The 1995 Truck Series Champion Drops to Fourth in Championship Point Standings
WEST ALLIS, Wisc. (June 22, 2009) – Mike Skinner was a force to be reckoned with during Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at The Milwaukee Mile. After rain postponed the running of the 200-mile race on Friday night, the 1995 Truck Series Champion and his No. 5 Doc Bailey’s Toyota Tundra team took to the track under bright and hot skies on Saturday, looking for their second win of the season. Quickly Skinner drove his truck into the second position, but after the Randy Moss Motorsports team made their green flag pit stops for fuel and fresh tires on laps 124 and 125, a caution flew, putting Skinner two laps down. For the final 75 laps, Skinner was running laps just as fast as the leader, but was unable to regain position on the lead lap, relegating the Daytona Beach, Florida resident to a disappointing 19th-place finish.
Due to rain, qualifying was cancelled, starting the No. 5 Doc Bailey’s Toyota from the fourth position. By lap five, Skinner had moved into third-place and in 10 more laps, the veteran was running in the second position. The first caution of the afternoon came out on lap 38 for debris. Crew chief Eric Phillips called Skinner to pit road on lap 40 for four fresh tires and a track bar adjustment, as the Doc Bailey’s Tundra was a “little free.” The following lap, Skinner returned to pit road for fuel. As the 33-truck field went back to green-flag conditions on lap 44, Skinner ran in second-place.
Skinner ran in the second position until lap 124 when he came to pit road under green-flag conditions. Phillips radioed for fuel only on the first stop and then for four fresh tires on the second stop (lap 125). Unfortunately, a caution flew three laps later, putting Skinner and the Doc Bailey’s team two laps down to the leader. On lap 133, Skinner restarted from the 20th position, where he ran until the final 10 laps of the 200-mile event. The Randy Moss Motorsports driver was able to pick up one spot, finishing the race in the 19th position.
“That was really disappointing,” said Skinner. “My Randy Moss Motorsports team gave me an awesome Toyota Tundra and we just got caught there with our green flag pit stops. It’s really unfortunate; we should have finished a lot higher than this. I really believe that we could have contended with Hornaday for the win. But we will put this race behind us and head on to Memphis next week. I have to thank Doc Bailey’s for coming on board with us this week and we are really looking forward to working with them in the future. Hopefully we can get them their first win in Kentucky.”
Recording only his third finish outside the top-10, Skinner dropped one position to fourth-place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship point standings. He currently sits 89 points behind leader Ron Hornaday Jr. and only one point behind third-place Todd Bodine.
This Saturday, June 27, Skinner and his No. 5 Exide Batteries team will look to end their five-week stretch with a win as they head to the Home of the Blues for the running of the MemphisTravel.com 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park. Skinner will look to rock and roll to Victory Lane as the green flag waves shortly after 6 P.M. Eastern. The 200-lap race will be televised live on SPEED starting at 5:30 P.M. Eastern. It can also be heard live on select affiliates of MRN Radio, along with Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio Channel 128.
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