Spinning out Mark Martin, arguably one of NASCAR's most popular drivers, is a bit like being the man who shot Santa Claus.

And Ron Hornaday Jr. hated that the nose of his AES HR Solutions Chevrolet tagged the rear bumper of Martin's truck on lap 96, sending the Bad Boy Mowers Ford into California Speedway's infield and out of the lead of Friday's San Bernardino County 200.

"I hate to see that because Mark is such a clean racer and a great competitor," said Hornaday, who chased Mike Skinner to the checkered flag at California Speedway. "I wouldn't race him that way and he wouldn't race me that way. It just happened.

"If it was (Jack) Sprague or somebody, I wouldn't feel bad about it."

Actually, Hornaday, twice a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, was putting a positive face to what he felt was Martin's blocking tactic on what should have been 100-lap race's final restart.

"Mark knows he tried to get me out of the gas," he said. "When the second place guy gets out of the gas and when the leader goes and you get back in the throttle, all you are going to do is spin the tires. I touched Mark (and) it looked like he tried to come back up to block me from passing him. When he did, he was still off the ground a little bit and I spun him out."

Skinner was born in Ontario, a few miles west of the speedway, but couldn't recall in which hospital.

"I was born just down the street somewhere," said the onetime water well driller whose family moved to the northern Sierra town of Susanville, Calif. when Skinner was a child.

Skinner was pleased to be on the long end of what amounted to a green-white-checker finish even though the race didn't go into overtime.

"I've lost so many of these races … doggone it, it's about time I won one of those," he said.

For the record, Skinner is one up - four to three - in GWC finishes but had lost two of the last three - most recently last June at Texas Motor Speedway to 2006 champion Todd Bodine.

Skinner became the third driver to win career race behind Hornaday (29) and Sprague (28).

Six of the race's seven former champions again finished among the top 10 in a repeat of the season opener at Daytona. Mike Bliss's 10th-place performance, a first for the Key Motorsports team, gives all seven at least one top 10 this season.

Champions have won eight of the 11 races at California Speedway but only one - Sprague - in a title year (1999).

Drivers counting six titles - Sprague, Skinner and Hornaday - occupy three of the top four positions in the season point standings.

Although Morgan Shepherd's night in the second Key Motorsports entry amounted to a four-lap, cameo appearance, he still extended his record as the oldest driver to start a NASCAR Craftsman Truck race. Shepherd's age when he took the green flag was 65 years four months and two days.

Aaron Fike took over the Raybestos Rookie of the Year lead with an 18th-place finish, the best placing of eight freshman drivers.

Carl Edwards won the Budweiser Pole with a speed of 176.354 mph. The driver's first pole since 2004 at Darlington Speedway came at the slowest speed since 2003.

Circle Bar Racing made its 250th consecutive start - a continuing record - at California Speedway. Driver Rick Crawford, who posted the season's second top 10, and Sprague will extend the career total start mark to 250 in Atlanta next month.