Full Throttle

Go, go, go Johnny go, go, go Johnny, go go
Go Johnny go, go, go Johnny go go
Johnny B. Good
***
Maybe someday you will be in lights saying Johnny B. Good” - Elvis Presley

As so it was as Johnny Benson Jr. stood in the lights of Victory Lane with his fourth NCTS win of the year. Benson dominated the event in leading 145 laps of the scheduled 200.

Mike Skinner took second ahead of Kyle Busch who made his fourth truck start of ‘06. Series points leader Todd Bodine finished fourth, followed by David Starr.

Benson’s Toyota teammate, and CCWS star, A.J. Allmendinger drove from the back of the 36-car field after crashing in qualifying to finish 13^th in his first ever NASCAR start.

Terrible Ted Musgrave was parked for the remainder of the race after a mid-race get together with Rick Crawford. Musgrave pulled up alongside Crawford under caution and pushed Crawford’s truck into the wall before hitting pitroad. Crawford went on to finish seventh, Terrible Ted has a bank withdrawal to make sometime next week.

With the BDR team having 3 of it’s trucks in the top 13 positions it makes you wonder about the NEXTEL Cup side of the Davis garage. In 14 years of Cup ownership Davis has had 5 wins and Benson has nearly matched that total in a single year in NCTS.

Maybe, for the lack of a better term, it’s the “Toyota factor.” The marquee has been so strong with a 50% win percentage after 18 events the team may just be riding the crest of that strength. Whatever it is Davis is most likely looking forward to ‘07 the switch to the Camry.

And, how about “Cinderella?” Allmendinger has had some kind of year. Within a span of a week he gets the heave-ho from his RuSport CCWS ride, became engaged to be married, then hired by Forsythe Racing. In the next two weeks he had won the CCWS Grands Prix at Portland and Cleveland. That was followed by an early July win in Toronto that aided his drive to second place in the final points standings.

Now, almost as an afterthought, he jumps into a completely foreign piece of equipment and drives it through the field to a 13^th place finish.

Very impressive indeed. Wonder if Bill Lester was kicking himself as he watched his temporary teammate (or not) from the pits after crashing out on the first lap?

NASCAR, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NCTS, Sports, Johnny Benson Jr, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle