Johnny Benson held off Brendan Gaughan for the final 16 laps to win the O'Reilly 200 Craftsman Series Truck Series race Wednesday night, the first NASCAR race on the newly surfaced Bristol Motor Speedway.

For Benson, who earned his first win at BMS, his second of the season and the seventh of his career, it was a special victory.

"This race track is way cool," he said. "Bristol Motor Speedway, Bruton Smith, Jeff Byrd, everybody did one heck of a job. When they tore it down they wanted a two-groove track but I don't think anybody thought it would be that way from the get-go. It was really a challenge to tear this thing down but they did their homework and they did an awesome job.

"It's just cool to win here at Bristol; this is my first win here and it's great to do that on a new track."

Benson twice kept Gaughan at bay, first on a restart with 16 laps to go, then on the race's final green flag with five to go.

Todd Bodine spun with 10 laps to go, spilling some debris on the newly paved surface and forcing a red flag. Once the cleanup was completed, the action got going again and Benson kept newlywed Gaughan on his bumper.

Gaughan, who was celebrating his marriage which took place last weekend, was thrilled with the way he ran and with the track.

"The track was magnificent," he said. "Bruton Smith did a terrific job.  I never thought I'd see two by two racing at Bristol on the first lap. There's no need to bump and run anymore like the old Bristol. Did you see me run up against the wall? It was absolutely fantastic running out there tonight."

Mark Martin, who won the O'Reilly 200 last year, finished third. He also gave the race and the track rave reviews.

"The race track is awesome," he said. "I'm looking forward to watching the race Friday and Saturday night. I want to thank Wood Brothers/JTG Racing for letting me drive such an awesome Ford F-150 tonight. We really wanted to win this thing, but we gave it a good run. We never changed tires all night and the truck came on strong at the end. We were set up for the long run so it worked out but just not good enough for a win."

Points leader Mike Skinner finished fourth, followed by Rick Crawford, Ron Hornaday, Jr., Mike Bliss, Jack Sprague, Cale Gale and Coeburn native Danny O'Quinn.