All he needed was a clean race last weekend to shake Hornaday loose and grab his first series title.
That would have been way too easy.
Benson wrecked not once -- not twice -- but four different times Friday night to add yet another twist to the most compelling championship race in NASCAR this season. He wound up finishing 26th -- one spot BEHIND Hornaday -- and lost any chance of widening his lead in the standings.
"We're just trying to make it exciting. I don't know what else to say," said Benson, who could have stretched his lead to about 50 points if he'd stayed out of trouble.
But that wouldn't have been nearly as exciting.
"Johnny and I said we're going to go fishing and whoever catches a fish first wins the championship, because we definitely don't want to win it on the track," Hornaday said.
Boy, he wasn't kidding. The two now head into Friday's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway separated by just three points in the tightest championship race in series history. It's also the only true championship race of the weekend: Jimmie Johnson has the Sprint Cup title all but wrapped up and Clint Bowyer simply needs a clean race to clinch the Nationwide Series title.
That leaves all the excitement for Friday night's event.
"I'm glad they both pulled a bonehead move on the same night," Kevin Harvick, Hornaday's truck owner, said of the Phoenix fiasco. "They both could have had opportunities to put daggers in each other."
But neither has been able to put the other one away this season, as the two NASCAR veterans have swapped the series lead five times. Hornaday stormed back from a 119-point deficit to turn it into an epic battle, using a three-week stretch -- back-to-back wins in September at Gateway and New Hampshire, then a fifth-place finish at Las Vegas -- to close the gap to a single point.
Now he'll try to pass Benson and grab a series record fourth championship, which would tie Jeff Gordon for third on the career championships list in NASCAR's top three divisions. Hornaday will likely reflect on last season, when he entered the finale down 27 points to leader Mike Skinner but won the title by 54 points when Skinner finished second-to-last.
But the 50-year-old Hornaday doubts that experience will come in handy.
"Nobody has the advantage anymore in this point battle," he said. "I think this championship is going to go to the guy that has the least amount of bad luck. I've been saying for the past few weeks that this thing is going to come down to Homestead and here we are. We know what we have to do and we just need to treat this week like it's just another race."
The two will use the same strategy in pursuit of the title. Not counting lap-leader bonuses, all one has to do is finish higher than the other to win the championship. But Benson likes his odds, is the defending race winner and comfortable at the 1.5-mile track.
"Homestead is a pretty cool track for us. It kind of fits our style," he said. "It's a fun racetrack. I've always run good there in a Cup, Nationwide car and the trucks. It's pretty cool to go to the track knowing you've got a good opportunity to run well."
For Benson, it's his last race with Bill Davis Racing. He's leaving the team at the end of the season, but vowed not to let that effect his final performance.
"It doesn't really change anything. We have the opportunity to try to win a championship and to me the incentive doesn't change," Benson said. "We want to make that happen either way. It would mean a lot to be able to get this for Bill and Gail (Davis). They've been in this sport for a long time."
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