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Hornaday holds off Benson to win the Power Stroke Diesel 200

Jul 28, 2007 - 6:34 AM INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Ron Hornaday, Jr. held off a challenge from Johnny Benson to win a green-white checker finish in Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Power Stroke Diesel 200 at Raceway Park.

Following a two-hour rain delay, Hornaday crossed the finish line first in a Chevrolet Silverado, two truck lengths ahead of Benson, who finished second in a Toyota Tundra.

"Johnny Benson and I raced side-by-side for what seemed like 40 laps, and I couldn't get away from him," Hornaday said. "He wanted to win as much as we did."

"Our truck was good enough to get to second," Benson said. "We burned the tires getting there. It's a brand new truck, so we're pretty happy. Second's still a great day."

Because of an accident in the last 10 laps, the Power Stroke Diesel 200 became the fourth green-white checker finish this season.

It was the 32nd career victory for Hornaday, who is the all-time leader in wins in the Craftsman Truck Series. It was also his third win this season and second career race victory at ORP.

"This is an awesome win for our Camping World Silverado," Hornaday said. "(Crew chief) Rick Ren called an awesome race and the adjustments they made on the first stop made the truck awesome."

Hornaday, who also won this race in 1997, is just 77 points behind overall points leader Mike Skinner.

"We knew the only way to catch Skinner is for him to have a bad break," said Hornaday. "If we win races, the points will come."

Skinner, who started on the poll after rain washed out qualifying, finished a disappointing 20th. He still has the most wins this season with four.

Travis Kvapil finished third and Rick Crawford fourth, both in Ford F-150s. It was the fifth top-5 finish for Kvapil in five starts here.

Ken Schrader rounded out the top five in a Dodge Ram. It was his first career top 5 finish here.

There were nine cautions for 49 laps, one shy of the track record set in 2006.