Mike Skinner was seeing double at the Kroger 250 on Saturday as the caution flag became his biggest competitor in contending for his first win of the season.

"It was just the luck of the cautions again," Skinner said. "I think the caution cost us winning at Atlanta, and it cost us here."

After qualifying in eighth position, Skinner was primed to carve his way to the front of the pack and battled his way to sixth place prior to the fourth caution despite an ill handling ride that was, at times, 'pushing like a dump truck.' During the team's first pit stop on Lap 82 for track bar, air pressure adjustments and four tires, the No. 42 Toyota crew vaulted the inaugural champion to third on the grid, giving him essential track position to contend for the victory.

Less than five laps into the restart, Skinner passed eventual winner Rick Crawford for second place and set his sights on leader Jack Sprague, combating another pair of cautions and tricky restarts with lapped trucks on the ultra-tight track. Keeping mindful of track position, Skinner's Bang Racing team stuck to their pre-race strategy by bringing him in for an early pit stop on Lap 146 for additional adjustments and fresh tires. Their gamble paid off as the leaders stayed out and another caution flag and pit stops huffled Skinner atop the leader board where he would remain for 38 laps.  But as luck would have it, additional yellow flags prevented his charge away from the field and the media buzz over a potential, historic victory for the Toyota camp. Skinner clinched a fifth place finish after an exciting door-to-door battle with Jon Wood during the green-white-checkered dash to the end.

"Our truck wasn't the best truck today," he said. "It was kind of like Atlanta.Bobby's truck was better. Today, there were a couple of trucks that were better. But man, when this Tundra got in some clean air, we were gone. When our truck was out front, it would cut and turn and got good forward bite. But when we got behind someone, we were just plowing.  And unfortunately, we couldn't hold our track position, but we came in fourth place loser which is a good day for Martinsville."

"Considering our chassis was off all day, I'm happy to come out of Martinsville with a top-five," Crew Chief Rick Ren said. "The truck's not all tore up. We can beat it out and race it again. Would we have
liked to keep the lead and stay in the lead? Yeah. But the team had great pit stops, Mike drove his tail off in an ill-handling race truck, and his son, Jamie, did a great job of spotting. It was a great team
effort again today, and that's what it's all about. Any day you can have a bad day and run in the top-five, that's a good day."

"For Alex and Larry to put a team together as late in the year as they did, and we've had a top-five finish every race so far.that's pretty darn good," Skinner said. "We're knocking on the door. Travis is knocking on the door. I've always said if you run in the top-five, pretty soon you'll win one."

Former champion Mike Skinner gained three positions and sits fifth in points following the Kroger 250. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return to green flag racing on May 16 with the inaugural running of the Ohio 250 in Mansfield, Ohio.