NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Skinner started from the pole and led all but six laps in a dominant performance en route to the win at Martinsville's half-mile oval. It was Skinner's second victory at Martinsville and the 22nd Craftsman Truck Series win of his career, as well as his sixth triumph in a Toyota Tundra.

Toyota has now accumulated 29 wins since joining the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the beginning of the 2004 season. In addition, Toyota drivers have captured the checkered flag in the first four races - Daytona (Jack Sprague), and California, Atlanta and Martinsville (Mike Skinner) - of the 2007 campaign.
"We didn't expect to win this race and we certainly didn't expect to sit on the pole today," said Skinner, after the race. "This was really cool. It wasn't a fluke today, our Tundra was just hauling - it was awesome and Jeff Hensley (crew chief) gave me great stuff again."
"This is about as good as it gets," added Skinner. "My spotter kept telling me to be easy getting into the first turn. I said; 'That's where they're going to run into me.'" If we could get two laps under our belt, then we could slow down and this truck would just go. You could get to the center of the corner and stomp the floor down and it would just stick."
Winning his third race in a row also made the day at Martinsville memorable.
"It's just a dream to win three in a row," said Skinner. "The pressure is off so we can just go race. There's no pressure on us, we just want to go race. We want to run in the top-five and the top-10, and that's what we've been doing. When we have a bad day, we need to finish 15th, rather than 25th, and that will help us in the points."
Tundra drivers Todd Bodine (second), Ted Musgrave (fifth), Aaron Fike (seventh), Tyler Walker (eighth) and Johnny Benson (10th) also scored top-10 finishes at Martinsville. Rookies Fike and Walker registered the best finishes of their NCTS careers.

Other Tundra racers in the field were Terry Cook (15th), Jack Sprague (16th) and AJ Allmendinger (27th).

The next race on the Craftsman Truck Series calendar is at Kansas Speedway, April 28.

Toyota Finishing Positions at Martinsville Speedway

1st, MIKE SKINNER
2nd, TODD BODINE
5th, TED MUSGRAVE
7th, AARON FIKE
8th, TYLER WALKER
10th, JOHNNY BENSON
15th, TERRY COOK
16th, JACK SPRAGUE
27th, AJ ALLMENDINGER
Toyota Drivers in the Point Standings following Martinsville Speedway race*

1st, MIKE SKINNER 745 Points
2nd, TODD BODINE 651 Points
5th, TED MUSGRAVE 600 Points
6th, JACK SPRAGUE 564 Points
8th, JOHNNY BENSON 543 Points
10th, AARON FIKE 497 Points
19th, TERRY COOK 385 Points
20th, AJ ALLMENDINGER 375 Points
22nd, TYLER WALKER 373 Points

* Unofficial Point Standings

TOYOTA NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Post-Race Notes & Quotes -
Kroger 250 - Martinsville Speedway

* Today's win marks Mike Skinner's second win at Martinsville Speedway, his 22nd career NCTS win and his sixth win behind the wheel of the No. 5 Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing.
* Winning crew chief, Jeff Hensley, is from nearby Ridgeway, Virginia.
* Today's win marks Toyota's 29th victory in NCTS competition.
* Skinner has earned three NCTS wins in a row -- California Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. It is Toyota's fourth consecutive win this year. Jack Sprague won the Daytona season-opener.
* Skinner is only the second driver in NCTS history to earn two wins at Martinsville.
* Three Toyota Tundras finished in the top-three today: Skinner (first), Todd Bodine (second), and Ted Musgrave (fifth).
* Skinner earned his first career pole award at Martinsville Speedway today and his 34th career NCTS pole. Skinner's lap also established a new track record for the NCTS at Martinsville.
* Toyota Tundras earned three of the top-five starting positions for today's race with Mike Skinner (first), Ted Musgrave (third), and Jack Sprague (fifth).
* Aaron Fike was the top-finishing rookie in today's race and earned his career-best NCTS finish in the seventh position. Fike was also the fastest rookie to qualify by earning an 11th place starting position in his career-first start at Martinsville Speedway.
* Tundra drivers hold six of the top-ten positions in NCTS points: Skinner (first), Bodine (second), Musgrave (fifth), Jack Sprague (sixth), Johnny Benson (eighth), and Fike (10th).

