NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Skinner started from the fourth position and led the final 66 laps of today’s Kroger 200 en route to his second win of the season at Martinsville’s half-mile oval. It was Skinner’s third career victory at Martinsville and 24th of his career.

Toyota has now accumulated 36 wins since joining the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the beginning of the 2004 season. In addition, Tundra drivers who have won races in 2007 include Skinner (California, Atlanta, Martinsville-1, Kentucky and Martinsville-2), Johnny Benson (Milwaukee, Bristol and Gateway), Todd Bodine (Texas and Talladega) and Jack Sprague (Daytona).

“For us to sweep both races at Martinsville with Jeff (Hensley) living just a couple miles through the woods over here -- that’s pretty good,” said Skinner, following the race. “It’s great that Bill Davis Racing was a part of Toyota winning their second consecutive Manufacturer Championship and I think they clinched that today. If we wouldn’t have won then I think the No. 60 (Jack Sprague) would have and he did an awesome job running us clean -- I owe a lot to him.”

With a total of 13 cautions for 70 laps of the 200-lap race, Skinner was forced to be cautious with his Tundra in order to take the victory.

“It’s the Craftsman Truck Series and it’s exciting,” continued Skinner. “We’ve seen lead changes, we’ve seen tempers, we’ve seen people act professional -- we’ve seen it all. When you come to tracks like Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond -- you’re going to see it all. This was only a 200-lap race and we never really had a chance to adjust on our truck -- we never changed tires and all we ever got to do was adjust a little wedge on the thing. After we started back I thought that was a bad decision, but after we lost some fuel in the thing and we got a bunch of nose weight -- I thought it was better. It was classic short track racing at Martinsville and it was awesome.”

Skinner was also able to regain the NCTS point lead with his win today and is now 11 points ahead of second place, Ron Hornaday.

“This thing will probably change back and forth a couple more times,” said Skinner about the NCTS points battle. “Hopefully he gets the lead at Atlanta, I take the lead at Texas, he gets it at Phoenix and I get it at Homestead -- that’s what I want.”

Other Tundras in today’s race included Ted Musgrave (eighth), Johnny Benson (ninth), Justin Labonte (12th), Todd Bodine (20th), Jason Leffler (23rd), Terry Cook (29th), Michael McDowell (30th) and Jacques Villeneuve (32nd).

The next race on the Craftsman Truck Series calendar is at Atlanta Motor Speedway, October 27.

Toyota Finishing Positions at Martinsville Speedway

1st, MIKE SKINNER
2nd, JACK SPRAGUE
8th, TED MUSGRAVE
9th, JOHNNY BENSON
12th, JUSTIN LABONTE
20th, TODD BODINE
23rd, JASON LEFFLER
29th, TERRY COOK
30th, MICHAEL MCDOWELL
32nd, JACQUES VILLENEUVE

Toyota Drivers in the Point Standings following Martinsville Speedway race*

1st, MIKE SKINNER 3,383 Points
4th, TODD BODINE 3,048 Points
5th, JOHNNY BENSON 2,969 Points
7th, TED MUSGRAVE 2,616 Points
10th, JACK SPRAGUE 2,514 Points
14th, TERRY COOK 2,207 Points
30th, AJ ALLMENDINGER 916 Points
32nd, JOSH WISE 904 Points

* Unofficial Point Standings