The Veteran Finishes 29th and Drops to the Second Position in the Point Standings
CONCORD, N.C. (May 17, 2009) – Heading into Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Mike Skinner and his No. 5 Randy Moss Motorsports team had momentum on their side, as they were the most recent winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Starting from the second position, Skinner drove his Rue & Ziffra, P.A./Daytonalive.com Toyota Tundra to the lead by the completion of lap one and remained in the first position for the next 26 laps.
On lap 27, the first caution of the night came out. Crew chief Eric Phillips called Skinner to pit road on lap 28 for four fresh tires, but as the No. 5 Toyota exited his pit stall, the jack left with the truck, which resulted in a stop and go penalty. The following lap, Skinner came back to pit road to serve his penalty and top off his truck with fuel.
Despite the penalty, Skinner restarted the race on lap 34 from the eighth position. Unfortunately, the next lap, the 1995 Truck Series Champion received contact from a fellow competitor, sending the No. 5 Rue & Ziffra, P.A./Daytonalive.com Toyota hard into the wall. The horrific crash ended the night early for Skinner and left the team with a disappointing 29th-place finish.
With the frustrating finish at the 1.5-mile oval, Skinner dropped one position in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship point standings. He currently sits in second-place, 84 points behind leader Ron Hornaday Jr.
Mike Skinner and his No. 5 Randy Moss Motorsports team will take a well-deserved and much-needed week off, before returning to racing action at Dover International Speedway on Friday, May 29th. The AAA Insurance 200 will begin at 5 P.M. Eastern, with SPEED carrying television coverage on a delayed basis, starting at 8 P.M. Eastern. Select affiliates of MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio Channel 128 will have live radio coverage of the 200-mile event, starting at 5 P.M. Eastern.
Mike Skinner Quotes:
What happened that took you out of the race?
“The replay that went on in my mind is that I went to pass a truck that was a lot slower than us and he ran me down in the grass. We spun and ended up hitting pretty hard. We had such a good Toyota Tundra tonight. This was the same truck we won with at Kansas and have been running at all of the intermediate tracks so far this season – and now it’s killed. I just hate it for Rue & Ziffra, Toyota, all my guys at Randy Moss Motorsports – we had a good year going here and we didn’t need this hiccup right here. It was just a really, really tough deal for us tonight. I blame myself – I knew who I was racing with right there and I probably should have let off the gas and waited another lap.”
Have you ever had a hit as hard as that one?
“I’m sure I have. I guess they’ll get the recorder out of there and that was the type of impact that a few years ago would have sent you off here in a helicopter with your head taped to a board. All of the safety equipment did a wonderful job.”
-RMM-