Hi foxenergy,
of course the timer IC will work perfectly in your application.
As you can see it works perfectly in the simulation.
Just copy the schematic and wire the components as shown.
Since I like electronics cool I've added small power transistors for LED drivers. Any NPN-type will do, since the minimum collector current will never be below 100mA, of which you will use 20mA only.
What to do with the unused outputs of the counter? Easy question and easy answer: Leave them open and connect pin15 (RESET) to the count + 1 as contained in the schematic.
If you prefer a small break between cycles connect pin15 to any other of the unused outputs, e.g. connnecting it to output decimal 6 (pin5) the circuit requires two extra clock cycles to restart the LED chain.
The new value for the current limiting resistor is calculated 55Ohm considering a typical voltage drop of 0.7V between emitter and collector of the transistor. The next suitable value is 56Ohm, which is used in the circuit.
RL=(9V-7.2V-0.7)/0.02A, RL=55Ohm
Regards and happy landings.
Boncuk