Mike Skinner celebrates in the winner's circle at Kentucky Speedway. (Nate Mecha/HSP)

On a night when he never had to make a single adjustment to his truck, Mike Skinner dominated the field to win his fourth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of the 2007 season by taking the checkered flag in the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway. Skinner started fourth but staked his claim early on, darting to the lead within the first ten laps and staying there for 133 of the race's 150 circuits.

Skinner gave up the lead on a round of pit stops on lap 97, but then leader Todd Bodine didn't take tires and that allowed Skinner to blast the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota back into the lead on the restart. From there, Skinner was able to open up a sizable advantage. Not even lapped traffic could slow him as he would cross the line ahead of runner up finisher Travis Kvapil by 5.570 seconds.

For Skinner, it was his 23rd career series victory.

"I can't believe we were coil binding here," Skinner said. "We tested at Iowa and we learned a lot that helped us here tonight. Jeff (Hensley) and I don't know enough about this setup to make adjustments to it, so we didn't turn a bolt or make an air pressure change all night long."

Skinner said he's had a truck that performed that well previously, but it's few and far between. But as well as his truck performed, he paid compliments to his teammate Ryan Mathews who started from the pole and finished a career-best fourth.

To the winner goes the victory lane kiss, Mike and Angie Skinner celebrate in victory lane. (Nate Mecha/HSP)

"I am an old man. You're going to have trucks like that a time or two when you get to my age," Skinner joked in victory lane. "It doesn't happen too often. This Bill Davis Racing team is just on a roll. We have an old guy (Skinner), a kind of old guy (Benson), and a real young kid (Mathews) on this team. We were pretty dominant earlier this year at Martinsville, and Johnny was that good in the second half of the Milwaukee race. If we aren't careful, that 22 truck is going to leave us in the dust."

Behind the winner, the two trucks involved in the race for the win in the last race picked up right where they left off. Kvapil held down second, with Ted Musgrave - back after sitting out the Memphis race - right on his bumper.

"We're a little discouraged. I am happy with second, but the guy we're chasing in the points won the race and led the most laps here tonight," Kvapil, driver of the No. 6 K&N Filters Ford, said. "I am happy with second because our truck wasn't that great. We worked on it and made it worse, then got it back to where it was and were able to hold on for second."

After watching the Memphis race from the couch, Musgrave was happy to be back in action and even happier to be in contention for the win.

"After Milwaukee we sat down and we really had a heart to heart and came up with some front end geometry stuff that has really helped us," Musgrave said. "Watching from the couch was a little different, but we're back and this is how we're going to run from here on out this year."

Todd Bodine (30) tries to hold off the hard charging Mike Skinner. (Jennifer Longo/HSP)

Ryan Mathews started from the pole for the first time in his short career, but found the going to be rough as he dropped back to 13th before the completion of the first lap. Mathews fought a lack of forward bite each time the green flag waved, but had a truck good enough to race back toward the front of the field under long green flag runs. Mathews jumped into the top five with a great pit stop under the final caution and stayed there to finish fourth in the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota.

"I don't know what the problem was on the start and restarts," Mathews said. "I just didn't have any forward bite. We tried restarts from second gear and then third gear and just couldn't get any grip. It was great when we were up to speed. I think if this was a two caution race we would have had something to make a run to win. But even still, I am glad to give Toyota their 50th pole in the Truck Series and glad to have a truck that could run as well as we did here tonight."

David Green rounded out the top five in the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota.

"I might have steered the guys the wrong way on the adjustments in practice yesterday," Green said. "We spent the entire two hours just trying to get me acclimated to the truck. It's been since 1997 since I've been in one of these, and they are quite different from the Busch cars. It was great to get back racing with guys like Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday and all these guys again, and I think this gives this team a lot of momentum heading into the second half of the season."

Jon Wood, in his return to NASCAR after sitting out six weeks due to an adverse reaction to prescription medication, finished an impressive sixth in the No. 21 Bush's Beans/Bubba Burger Ford. His teammate Joey Clanton was seventh in the No. 09 Zaxby's Ford, followed by Bill Lester in the No. 15 Bowen Family Homes Chevrolet, Mike Bliss in the No. 4 Dodge Motorsports/Open Joist Dodge, and defending race winner Ron Hornaday in the No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet.

The race was slowed by caution six times for 25 laps. The first incident of the day involved Rick Crawford, who got loose in turn four and pounded the outside wall on lap 12. The second caution of the night was the most serious as Terry Cook was tagged by Peter Shepherd, sending him headlong into the turn two wall on lap 51. Cook's truck suffered severe damage to the right front, while the damage to Shepherd's machine was also bad enough to sideline him for the remainder of the event. Shepherd's teammate Erik Darnell was running third when he lost a right rear tire entering turn one, sending him hard into the turn one wall.

Other drivers involved in spins on the evening included Dennis Setzer and Willie Allen, who spun simultaneously in separate incidents in turn three and four on lap 59, Jon Wood who spun in turn three on lap 64, and Todd Bodine who spun down the backstretch on lap 70.

With his victory, Skinner continues to lead the series standings over Hornaday heading into the next series race on July 27 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Bodine, Kvapil, and Crawford round out the top five in the championship standings.

TruckSeries.com will have complete coverage of the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at ORP, starting with TrackSideLive! updates throughout practice starting at 9 A.M Eastern on July 27. Live! Bud Pole Qualifying coverage is slated for that afternoon, with the first truck set to roll at 4:30 P.M. Eastern. The green flag on round 14 of the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is set for just after 8:00 P.M. Eastern.