Mark Martin came to California still riding a wave of momentum after a strong performance in last week's Daytona 500 which saw him finish just a few feet behind winner Kevin Harvick. The defending winner of the San Bernardino County 200, Martin was making his 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut with the Wood/jtg Racing team, and he picked up where he left off here last season. He was the dominant driver all night long, leading throughout the middle and late stages of the race and pulling away from all challengers.

It almost looked like his eighth career Truck Series win was in the bag.

But a tangle on a late-race restart with second-place driver Ron Hornaday sent Martin sliding through the grass and opened the door for Mike Skinner just enough to allow the 1995 series champion to slide through and claim the lead. Skinner made a clean restart with two laps remaining and was able to hold off Hornaday to take the 20th win of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career.

A native of nearby Ontario, California, Skinner becomes the first home state driver to score a Truck Series victory at California Speedway.

"I am going to make sure I find my teammate Tyler Walker tonight and pick up some of that 360 OTC," Skinner joked in victory lane. "We're going to go back tonight and celebrate, so we may need some hangover relief in the morning!"

While Skinner was all smiles after the race, he knew exactly where he needed to be in the final laps in order to put his No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota in the winner's circle.

The No. 5 Toyota Tundra. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

"I knew my best chance to win the race was going to be the restart," Skinner said. "If they got together, or even if they didn't, I knew the restart was it. If they went down into one side-by-side, I was going to get a good run on them down the frontstretch and slide down on the inside in turns one and two. My truck was great down there all night long. But they ended up getting together and I drove hard until I heard the spotter call for the caution.

"I was ahead of Hornaday and I knew when they went back to the scoring loop we'd be the leader. But it wasn't over, I had the King of Restarts Ron Hornaday on my back bumper. I had to be smooth. I could have held it wide open in one and two on those last two laps but I just barely burped it. Once I got to the backstretch and I was leading, I knew we had enough horsepower under the hood of our Toyota to hold him off."

Martin was pragmatic in defeat. The No. 21 Bad Boy Mowers Ford led the race three times for a total of 45 laps and seemed to have victory within his grasp until the restart with four laps remaining.

The No. 21 Bad Boy Mowers Ford F-150 at California. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

"I don't know what happened," Martin said. "All of a sudden the motor revved up and the wheels started spinning and I got behind on the steering. That was a lot of fun. It was awesome, but (NASCAR) has got to get their cautions there at the end."

Two-time series champion and fellow California native Hornaday was regretful about the contact with Martin, but the driver of Kevin Harvick's No. 33 AES HR Solutions Chevrolet said he had no other option.

"I knew what Mark was doing," Hornaday said. "He slowed it down just enough so that I would have to get off the gas and flood the carburetor with fuel. But I drag the brake on the restarts so I don't spin the tires. When he slowed down, I got up under him and the bumpers didn't line up. If they did, all I would have done is shoved him down the straightaway. But it lifted the tires off the ground and he lost it. I feel bad about it because Mark doesn't race me that way and I don't race him that way. In all my years racing with Mark, that may be the first time we've ever gotten together."

With his performance, Hornaday showed that the Chevrolet teams will be a factor alongside the Toyotas and the Fords in 2007.

"Chevrolet has stepped up their program here," Hornaday said. "And with Kevin Harvick making the commitment to come and run the second truck that has helped us even more. We've taken both trucks testing everywhere we've gone. We're not going to let these other manufacturers take all the wins this year without having something to say about it."

Jack Sprague finished third after a steady and consistent night in the No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota. Sprague is tied with Skinner for the points lead but is unofficially the leader based upon his third-place finish. Sprague ribbed his friend Hornaday following the race.

"Man Hornaday, you spun out the man," Sprague teased. "I don't know what caused that and I am not going to take sides. But I do know that it was really easy to spin the tires here tonight on restarts. It was so cool and so slick on the restarts that it was all you could do to stop spinning them. I don't think we put a scratch on it. We stayed out of trouble and had a good points night."

Sprague wasn't done playfully giving Hornaday a hard time.

"The best part of our run tonight was we didn't make anyone mad at us," he said with a smile, looking at Hornaday.

Carl Edwards drove the No. 50 Roush Racing Ford to fourth, and 2005 champion Ted Musgrave brought the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota home in the fifth position. Johnny Benson drove to a sixth-place finish in the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, defending series champion Todd Bodine fought to seventh in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota, Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick was eighth in the No. 2 Camping World/RVs.com Chevrolet, Rick Crawford was ninth in the No. 14 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford, and Mike Bliss rounded out the top ten in the No. 40 Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet.

There were six caution flags for a total of 19 laps, all for minor incidents. David Starr had a long night, spinning harmlessly twice - once at each end of the speedway. Casey Kingsland and Kraig Kinser also spun off turn four, and Martin brought out the final caution with his spin into the frontstretch grass.

Sprague unofficially leads the points with 355, tied with Skinner. Benson is third with 330, Hornaday fourth with 321, and Bodine rounds out the top five with 306.

The average speed was 130.933 miles per hour in a race that had 9 lead changes among 4 drivers. Martin led 45 laps, Skinner led 43, Benson was up front for 11, and Hornaday led a single circuit. Skinner's margin of victory was 0.554 seconds.

The next event for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the American Van Lines 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday March 16. TruckSeries.com will have complete coverage of the single-day event, including TrackSideLive! updates throughout practice, Live! Bud Pole Qualifying, and complete pre- and post-race updates.