Johnny Benson held off Michael Annett to win the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday.
Matt Crafton finished third, followed by Dennis Setzer and Davis Star. Kyle Busch failed in his attempt to win three consecutive races in three national tours, but rallied twice to finish sixth. Mike Skinner finished seventh, followed by Terry Cook, Marc Mitchell and Ron Hornaday.
The early portion of the race featured a number of yellow flags, and nine of the first 24 laps were run under caution. There were eight cautions overall, slowing drivers for a total of 36 laps. There was also a 10-minute, 34-second stoppage for track repairs following a red flag.
“The crew had a lot of really good stops,” Benson said. “We had to use a little strategy because we had a loose right front tire, so I was glad that the (early) caution came out when it did. But these guys continue to do a great job.”
Benson grabbed the lead in the truck series points race by one over third-place finisher Matt Crafton. Previous points leader Ron Hornaday finished 10th, dropping him to third in the standings.
“I thought we had the best truck tonight,” Crafton said. “When we were in the dirty air, we could pass [Benson] and get away. I think if we had gotten the lead we would have won this race.”
Busch’s Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota led laps 37 to 49, relinquishing the lead to make his first pit stop. He was on pit road when the caution came out. Busch got the Lucky Dog and was able to regain the lead lap, but he restarted from the back of field and never was able to return to the front.
Busch was 13th, with a truck banged up in the multitruck crash on Lap 119, for the final restart with 29 laps remaining and charged to sixth, beating Skinner to the line by. 032 seconds.
Busch was attempting to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win consecutive races in each of the three national series.
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