Johnny Benson Wins in Nashville, Makes it Three Wins in a Row

At Nashville Superspeedway, Johnny Benson took an ill-handling truck to victory lane. With five laps to go, Benson parked himself on leader Erik Darnell's bumper and waited. With three to go, Benson swung to the low-side, passing Darnell, and drove off for the victory.

Under the lights, Benson became the sixth NASCAR Craftsman Series driver to win three races in a row and it's his fourth win in the last five races.

From the drop of the green flag, the action was exciting, with all the battling go on through the field. On the first lap, Mike Skinner, starting third, drove to the bottom, making it three-wide, with pole-sitter Todd Bodine and outside pole-sitter Stacy Compton.

Skinner looked like he might make it work for only a moment. He would get loose going into turn two and made a great save to keep from wrecking. This could have been ugly had Skinner lost it, bouncing off the wall and definitely would have taken out a bunch of other trucks.  

Bodine would lead, passing Compton, and Skinner lost a couple of positions. The first caution came out on lap four for Michael Annett. Annett, who can run some great truck races, would simply just lose it, spinning into the wall and end  his night laps down.

Bodine dominated the early stages of the race, leading the first 74 laps. By lap 25, had a three-second lead on Compton. It looked like no one had anything for Bodine, who would stretch the lead to over four seconds. But one driver would.

Benson started 16th, and by lap 30, was in fourth.

Then, on lap 38, a debris caution wiped it out. All the trucks pitted, for fuel, four fresh Goodyear's, and much-needed adjustments. Bodine would win the race off of pit road, ahead of Sprague in second, Skinner in third, Darnell in fourth, and Hornaday in fifth.

On that first pit stop, Benson's crew lost a tire on pit road. It caused him to start at the end of the longest line, in 22nd place on the restart.

On the lap 42 restart, Hornaday passed Darnell for fourth and was right their behind Skinner for third. But then the third caution came out.

When Terry Cook got loose in the No. 60 truck, he got into Kevin Wood in the No. 21. Wood would end up in the wall, collecting Jon Wes Towney in the No. 09 truck and Shane Sieg in the No. 51 got minor damage to front-end.

On the lap 48 restart, Bodine would continue to pace the field and pull away from Sprague in second. Bodine would also benefit from Skinner catching and trying to pass Sprague.

Bodine would stretch the lead to a second. Hornaday—in fourth—seemed poised to benefit off of Skinner passing his teammate Sprague.

Lap 54 found Benson running in 14th. But the adjustments on that first pit stop didn't help, and his tires where a bad set. Crafton was all over Benson's bumper and then made the pass to take 14th.

Craftons, who doesn't qualify well, but usually races his way up front to decent finishes, would end the night in 11th place.

By lap 60, Bodine had a one-and-a-half-second lead on Sprague and just looked stout. But on lap 63, the fourth caution flag flew for Ted Musgrave, who made the most amazing save. I've seen all year. It should be the top play on SportCenter's top-10 plays of the day.

Musgrave blew a left front tire, stayed in the gas with the truck first spinning towards the wall. Then, headed back down the track, spinning at least three times and ended up spinning into the grass.

He stayed on the lead lap and would pit twice on lap 64 and lap 65.

On the lap 70 restart, Sprague would battle Bodine hard for the lead. But Bodine held him off, still looking invincible and would start pulling away from Sprague. 

On lap 75, the fifth caution flew. When you had four-wide racing, the end result was Jason White in the No. 08 truck with damage after hitting the wall. 

Everyone would pit but Compton, McCumbee, Musgrave, and Setzer. Sprague, taking fuel only, came off pit road first and in fifth place in the race. 

For the first time, the race had a new leader, Stacy Compton, whose truck loved the clean air out front, just like Bodine's had for 74 laps. 

Compton would lead for 40 laps, and would be pressured by McCumbee in second and Musgrave in third. While Compton lead, Benson had worked his way back up to eighth place by lap 84.

Bodine, who restarted in eighth on the last restart, worked his way to fifth on lap 87. On lap 99, Benson would be running in sixth, four seconds back of the leader Compton.

With 37 laps to go, the sixth caution flag came out for debris on the track. Hornaday would be the first truck off of pit road, with a fuel-only stop. He beat Darnell off, who also got only fuel, followed by Bodine, Benson, and David Starr.

Hornaday would lead just three laps under caution. On the restart, with 34 laps to go, Darnell went low, passing Hornaday, who's know for his great restarts.  

The last caution came out with 28 laps to go. Willie Allen, in the No. 81 truck, backed into the wall and did damage to Don Lia's No. 71 truck.

It would set up a restart with 23 laps to go. Darnell would start slow, and a much faster Hornaday in second would bounce off Darnell. But Hornaday slowed, allowing Darnell to save it and pull away with the lead. With 19 laps to go, both Bodine in third and Benson in fourth would pass Hornaday.

With 18 laps to go, Rick Crawford would bounce off the wall, but no caution cam out and he end up finishing in 23rd place.

Bodine would catch Darnell for the lead. With 10 laps to go, Benson caught Bodine applying pressure and would pass him on the next lap for second.

With seven laps to go, we would see Sprague in fifth, pass Hornaday for fourth, and Hornaday would swing low passing him back. But a couple of laps later, Sprague did pass Hornaday and make it stick this time.

With five laps to go, Benson was right on Darnell's back bumper and would make the pass with three laps to go. Benson would lead the final three laps, winning by 0.889 seconds over Darnell for second.

Darnell, who led for 29 laps, seemed to have the win. But it was Benson's two-tires on the last pit stop that was the difference, and Darnell also made no adjustments on that pit stop.

Benson would become the sixth driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history to win three races in a row. Technically, he's really the fifth, since Mike Skinner has done it twice.

Benson got his 13th career win, extending his point lead on Hornaday to 45 points and Crafton is now 91 points back.

In all, it was a great race, had a fast pace, pit strategy was important, and getting into the clean air was even more important.

The rest of the top-five were Bodine, Sprague, and Hornaday.

Here's the top 10 finishers:

1. Johnny Benson

2. Erik Darnell

3. Todd Bodine

4. Jack Sprague

5. Ron Hornaday

6. Colin Braun

7. Stacy Compton

8. Ted Musgrave

9. David Starr

10. Chad McCumbee