Notes: Skinner looking to make short track history

Three have tried; none have succeeded.

This week, Mike Skinner looks for a way to win an elusive, third consecutive short track race at the same track when he takes the green flag Saturday at Martinsville Speedway in the Kroger 250.

Dennis Setzer was the last before Skinner to score back-to-back victories at a short track. Setzer won at Martinsville in 2002-03 and came tantalizingly close to a third victory the following April, finishing second to Rick Crawford.

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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Ron Hornaday had two shots at win No. 3 in 1998 and 1999, but failed both times to even crack the top 10.

Skinner has been in this position once before at O'Reilly Raceway Park in 1997. A broken oil line mid-race ended the streak.

Martinsville's only three-time series winner, Skinner, isn't getting ahead of himself.

"Well, the first thing we have to do is win," said Skinner, who'll be aboard the BDR Chassis 5-76 that carried him to both Martinsville wins in 2007. "Our goal this weekend is to definitely win, but we will take what we can get.

"We've got to catch back up in the points and this would be a good weekend to do it."

A new Martinsville for Lia

Donny Lia seemingly has an advantage this week over his rookie of the year classmates.

Lia has won at Martinsville Speedway before.

The question is whether winning last September's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race provides Lia with insights beyond knowing the location of Victory Lane.

The New York native, following two days of testing at Martinsville last week, isn't sure driving a 3,400-pound truck will be markedly different from guiding his lighter modified around the track's paperclip layout.

"It was surprising to me just how hard you drive the trucks into the corners, pretty much as hard and deep as I would drive a modified there," said Lia, the modified tour's 2007 champion. "However, you do tend to pick the throttle up a little bit later in the corner and smoother than you would a modified."

What's more familiar about Martinsville is how the track fits Lia's eye. He's been there many times -- just not at Martinsville, Va.

"It is a lot like the track I cut my teeth at, Riverhead Raceway in [Long Island] New York, just bigger," he said. "So it is like going home for me."

Lia and his fellow rookie of the year candidates obviously benefited from testing -- something that hasn't previously happened.

"We learned a lot about our truck and were very competitive," said Lia, who posted third, fourth and seventh-fastest speeds during three of the test's four sessions. (Continued)