Faced with compelling decisions about his racing and personal future, Craftsman Truck Series championship leader Johnny Benson will leave Bill Davis Racing at the end of the season, whether or not he wins the crown.

Team owner Davis confirmed Benson's decision in a statement. A BDR spokesman said, with this week's announcement that teenage Sprint Car racer Tayler Malsam had signed a deal to race a BDR Toyota full-time next season, that Davis still hoped to run four trucks in 2009.

"About three or four weeks ago I had a conversation with Bill [Davis] and of course, the folks up at Bill Davis [Racing]," Benson said on Wednesday's Tradin' Paint on Sirius NASCAR Radio. "I'm opting to try and do something different."

"Johnny Benson has been a huge part of our success in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," Davis' statement said. "Johnny, as well as our other veteran driver, Mike Skinner, have helped us get our NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series program where it is today, and I hate to see him go.

"It has been one of the best driver/owner relationships in the garage, winning 14 races and battling for the championship year in and year out. We have enjoyed the last four years together and we want to cap it off by winning the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship."

Benson, 45, who's amassed his 14 career Truck Series wins in the past three seasons driving BDR's No. 23 Toyota, has a six-point edge over defending and three-time Truck Series champ Ron Hornaday with two races left this season, including Friday night's Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix.

Benson took the lead from Hornaday three races ago, by 65 points, but has seen it steadily shrink since, as Hornaday was second at Atlanta and won at Texas.

Benson finished third in the Truck Series a year ago, behind Hornaday and Skinner, but won the Homestead season finale to move from fifth to third in the final points.

Benson, who has five Truck wins this season, won 2006's Phoenix Truck race from the pole position, when he finished second in the championship to Todd Bodine. That season, Benson was 79 points behind Bodine with four races to go, but ultimately lost the title by 127 points.

Benson was 10th in the championship in his first full Truck Series season, 2005.

Benson, who said on Tradin' Paint that retirement at the end of 2008 had been one of his options, added that when he "floated" that idea [shortly after he suffered a hard crash on Sept. 20 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway], he got a surprise.

"When I said [I might retire], a bunch of opportunities came up," said Benson, the 1995 Busch Series champion. "It was like, you know what, am I going to retire? Am I going to try to do a part-time deal, go have some fun and spend time with the family and go do just some off-races and things of this nature?

"The Truck Series is such a great series but you can go run 10 Cup races and make more money than to run the whole [Truck] season. But I don't necessarily know if I want to do that, either. Some of it is up in the air but I think in the last two or three weeks there have been some opportunities for me to do something that I may like."

Johnny Benson

Truck Stats with BDR

Year	No.	W	T-5	T-10	Avg. Fin.
2004	13	0	5	8	9.5
2005	25	0	6	10	14.9
2006	25	5	13	17	10.2
2007	25	4	12	19	9.6
2008	23	5	14	17	8.4

Since he had his first conversation with Davis and his team managers, Benson has been unsure of what he really wants to do, insiders say; and he was equally unclear Wednesday about his reasons for leaving BDR.

"Now, it seems kind of odd to do that -- to be in a situation to run for a championship and then want to leave," Benson said. "But there's a couple of other little issues."

But Benson said he was comfortable with his decision, no matter what happened in his race with Hornaday. They are the only two men with a shot at the title, as Bodine is third, 223 points behind Benson.

"The thing I like about this business, whether we win this championship or not, when I came over to Bill's they were about 25th in points -- 25th to 28th or something like that," Benson said. "We were able to build a team and move it up to a championship contender scenario.

"I like doing those things, but I want to win a championship. I want to finish that off. But it's very cool to do those types of things and I enjoyed that aspect of it."

Benson said winning the title might make his next decision easier.

"Obviously, I'd really like to get a [Truck] championship so if we can get that done this year that'd be great," Benson said. "What I'm going to do next year, I really don't know. There's a couple things that some people had laid out in front of me that are tempting.

"So, that's where I stand. It basically stands that I won't be at Bill's -- but Bill and Gail gave me a great opportunity, along with Toyota, to come and have some fun and help build a team to make it a championship contender and I think all of us, as a group, are very proud of that and we'd like to finish this off for Bill, for sure."

"I'm happy and I think that's the main thing. It was very hard to say I'm not going to come back and do that with them -- that was the hardest part, especially with the guys because they've done a tremendous job.

"It's a very cool sport. We get to do what we love to do. We go out there and we get to race and then if we win some races and have the opportunity for a championship you can't ask for anything more than that."