I want to send out a big "Thank You" to everyone in Miami covering the races this weekend and helping me keep the Web site updated. I couldn't be at this year's Ford Championship Weekend but thanks to some great people at Sporting News, CIA Stock Photo and racetake.com, the readers of kickinthetires.net won't miss the action from Homestead-Miami Speedway.By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (November 14, 2008) -- Todd Bodine may have won Friday night's Ford 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but a pair of calls in the pits earned Johnny Benson a seventh-place finish—exactly what he needed to secure the series championship.
After pitting for four tires under caution on Lap 126, Ron Hornaday Jr. chased Benson to the stripe during a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race three laps beyond its scheduled 134-lap distance. Hornaday came home eighth, one position behind Benson and one position short of his fourth series championship.
Benson's team changed plans at the last second and kept the No. 23 Toyota on the track during that caution, and that decision proved to be the winning move.
Benson won the championship by seven points over his Chevy-driving rival and is the only driver other than Greg Biffle to win titles in both the Craftsman Truck and Nationwide Series. Benson restarted sixth and Hornaday 13th on Lap 130, and Hornaday gained four spots to ninth before Tayler Malsam and Jack Sprague wrecked on the backstretch to set up the two-lap sprint to the finish.
Bodine beat rookie Brian Scott to the finish line by .232 seconds, with Kevin Harvick running third, Kyle Busch fourth and Dennis Setzer fifth.
"It was only fun at the end -- not at the beginning or the middle," said a delighted Benson, who fought handling problems early in the race. "If those guys didn't come in, I might have come in, but when they came in, I knew what he (crew chief Trip Bruce) wanted to do, so I stayed out. . .
"All these guys behind me that worked on this thing are great friends. We've worked very hard to make this happen. Tonight was about Trip Bruce making the right calls."
Hornaday had radio problems late in the race and couldn't communicate to crew chief Rick Ren that he preferred not to pit under the caution on Lap 126.
"It was an awesome day for us until that last call," Hornaday said. "We didn't know all those guys (trucks that came out of the pits ahead of Hornaday) were going to take two tires and get out in front of us. But Johnny Benson and those guys had a great year, and we came up one position short."
Benson's two-tire call under caution on his final pit stop gave him the lead with 43 laps left and transformed the race from ho-hum to humdinger. Benson held the lead for a restart on Lap 95 with Hornaday in tow. Less than one lap later, Busch stormed into the mix from sixth position and kept Hornaday occupied until he took the lead for himself.
On old left-side tires, Benson began to fade and had dropped to seventh by Lap 117. Hornaday surrendered the second spot to Scott but appeared headed for the championship before polesitter Mike Skinner's blown right front tire bought out the fourth caution of the race on Lap 124.
Notes: Bodine won his third race of the season and the 15th of his career and finished third in the final standings… Though he won his first championship, Benson hasn't secured a ride for next year, having announced that he will not return to Bill Davis Racing in 2009.
