Pre-Race Notes and Quotes
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas 350
September 26, 2009
SKINNER AT LAS VEGAS: Mike Skinner will be making his 199th start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) when the green flag drops for the Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday evening. Skinner is the defending race winner and has competed in seven truck series races at the 1.5-mile track. Skinner has visited victory lane on two occasions and has earned two top-five and five top-10 finishes. He started from the pole position three consecutive years (2004-2006) and has six top-five qualifying efforts. In addition, the 1995 Truck Series champion has competed in seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and one Nationwide Series race at the track.
PHILLIPS’ CHASSIS CHOICE: Crew Chief Eric Phillips and the No. 5 Randy Moss Motorsports team will utilize chassis MDM-105 for this weekend’s event. Skinner drove this truck to a 13th-place finish earlier this season at Chicagoland Speedway in its only previous outing.
PHILLIPS’ THOUGHTS ON VEGAS: “The truck we’re taking to Las Vegas was brand new in Chicago, but we’re going to start off with a setup similar to what we would use for Charlotte. It’s my first time at this track with Skinner, so it’s kind of an unknown for me. He’s had so much success there and he obviously has a feel there that he likes, so that’s what we’ll be trying to achieve with our PC*MILER Navigator Toyota on Saturday.”
PRETTY GOOD ODDS: As Skinner approaches his 200th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start, he is also just one pole away from earning his 50th NCWTS pole position. Skinner has started from the top spot twice this season and it should come as no surprise to anyone if he reaches that milestone this weekend. Skinner has led the field to the green three times at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and in the seven races in which he has competed there, has only started outside of the top five once.
THE SEASON’S STATS: The No. 5 team has posted eight top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 19 events this season, including three wins, which came at Kansas Speedway in April, Iowa Speedway and Gateway International Raceway two weeks ago. Skinner holds down the third spot in the NCWTS driver point standings, 29 markers behind second place and 246 points out of first.
DON’T MISS OUT: On behalf of PC*MILER Navigator, Mike Skinner will be signing autographs for fans at the Petro truck stop located at 6595 N. Hollywood Blvd. from 5-6 p.m. PT Friday evening. In addition, Skinner and several of his truck series competitors will take part in a Las Vegas Motor Speedway press conference Thursday, September 24 at the new Hard Rock Café located on the Las Vegas strip. The press conference is scheduled for an 11:30 a.m. PT start.
WATCH AND LISTEN: Race coverage will be televised on SPEED and heard live on select affiliates of MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio Channel 128, beginning at 9:30 p.m. (ET).
SKINNER CAREER NCWTS STATS: Mike Skinner has scored 28 victories in 198 starts in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition and has earned 88 top-five and 127 top-10 finishes since making his first start in Phoenix (and going on to win the event) in 1995. He has also earned 49 pole positions during that time, including his latest last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
POINT AND CLICK: Fans can continue to vote for their favorite driver for the Most Popular Driver Award through the end of October. The results of the online balloting will be announced at the NCWTS awards banquet at the end of the season. Visit www.nascar.com for more details and to cast your vote for Mike.
ABOUT PC*MILER NAVIGATOR: PC*MILER Navigator is changing the way commercial truck drivers work, as it is the first GPS navigation system specifically designed for company drivers, owner operators, and leased operators and the only way to get industry standard PC*MILER directions in the cab. For more information about PC*MILER, please visit www.pcmnav.com.