Benson hopes Michigan repeat can propel season

Johnny Benson is coming home, and all you have to do is look back to last season to see why the father of two of who will turn 44 on June 27 is very excited about the homecoming.

Benson's first full Truck Series season in 2005 was a successful one as he finished 10th in points and ended the year with six top-fives and 10 top-10s, but he couldn't find that first victory.

By the Numbers

Like Johnny Benson, Travis Kvapil has also won at Michigan and hopes a victory this week will get his season going.

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Last year, the expectations were there for Benson to improve on his solid debut, and he started out strong with six top-six finishes in the first nine races. After the Texas race, he found himself fourth in the points standings, 232 behind Todd Bodine.

Then he went home.

After struggling with a loose truck in the early going, Benson and his team made the adjustments necessary to get his No. 23 Toyota Tundra back up front. On Lap 73, Benson finally took the lead and was able to hold off Cup veterans Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte to win his first Truck Series race.

"Once we got out front -- the clean air was pretty good," Benson said. "You can't write the book any better than that. To come home and win at my home track was pretty awesome."

Not only was this Benson's first win, it was the first time in the Truck Series someone won their first race at the 2-mile speedway. On top of that, the former Busch Series champion became just the 17th driver in NASCAR history to win on all three national levels.

After Michigan, Benson went on a tear. He won the next week at the Milwaukee Mile and also posted victories at Nashville, New Hampshire and Phoenix. In those final 16 races, Benson had five wins, nine top-fives and 11 top-10s. After a fifth-place finish at Martinsville, Benson had diminished Bodine's point lead to just 79 points and ultimately he finished second to champion Bodine by 127 points.

This season, Benson finds himself again putting together strong finishes but trailing in the points. He has six top-10s through the first nine races including a second at the season-opener in Daytona, but he's currently eighth in points, 417 behind leader Mike Skinner.

Benson sees this Saturday's Michigan 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, SPEED) as the perfect opportunity to start his ascension back to the top.

"I am very excited about Michigan," he said. "It is my home track on the NASCAR side, and it is a great place to race."

Following a disappointing finish at Texas, where engine problems forced him to a 29th-place finish, Benson says a return home is just what this team needs.

"We have had some unfortunate luck the last few weeks, even though our truck has been incredibly fast," Benson said. "Hopefully we can come out of Michigan with another win."

Five Nextel Cup drivers will be pulling "double-duty" this weekend, including the two Benson held off in last year's win, Martin and Labonte.

Benson is also racing twice this weekend, but not in the Cup race. After truck activities at Michigan International Speedway on Friday, Benson will head to Ohio for an IMSA race on the half-mile Toledo Speedway.

"I'm really looking forward to [racing at Toledo]," said Benson, who won an ASA race there early in his career. "I ran with ISMA last year at Berlin. It didn't take long to realize that these cars are very cool to drive.

"If I could make a living racing those cars, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

For now, his living is in the Craftsman Truck Series, and coming home on Father's Day weekend is something this Bill Davis Racing driver can't wait to do and he hopes deja vu is one of his gifts.

"We have a ton of family and friends here, so that always pumps you up when you are racing," Benson said. "This is where we turned things around last year and I am hoping to do it again."