(Sports Network) - Mike Skinner beat Erik Darnell by 0.02 seconds to win Saturday night's Qwik Liner Las Vegas 350 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The victory was Skinner's first of the season and the 25th of his career. His last win came 22 races ago in October 2007 at Martinsville, VA.

"Erik's truck was awfully good," Skinner said. "I was not going to wreck Erik to win the race. I was going to push him, bounce off of him, do what ever I had to do, but he's a friend, a class act and a good guy. But right now the 5- truck is back in Victory Lane."

Meanwhile, Johnny Benson saw his 74-point lead disappear when he cut a right- front tire and slammed into the wall during the mid-stages of the race. Benson suffered heavy damage to his Toyota and ended up finishing 27th.

"There wasn't any doubt we had a fast truck, but I'm just still real surprised that happened because there was zero indication of that," Benson said.

Ron Hornaday Jr., winner of the last two races, dealt with an ill-handling truck in the beginning of the race but rallied for a fifth-place finish. He now trails Benson by only one point with six races to go in the season.

Hornaday started on the pole and led the first two laps, but Skinner moved around Hornaday to lead the third lap. Sean Murphy spun the following lap to put the race under caution for the first time.

When the race resumed on the ninth lap, Todd Bodine quickly passed Skinner for the lead. Bodine opened up a two second advantage over Skinner until Justin Marks spun on Lap 24 for the second caution.

Stacy Compton made contact with the wall on Lap 39. Compton replaced Ted Musgrave in the No.59 Toyota when Musgrave and team owner Jim Harris mutually agreed to part the company effective immediately. Musgrave participated in the morning practice but crashed during the session. The decision to replace him was made thereafter. Compton finished 28th.

On Lap 78, Brendan Gaughan hit the rear end of Jack Sprague, sending Sprague into the wall. He suffered severe damage to his Chevrolet and failed to finish a race for the first time this season. After Sprague climbed out of his truck, he walked up the track to await the passing of Gaughan on the caution lap. A NASCAR (web|news) official confronted Sprague to prevent him from any on-track altercation.

"I raced Brendan underneath him most of the race and never touched him, so I don't know what his excuse is, just got taken out," Sprague said.

Darnell grabbed the lead from Skinner on Lap 84. However, the sixth caution set up another round of stops with Skinner winning the battle off of pit road and Darnell coming out second. John Andretti did not pit and led the field for the restart on Lap 102. Darnell quickly moved back in front when he passed Andretti on the following lap.

Bodine battled Colin Braun for the third spot but got turned around with 21 laps remaining. Bodine fell back to 20th. When the race resumed with 16 laps to go, Shane Sieg made contact with Dennis Setzer, putting Setzer into the wall. The yellow flag was displayed for a track-record 10th time.

The 12th and final caution for an incident involving David Starr set up a green-white-checkered finish. On the restart, Skinner moved underneath Darnell to take the lead, but Darnell came charging back. The two ran side-by-side on the final lap before Skinner edged him at the finish line.

"Mike was just a little bit better than us on the restarts," Darnell said. "It took us two or three laps to really get going."

Darnell led a race-high 56 laps. He beat Benson by 0.005 seconds in June at Michigan for his second career win in the series.

The next race is scheduled for Saturday, October 4th, at the Talladega Superspeedway.





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