Mike Skinner
No. 5 International Truck/Monaco RV Toyota Tundra
Nashville Superspeedway – Nashville 200
August 7, 2010
Mike Skinner and the No. 5 International Truck/Monaco RVs team brought their Toyota Tundra home in the 11th position after a long day of practicing, qualifying and racing at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday. Despite racing inside the top-five for nearly 40 laps, an ill-handling Tundra pushed Skinner back in the final running order.
Skinner and the International Truck/Monaco RVs team ran practice speeds inside the top-15 before qualifying 15th with a lap of 31.477 seconds.
Early in the 150-lap race, Skinner called into the crew to report an extremely loose Toyota Tundra and asked the crew tighten up his truck as soon as possible. Skinner stayed on track during the lap five caution period, but came onto pit road during the lap 19 caution for fresh tires and a track bar adjustment.
Throughout the next run, Skinner struggled with a loose Toyota Tundra which he described as “jumping sideways” in the center of the turns. Skinner’s earlier pit stop allowed him to stay on track much longer than the leaders who elected to follow a different pit strategy. Green flag pit stops had cycled through by the time the caution came out on lap 66, leaving just Skinner and three other competitors on the lead lap.
The International Truck/Monaco RVs team utilized the opportunity to make a pit stop and restart inside the top five. Skinner continued to battle a loose race truck but was able to hold his position near the front of the field for the next 40 laps.
The International Truck/Monaco RVs team took one last shot at adjusting the No. 5 Toyota Tundra with four more tires and a left side wedge adjustment. Unfortunately, Skinner continued to struggle with a loose truck throughout the closing laps. The driver of the No. 5 International Truck/Monaco RVs Toyota Tundra held on for an 11th place finish.
“We struggled with the International Truck/Monaco RVs Toyota Tundra tonight,” said Skinner following the Nashville 200. “We are planning to do more testing on our trucks this week to determine what has been causing all of our handling issues. The team did a great job continuing to work on the truck and coming up with new ideas to try to improve our Toyota Tundra, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it dialed in where we needed it. As always, I’d like to thank our sponsors for standing by us as we work to improve our performances week after week.”
Next weekend the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will make their return to Darlington Raceway for the Too Tough to Tame 200. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED Channel beginning at 7:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, August 14. MRN and Sirius XM Radio will begin their coverage at 7:15 p.m. EST.
