftsman Truck Race

In a battle of the wily veterans, Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday raced each other hard for 200 laps in the Craftsman Truck Ford Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O'Reily Raceway Park.  Yet in the end, Johnny Benson prevailed to make it back to back wins at Indy and Kentucky. Benson and Hornady traded the lead all night long, with  prevailing on the restarts and Benson leading on the longer runs.   In an amazing finish, Benson was able to hold off Hornaday to take his truck to victory lane for his first ever win at ORP.

While it was a great night for the older drivers, the young guns also fared well.  Michael Annett had a great race, although racing a few drivers a little too close for comfort.  Unfortunately, his youthful exuberance caused the last caution of the evening, with only five laps to go.  This most certainly gave owner Bill Davis angst, not only for his young driver Annett, but also for his other driver and Annett's teammate, Johnny Benson, who again had to face Hornaday in a restart in the final laps.   Nineteen year old Landon Cassill also had a great race, starting 28th and finishing 14th.

The race had a green flag feel at the beginning but cautions started in the middle of the run breeding other cautions.  The record for cautions was tied at eleven for the race.

Kyle Busch, trying another three-peat by competing in all races this weekend, had a miserable race, complaining mightily most of the night about being tight.  Mired in around the 15th place most of the evening, at one point, he seemed to lose his patience, taking out Chad McCumbee.  Since this was the second race in a row where Busch had an incident with the #8 car, McCumbee had little nice to say about rival Kyle as Chad watched his team feverishly working to get his truck back on the track.  Kyle rebounded from this drama to finish the race in the 8th position. 

The battle at ORP also set the stage for the continuing tight points race for the Craftsman Truck Championship.   As a result of his great finish, Johnny Benson now sits 15 points ahead of Ron Hornaday in this amazing battle for the truck championship.

In spite of 25 year old Eric Darnell's comments about Hornaday and Benson being twice his age and needing to be in bed due to their advanced years, the "old guys" prevailed and showed the young guns how it was done at ORP.