Friday night title bout in Truck Series a hidden gem

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Once again, during a Ford Championship weekend when NASCAR keeps trying to sell a Chase for the Sprint Cup that is all but over, the best battle for a title came on a steamy Friday night.

The Cup guys won't run the Ford 400 until Sunday, but the show put on Friday by the Craftsman Truck Series -- with Johnny Benson securing the championship from Ron Hornaday via some surprising pit strategy -- was nothing short of spectacular.

This was the real points race. After 24 races and with no Chase to get in the way, Benson led Hornaday by the slim margin of three points heading into the Ford 200.

Throughout practice and qualifying leading up to the actual race, Benson knew Hornaday's truck probably was faster. It qualified better and consistently posted quicker lap times during practice. But Benson's crew chief, Trip Bruce, foretold of the outcome prior to the race when he pulled his driver aside.

"He told me, 'We may not be the fastest. But hopefully we'll be the smartest,'" Benson said.

Hornaday appeared to have Benson's No. 23 Toyota covered as the laps wound down -- but that all changed with 10 laps to go when Mike Skinner, Benson's teammate at Bill Davis Racing, blew out a right-front tire and brought out the caution.

The caution, and the strategies the two championship-contending teams opted for during it, changed everything.

Sound strategy
Thirty-two laps earlier Bruce made the risky call to slap on right-side tires only -- which resulted in Benson vaulting to the lead for a while. As the grip on the tires went away, Benson started fading back and Hornaday surged ahead of him, building a 12-point cushion in his own quest for the championship.

Conventional logic, then, was that Benson absolutely had to come and get tires with 10 to go and hope for the best. Hornaday, on the other hand, had options. He could have stayed out and kept his track position and figured on hanging on.

Instead, with Hornaday's radio malfunctioning, confusion between him and his pit crew ensued and he came to pit road to take on four tires. Benson stayed out along with several others.

When the dust cleared after the caution, Benson sat in sixth -- albeit on very old tires -- but Hornaday came out in 13th. It was a 27-point swing, taking Hornaday from 12 ahead to 15 behind.

Team owner and fellow driver Kevin Harvick said he thought Hornaday "had 'em covered" and couldn't understand why Hornaday's No. 33 Chevrolet would pit. Hornaday later blamed it on the radio problem, saying he likely would have stayed out otherwise. But he refused to use it as an excuse.

"If we had come back and won the race, it would have been the call of the century," Hornaday said.

Instead, Hornaday offered congratulations to Benson and shrugged, "I guess we'll go to his motorhome and drink his beer now."

Benson welcomed it.

"We've got the motorhome parked in Turn 3 by the lake. We've got lots of goods and lots of drinks. Anybody who wants to come over, come on over," a grinning Benson said.

In the end, Hornaday charged hard on his four fresh tires, coming all the way up to eighth after yet another caution led to a green-white-checkered finish. Benson held on to finish one spot ahead in seventh, and won the championship by a mere seven points.

Why so good?
The Truck Series isn't without its troubles. Benson is leaving Bill Davis Racing at the end of the season, apparently in part because the future of Bill Davis Racing appears cloudy at best.

After 13 years, it will no longer be the Craftsman Truck Series next season. Craftsman opted to bow out as the series sponsor, and it was only after much negotiation that Camping World recently stepped in.

But with its shorter schedule of 25 races, a smaller field of 36 competitors and no Chase for the championship, you've got to hand it to these guys. Again.

It could be argued -- again -- that they consistently put on the best pure racing show in NASCAR's three national series. After Benson's two-tire gamble on Lap 92 put him in front, he and Hornaday spent the next 10 laps or so dueling it out mano a mano. First one was in front, then the other. Then they would be side by side.

It was fascinating to watch.

You had to wonder if the Cup guys, expected to yawn their way through another Jimmie Johnson championship clinching in less than 48 hours, were a little jealous.

"Thank God we don't have a Chase," Bill Davis said.

Why do the trucks put on such a good show? Harvick, who drives in all three of NASCAR's national series and doubled Friday night as driver/owner of his own No. 2 Chevrolet as well as owner of Hornaday's No. 33 Chevy, said he thinks he knows why.

"These things are fun to drive," Harvick said. "They punch such a big hole in the air that you can pull back up to people and manhandle them and make them do what you want them to do. They just have a great aero package and the way that the rules are with these things, it just promotes great racing."

So do drivers like Hornaday and Benson and others such as Skinner, who was locked in a down-to-the-wire battle a year ago that Hornaday won on that occasion.

Late Friday, and no doubt well into Saturday, you probably could find them all down by the lake near Turn 3 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, drinking the new champion's beer, wolfing down his food, and arguing about who's going to battle whom for the title in the exciting final race one year from now.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.