Key to Truck Series season: Riding momentum swings

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Johnny Benson didn't hesitate when asked what he thought was the key moment of his 2008 Craftsman Truck Series championship season. It came before the No. 23 Toyota even touched the asphalt at Daytona International Speedway back in February.

"I can give you in 25 races the reason why we won the championship, because that's what it took," Benson said. "It took 25 races. It started at Daytona when we unloaded, ended when we loaded up [Friday night], and it's every race.

A season of success

Johnny Benson capped a grinding halt to the Craftsman Truck Series season in the appropriate way: in the closing laps of the final race. The year was special for Benson, and a few others along the way.

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"And we've had some good races, we've had some great races, we've had some mediocre races and we've had a lot of heartbreak with one engine blown, we had a couple tires blown and wrecked. Every one of those is a decision or a result of us being here winning a championship."

If there's a prevailing theme to the 2008 season, it is one of resiliency. Time and time again, major momentum changes swung the championship race in Benson's direction, only to have it literally snatched away almost as quickly.

After starting off with back-to-back third-place finishes at Daytona and California, Benson crashed and finished 30th at Atlanta and followed that with a 25th-place effort at Martinsville. And when Ron Hornaday won at Kansas, Benson was 109 points behind.

But Hornaday would have troubles of his own, finishing 23rd at Lowe's and 35th at Mansfield, giving the No. 23 team renewed life. And Benson took advantage of a red-hot summer, winning four of five races, starting at Milwaukee.

From that point on, Hornaday was able to cut into Benson's lead with wins at Gateway and New Hampshire, but it wasn't until Las Vegas -- when Benson crashed hard while leading -- that the championship appeared to be up for grabs.

"I really think that Vegas didn't take the wind out of our sails," Benson said. "It certainly took the wind out of me when I hit the wall. We were performing the way we needed to do during that race."

Hornaday led for the final time after finishing second at Talladega, but cut Benson's led to six points heading into Phoenix. That might have been the craziest race of the season, as Hornaday crashed on the first lap and Benson wound up in a pair of accidents.

"The only time that I thought there was going to be an issue was when I messed up at Phoenix and I lost every bit of our cushion that we had at that point in time," Benson admitted. "If I could go back, I'd change it and probably have done something different. But I guarantee at the start of that race, Ron Hornaday would have made a different choice, too. We basically had to write off Phoenix as a race that didn't exist.

"I looked at the tape. I saw what happened. I messed up. And I had to forget about that and go back and get this for these guys."

In the season's final race, a gutsy pit call by crew chief Trip Bruce gave Benson five crucial bonus points -- and when Hornaday pitted for four tires late in the race, Benson had just enough left to hang on.

"Needless to say, we didn't have the performance that we needed [Friday] to beat [Hornaday] but we had the crew chief and the calls and the desire to try and go beat them, and that's what happened," Benson said. "Like I say, it takes a whole year, and it's just a way-cool deal here.

"I don't think people understand how much this means to me to win this, but not just for me, for Bill and Gail, everybody at Bill Davis Racing, Toyota Certified Used Vehicles and Exide, everybody involved. I'll remember this for many, many years to come."