Busch, Skinner going for three in a row at M'ville

Kyle Busch and Mike Skinner will both be racing for a third consecutive victory Saturday in the Craftsman Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway.

Say what?

Kyle Busch has won two in a row this season. Mike Skinner won both races last season at the historic .526-mile track and will try to become the first driver to win three in a row at the same short track in the Kroger 250.

One short of three

Mike Skinner has won at Martinsville three times. But something neither he or anyone else in the Truck Series has done is win three consecutive races at the same short track.

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• Drivers test at Martinsville
• By the Numbers: Trucks

Skinner dominated this race a year ago, leading 246 of 253 laps including the final 172, and returns in the same Bill Davis Racing Toyota Tundra. He has three wins at Martinsville in 10 races.

"Our goal is to definitely win, but we will take what we can get," Skinner said. "We've got to catch up in the points, and this would be a good weekend to do it."

Skinner has been rising steadily since Daytona, where he was 29th. He was eighth at California and third at Atlanta and has moved up to seventh in the point standings.

Busch, the points leader going into the fourth race of the season, has a best result of fifth in three Martinsville races.

"This isn't one of my best tracks in the Truck Series," Busch said. "We've come out of here with some good finishes, but those were just luck, I guess. We want to make sure we have a better handling truck so we can come through the field in order to get to the front and make some passes.

"This race anyway is a tough race because there is only like one stop and you have to have a good handling truck for a long, long period of time."

Denny Hamlin will be Busch's Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota teammate and make his first CTS start of the season and eighth of his career. Hamlin, of Chesterfield, Va., had his best Truck Series finish with an eighth at Martinsville in October 2006.

"Kyle and I are friends on and off the track and we've already been trash-talking about the race," Hamlin said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to race around each other out there and bring home a Truck Series victory for Billy Ballew."

Busch and Hamlin will be in their regular roles as Joe Gibbs Racing teammates in Sunday's Sprint Cup race, too.

"I think running in the Truck race is always valuable for us in the Cup race on Sunday," Hamlin said. "The new Cup car and the Craftsman Trucks are very similar in the draft. On the competition side, it will be valuable for both Kyle and me as we can learn a lot on pit strategy and the draft with a vehicle that doesn't turn real well like the trucks because of its long wheelbase."

Fast facts

What	Kroger 250
When	Green, 3:13 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	FOX, 3 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 3 p.m. ET

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Defending CTS champion Ron Hornaday doesn't have a win in 11 starts but has had three third-place finishes at Martinsville. He's third in the points, the top Chevrolet driver.

"Martinsville always has some of the best racing," Hornaday said. "It is a flat, short track that has a little bit of banking in the turns, but the straightaways are just flat. You definitely have to have good brakes at Martinsville. I know it sounds weird, but the better brakes you have there, the better you can get around the track. And you have to time your braking just right when you go into the turns. Overall, I have had some success at Martinsville, but I have never won there, so I am looking to change that."

Chrissy Wallace, the 19-year-old daughter of Nationwide Series driver Mike Wallace, will attempt to qualify for her first CTS race in a Germain Racing Toyota (qualifying is 10 a.m. ET Saturday on SPEED). She has been running late models, and her win at Hickory (N.C.) Speedway last year was the first there by a female driver (read more).

"This is a big opportunity with Germain Racing and Toyota," Chrissy Wallace said. "Not many females have gotten the chance to be with a top-notch team like Germain Racing and work with a manufacturer like Toyota."

Mike Wallace will be Chrissy's spotter.

"I think what Chrissy ended up learning from two days testing the Tundra at Martinsville is all the fundamentals she needs to learn to go back for the race," Mike Wallace said. "I'd like to see her qualify well and race all day long."