Johnny Benson Wins the Power Stroke Diesel 200

At O'Reilly Raceway Park, it was the survival of the fittest between Johnny Benson and Ron Hornady. The caution flags fell just at the right time for Johnny Benson to keep Hornaday close and then to just wait for him to slip up.

Hornaday, who dominated a big part of the race, could never get away from Benson.  Benson repeatedly tried to pass, but he just couldn't make it work, as he patiently waited for his chance.

Benson finally made the pass, coming off of a restart due to a caution with 42 laps left to race. For most of the night, Hornaday stuck to the high side of the track, and for whatever reason, he decided to try the low side. Thus, Benson pounced, took advantage of Hornaday's mistake, and assumed the lead.

Benson had to be nervous, with all the late cautions, especially since Hornaday has unarguably earned the reputation for being one of the best on restarts. But Benson didn't need to worry, he would hold off Hornaday by .484 seconds to win. 

Benson got his second straight win, his third in the last four races, and added to his points lead.

Hornaday, from the drop of the green, was hunting for the lead. He started in fourth position, behind Bobby East, the pole sitter, who started in the outside line, his choice of position as the top qualifier.

Jack Sprague started in second position, on the inside row, and Erik Darnell started third.

By the first lap, Hornaday was second, four laps later, and he was well in the lead of the race. He would lead all but eight of the first 162 laps.

Let me add another amazing highlight.

On the race's second lap, you had Mike Skinner, Matt Crafton, and T.J. Bell racing like it was the last lap, going three-wide. T.J. Bell would eventually get around both. Although he brought out a caution when he lost it and spun, he still ended up with a good finish.

There was great racing all night, as the Trucks battled it out. Most of the restarts after the cautions also featured some great racing, with them all bunched up in a pack.

You know the racing was tough, especially when it took Dennis Setzer 27 laps to pass Rick Crawford, only picking up one position.

At times, Hornaday, when he did get away from Sprague and Benson, had anywhere from a 1.3 to 2.6 seconds lead.

Hornaday would lose the lead while pitting on the race's second caution flag. Benson just beat him off pit road and would lead for four laps under caution. But on the restart, Hornaday reclaimed the lead, getting it coming off the first turn and would hold onto for 62 more laps.

While both Hornaday and Benson were able to distance themselves from the rest of the field, Hornaday was never able to build up any type of lead on Benson. The many cautions flying late in the race kept them in close proximity.   

The most spectacular crash of the night happened at about the 80th lap. Bobby East got caught in a wreck, resulting from some spectacular four-wide racing. He had his right-side tires on top of the outside wall, and Compton's No. 4 truck prevented him from rolling over. More amazing was that East quickly made repairs on pit road and went on like nothing happened.

Kyle Busch, for most of the night, would complain about his truck and run in 11th place. Busch would take out Chad McCumbee, making this the second race in a row in which they had altercations, resulting in the sixth caution.

The two had been battling for close to 20 laps, repeatedly passing each other and at times leaving each other with very little space.

It was during the later stages that Hornaday was caught by Benson, who just looked faster. With 42 laps left, Benson finally got the lead off a restart and would have to endure four more caution flags.

With each restart, Benson would always come out okay, with a hard-charging Hornaday right on his heals. This also enabled both Crawford, in third, and Darnell, in fourth, to stay with the leader. But really, only Crawford ended up keeping Hornaday busy, fending him off, to Benson's benefit.

On one of the restarts, both Hornaday and Crawford bounced their trucks off the outside wall and continued on like it never happened. This was awesome to watch. You could hear Hornaday's truck clunk off the wall on my surround sound.

That's why I love the CTS racing so much. These guys put on such a great show. Check them out on Speed—that is if you are not already hooked.   

With the laps winding down, Crawford would lose power, falling from third place to a disappointing 12th-place finish.

Benson leading, with Hornaday right behind him, would battle it out the last two laps, resulting in Benson holding on for the win.

Benson became the first winner at O'Reilly to start outside the top five. Victory Lane was cool, with Hornaday congratulating Benson for the win.

Erik Darnell ended up third, and had a great race. During postrace, he had even more to celebrate, with his engagement to Amber Moody. Congrats to them both.

Matt Crafton would have another great race, finishing fourth, and Shelby Howard rounded out the top five. Benson increased his points lead to 15 over Hornaday, who moved up to second. Crafton would drop to third, 31 points behind the leader.

Top-10 Race results:

1. Johnny Benson

2. Ron Hornaday

3. Erik Darnell

4. Matt Crafton

5. Shelby Howard

6. Brendan Gaughan

7. T.J. Bell

8. Kyle Busch

9. Donny Lia

10. Mike Skinner