Texas: Kyle Busch Motorsports race report

Benson Soldiers to 10th Place Finish at Texas
Toyota Driver Overcomes Ill-Handling Truck to give KBM Sixth Top-10 of 2010

Johnny Benson overcame an ill-handling truck to score a solid 10th-place finish in Friday night's WinStar World Casino 400k NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

The driver of the No. 18 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) started 13th in the 169-lap race and knew early on that his truck was not handling as he would like.

Crew chief Eric Phillips threw every change he could at the No. 18 machine, but long green flag runs caused Benson to go one lap down to the leaders by lap 59 and he was never able to recover.

"We really didn't practice this setup," said Benson, who won the 2008 Camping World Truck Series championship. "We put it in going into qualifying, so we didn't have any time on it. We just didn't know on the adjustments we made, and then after we started going back the other way, it started getting good. I still have to thank Kyle (Busch, owner) and everybody for letting me come and do this. I wish I could've done a better job for him, but I guess we were able to come out of here to move on to the next one."

Twice late in the race, Benson was the first truck one lap down and eligible for the "Lucky Dog," meaning he would be awarded his lap back if a caution came out. While a caution came out twice in the final laps, each time Benson had just been passed by another truck and lost his "Lucky Dog" status.

"Twice we were within a quarter of a lap of grabbing the 'Lucky Dog,' but we just couldn't get it," said Benson, who now has seven top-10 finishes in 11 career Truck Series starts at Texas. "It made for a really long day. If we would've got the 'Lucky Dog' and one more adjustment, I think we could've ran in the top-five, we just didn't have a top-five truck at the beginning. It was nowhere near it. By the end, I think we had close to a top-five truck, we were just on the wrong lap."

Todd Bodine won the WinStar World Casino 400k to score his 18th career Camping World Truck Series victory, his first of the season and his sixth at Texas. He is now the all-time leader in victories at Texas in any series.

Johnny Sauter finished 1.007 seconds behind Bodine in the runner-up spot, while rookie Austin Dillon, Mike Skinner and Ken Schrader took spots three through five. The rest of the top-10 consisted of James Buescher, Timothy Peters, Nelson Piquet Jr., Ron Hornaday Jr., and Benson.

The race featured six caution periods for 29 laps, with 19 drivers failing to finish the 250.5-mile race.

While Benson is not running the full Camping World Truck Series schedule, the No. 18 Toyota is competing for the owner's title and dropped to second in the standings, just 12 points behind the No. 30 truck of Germain Racing.

The next event on the Camping World Truck Series schedule is the June 12 VFW 200 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

-source: kbm