Craftsman Truck Series - A Look Back At the 2008 Season

Johnny Benson won the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, his first series title.

He became the 10th different driver to win the series championship.  Benson finished the 2008 season seven points ahead of Ron Hornaday Jr., the second-closest championship points margin in series history.

Johnny finished the 2008 season with five wins, 14 top-five finishes and 18 top-10s. Benson's first series championship comes in his fourth year of full-time competition in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (2005-08). He has finished in the top-10 in the final points standings in all four of those years.

Benson competed in 25 series races prior to 2005.

There were 12 different race winners in the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season:
Ron Hornaday Jr. had six and Johnny Benson, five.  At least they left room for some folk!!

2008 Season Winners
• Todd Bodine's victory at Daytona continued the streak of a different Daytona race winner for the ninth consecutive year.
• Kyle Busch won at Auto Club Speedway to become the sixth different race winner in as many races at California.
• Kyle Busch became the first repeat winner when he won at Atlanta.
• Dennis Setzer won at Martinsville.  This was his third win there, making him the all-time win leader there.
• Ron Hornaday Jr. won at Kansas – his 34th series victory.
• Matt Crafton had his first career victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
• Donny Lia got his first win at Mansfield.  And he only had 8 starts at the time.
• Scott Speed - Another first time winner, won at Dover – in just six Truck Series starts.
• Ron Hornaday Jr. won at Texas
• Erik Darnell won at Michigan, giving the Roush organization his 49th series victory.
• Johnny Benson won at Milwaukee.
• Ron Hornaday Jr. won at Memphis, becoming the first three-peat winner of 2008.
• Johnny Benson won at Kentucky.
• Johnny Benson won at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
• Johnny Benson notched three in a row winning at Nashville Superspeedway.
   This was only the fifth time in the series a driver had won three in a row.
• Kyle Busch won at Bristol.
• Ron Hornaday Jr. took New Hampshire.
• Mike Skinner finally got his first win of the season at Las Vegas.
• Todd Bodine won at Talladega.
• Johnny Benson won at Martinsville.
• Ryan Newman won at Atlanta in his debut in the Truck Series.  Only Mike Skinner, Robert Pressley and Kasey Kahne have done the same.  Win in their debut that is.
• Ron Hornaday Jr. won at Texas, posting his series-leading sixth win of 2008.
• Kevin Harvick won at Phoenix.  Oddly, all of Harvick's series wins have come from Phoenix.
• Todd Bodine won at Homestead-Miami Speedway, giving him victories in both the season opener and the finale.

Stats for Qualifying and Such
• 121 different drivers attempted to qualify for at least one race this season.
• There were 12 different pole winners in 2008.
• Three drivers posted their career-first poles this season:  Justin Marks (Texas) Bobby East (ORP) Scott Speed (Bristol)
• 45 different drivers posted top-10 starts this season, led by Ron Hornaday Jr. with 23.

The Races
• There have been 12 different race winners in 2008:
Ron Hornaday Jr. (six)
Johnny Benson (five)
Kyle Busch (three)
Todd Bodine (two)
Dennis Setzer (one)
Matt Crafton (one)
Donny Lia (one)
Scott Speed (one)
Erik Darnell (one)
Mike Skinner (one)
Ryan Newman (one)
Kevin Harvick (one)


Interesting Stats on Race Winners
• The race winner's came from various starting positions throughout the field:
Pole 4
2nd-5th 9
6th-10th 5
11th-30th 7
31st or beyond 0


Laps Led
• 36 different drivers led at least one lap in 2008.
• Ron Hornaday Jr. led 1,326 laps, more than any other driver.
• There have been 314 on-track penalties issued this season.
• Penalty Recap:
Pitting Before Pit Road is Open 160
Too Fast Entering Pit Road 29
Too Fast Exiting Pit Road 41
Others 84


Manufacturer
• Toyota won the manufacturers' championship with 178 points to 166 for Chevrolet, 115 for Ford and 91 for Dodge. It is the third time Toyota has won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Manufacturers' Championship. All occurred in the past three seasons.


Notebook
• Ryan Newman became the 19th driver to post victories in all three of NASCAR's top three national
series with his win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Atlanta.

Source:  NASCAR Public Relations