By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Johnny Benson capped a thrilling 2008 Craftsman Truck Series season Friday night by capturing the season title by seven points over Ron Hornaday.
Benson used pit strategy to finish seventh in the season-ending Ford 200, one spot ahead of Hornaday, who ran better than Benson for most of the night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"It’s really special," Benson said. "I can’t put words into it. … All these guys behind me that work on this thing are great friends. It’s unbelievable. It will sink in at about 2 or 3 o’clock tonight. We worked very hard to make this happen."
Hornaday relinquished third place to pit with eight laps remaining while Benson, who was running eighth, stayed on the track. Benson restarted sixth, while Hornaday took four tires and came out 13th. Benson ran about the final 90 laps on the same left-side tires, using pit strategy earlier in the race to take the lead and gain five bonus points.
The green flag came out with five laps remaining, and then another caution came out with less than two laps to go, creating a green-white-checkered finish with Benson restarting in sixth and Hornaday ninth.
Hornaday could see Benson’s bumper as the checkered flag fell, but he was about a half-second behind him. To win the title, Hornaday would have had to beat Benson to the finish.
It marked the first Truck title for Benson, the 1995 winner of the Busch Series championship, as well as the first title for Bill Davis Racing. BDR also won the owners title.
Hornaday and his Kevin Harvick Inc. team was denied back-to-back titles.
"It was a good race. Johnny and I raced hard. It was a good call by [Benson crew chief] Trip Bruce," Hornaday said. "We just didn't have track position at the end."
The race was won by Germain Racing’s Todd Bodine.
Roush Fenway Racing’s Colin Braun was crowned as the series’ top rookie.
http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/truckseries/Miami_heat_Johnny_Benson_wins_Truck_championship_in_thrilling_finish.html
