A lot. And especially the competition level.

Green, who signed with Red Horse Racing to complete the season's final 13 races following the suspension of Aaron Fike, was unprepared for the intensity of the racing - even though the 1994 NASCAR Busch Series champion finished fifth.

"The races I won in the Busch Series and races that were very mentally stressful don't even hold a candle to what it takes to run these things," said Green. "We ran 16 laps tonight before the first caution and the crew told me it was 16 laps down and I thought it should have been 200.

"I've never been in a race that fast of a pace and I'm sure the racetrack added to that."

Race winner Mike Skinner, only the second driver past age 50 to score a series victory, got the record for most consecutive races led from the beginning of a season - 13 - and then some.

Skinner wound up leading 135 of the 150 serials around the 1.5-mile track. He's now topped 789 of the 2,151 laps contested in 2007. He was No. 2 (to Mark Martin) in laps led a year ago with 596. Skinner holds the record for most laps led in a season - 1,533 in 1996.

Looking ahead, Skinner has failed to lead at just two currently scheduled tracks: Gateway International Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Both Skinner and standings runnerup Ron Hornaday Jr. are perfect in laps completed. Travis Kvapil remains one lap - 1.5 miles - short.

"We've been getting beat lately but we've been steady," said Skinner, who posted his 11th top five and 13th top 10. "That's what our strategy is for the rest of the year."

It appears to be working. Skinner's 164 point lead at the season's mid-point is the largest so far in 2007 eclipsing the margin of 113 that followed last month's race in Michigan.

To be champion a driver will have to beat one.

Here's the rundown on the seven former NASCAR Craftsman Truck titleholders - six of whom rank among the top eight in points: Ten wins, 10 poles, 39 top-five and 62 top-10 finishes.

Saturday night's top three - Skinner, Travis Kvapil and Ted Musgrave - each has a title. So do Mike Bliss and Hornaday who finished ninth and 10th.

Musgrave, meanwhile, was rebounding from his one-race suspension with a season-high, third-place effort. He gave Kvapil an intense challenge over the final 10 laps - the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota chasing the No. 6 K&N Engineering Ford that had "bumped" replacement driver Brad Keselowski out of the lead at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Whether the "calling card" might have been returned we'll never know. Musgrave couldn't quite reach Kvapil's rear bumper.

"I was trying to be smooth and consistent and protect second place after I realized there was no way I could catch (Skinner)," said Kvapil, who posted his seventh consecutive top 10 and third top-two finish in the past four races.

Said Musgrave, "My hat is off to the Germain Racing team for rallying around me this week. We're getting close." Musgrave continues to battle a 57-race winless streak dating to his 2005 championship season.

Surprise Bud Pole winner Ryan Mathews failed to lead a lap but charged back from the 10th-place to which he'd drifted following a less-than perfect start. Mathews, 27, passed Green for fourth-place late in the going and appears to be a future star for Bill Davis Racing.

Mathews was sixth at Memphis two weeks earlier.

"We were just bad off restarts - that's where we lost positions," he said. "If this race was only two cautions, we might have had something for (Skinner)."

Bill Lester ended a season and a half of frustration by leading a pair of laps en route to an eighth-place finish - the veteran's first top-10 since Homestead closed out the 2005 season.

Lester missed his fourth Bud Pole (and second at Kentucky Speedway) by just .001 second.

The performance moved Lester up three spots in the point standings - 19th to 16th, 26 arrears of Brendan Gaughan - as the Billy Ballew-owned team improves under crew chief Doug George.

"We knew we had a good Chevrolet Silverado here and we just kept trying to free it up ... and we never quite did get it free enough," said Lester. "But we finished eighth so obviously we weren't that bad."

Dodge continues to lag in the manufacturers' standings and remains winless in 2007. But Mike Bliss appears ready to bring the Ram truck back into contention.

Bliss, in his third start for Bobby Hamilton Racing, logged his third top-10 finish. His average finish in the No. 4 Open Joist Dodge is a decent 7.3.

Rick Crawford and Jack Sprague started their 260th series races but neither driver was able to finish among the top 10. Crawford was the victim of an early, aero-caused accident while Sprague was uncompetitive in a backup truck after destroying his primary No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota during qualifying.

Former NASCAR Elite Division, Southeast Series starter Mike Angelini was in the flagstand Saturday following the unexpected death earlier in the week of Dennis James. Services for the 47-year-old resident of Granite Falls, N.C. were to be held Monday.

Each truck in the field carried a DJ decal on its B posts. A moment of silence in honor of James and NASCAR pilot Mike Klemm and Dr. Bruce Kennedy, husband of NASCAR Board of Directors member Lesa France Kennedy was observed during pre-race ceremonies. Klemm and Kennedy died Tuesday in a Florida aircraft accident.