MIKE SKINNER, No. 5 Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing:
Finished: 1st

How does it feel to dominate like that at Martinsville?
"That was cool wasn't it? We knew we didn't expect to win this race and we certainly didn't expect to sit on the pole today. I guess it wasn't a fluke, the truck hauled butt all day. The truck was so awesome and Jeff Hensley (crew chief) has given me such great stuff. TRD (Toyota Racing Development) has given us incredible engines. I remember a couple years ago these Toyotas wouldn't run on these short race tracks. All the guys at TRD and Toyota have done a great job. Tundra is moving forward - it's the truck that's changing it all!"

Have you ever had a race vehicle that was so dominant in your career?
"You know that old 31 car at Atlanta a few years ago was this dominant, and we broke something with about 16 or 17 laps to go. But this is about as good as it gets right here. My spotter just kept telling me to be easy getting into that first turn. I said; 'That's where they're going to run into me.' If we could get two laps under our belt, then we could slow down and this thing would just go. You could get to the center of the corner and stomp the floor down and it would just stick. We went and tested at a little hideaway of mine and it was definitely a test worth going and doing."

How did you feel about those late-race cautions?
"I wasn't too happy with some of those guys. You're not going to win today so quit trying to take it from me. It worked out good. There are a bunch of other guys that if they would have been behind me, we wouldn't have won. But Todd Bodine was a gentleman and what goes around, comes around. He has shown a lot of professionalism, that's why he was the champion - because he was smart."

JEFF HENSLEY, Crew Chief, No. 5 Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing:

What does it mean to win at your home track?
"Our family-owned team won some Busch races here back in the early 90s. This is really special. It's been 14 years since I've won here as a crew chief and that's big. The biggest thing for us as a team is that we've won on a two-mile track, we've won on a mile-and-a-half and now we've won on the half-mile. This winter we worked really hard to make every aspect of our program better and one of the things that we really failed at last year, I felt, was our two-mile program and our short track program. We've got a win at each of them right now and I just hope I don't wake up from this dream until about November."

"Mike is the biggest change in this deal. He's driving smart and not asking more of the truck that what it can do. We have a good truck at the end when it counts. This is probably the only race that we've had the best truck and won. We didn't have the best truck at California and we didn't have the best truck at Atlanta, but we managed to win with it. We were pretty dominating here and that's big. I went to high school about two miles from here, at Drewry Mason High School. I went to college at Patrick Henry Community College, which is about 15 miles north of here. It's just big."

TODD BODINE, No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing:
Finished: 2nd

What are your thoughts on the race today?
"Mike (Skinner) and Jeff (Hensley) had an awesome truck, that thing would roll the center and he could just stomp the gas and go. I could stomp the gas and go, but I couldn't roll through the center as good as he could. I got us in a real hole qualifying, I just wasn't on top of the wheel and it's just one of those things. With good pit strategy, we got up to the front, that's what we needed with track position being so critical here at Martinsville. We knew if we could get there, we could hold on a little bit. I figured we would get passed by a couple, but the adjustments that Mike (Hillman, Jr., crew chief) made really brought the truck around and it started rolling better. Hats off to Mike Skinner and Jeff Hensley, they've got it going on."

TED MUSGRAVE, No. 9 Team ASE Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing:
Finished: 5th

How was the truck today?
"The truck's beat up, but the driver's okay. It was a typical Martinsville race. Our truck was a top-five truck and that's where we finished. We didn't have a winning truck and I figured that out when I was following Mike (Skinner) early on in the race. We think we know what the difference was and I think when we come back here in the fall, we'll come back with something a little different again. Nothing off the wall, but something that we haven't seen in a couple years. We just have to go back and re-evaluate things, but the Team ASE Tundra was a top-five truck all day, we just had to be patient and sometimes it's hard to keep the driver patient."

How much of an effect did the numerous cautions have on you today?
"This was the worst I've ever seen for lap-down trucks on the inside -- it was absolutely death-defying. You could never get a run going because every caution breeds another caution. That was the tough thing because you couldn't get your rhythm going. Once you did finally beat and bang off of them, another caution would come out and we'd have to start all over again. I think I ran into the same guys 20 times in the last 80 laps and it was the same group of guys. It's a tough deal and it's Martinsville, but I'm just glad we only have to come here twice a year."