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
5 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete