Randy Moss Motorsports' Mike Skinner doing all he can to end season on high note
Randy Moss Motorsports' Mike Skinner is third in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings heading into this weekend's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. // Mark Sluder, NASCAR Scene
Mike Skinner is all but conceding the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title to Ron Hornaday, but that doesn’t mean Skinner is any less enthusiastic about his recent hot streak or his team’s potential.
The winner of two of the last three races, Skinner enters Saturday’s Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with as much momentum as anyone in the series, including Hornaday.
But unseating the Kevin Harvick Inc. driver for the championship will be a tall order for Skinner, however, as he trails Hornaday by 246 points with six races left.
Skinner is also 29 points behind Matt Crafton.
“I feel like we’re racing for second place, and we could still realistically finish second in the championship standings, which is really, really good,” Skinner said in a recent phone interview with www.SceneDaily.com. “If Ron had a bunch of bad luck and we had a bunch of good luck and went on one of them little streaks like he had [when Hornaday won five straight races], then it’s possible to do something, but to be honest with you, we’re just going to go try to win another race or two.
“And if we can do that, we’re really, really working hard to try to put our sponsorship package together for next year.”
Despite a strong points position and three wins this season, the chances of Skinner returning to his Randy Moss Motorsports team in 2010 are uncertain. He’d like to remain with the two-truck organization, which he joined just before the season started, but the group is still searching for additional sponsorship for next year on Skinner’s No. 5 entry.
The 1995 series champion has been backed on a part-time basis this season by several sponsors, including Exide and PC*Miler Navigator, both of which Skinner expects to return in a part-time capacity in 2010.
“I have to compliment [team co-owner] David Dollar and everybody at Randy Moss Motorsports for being able to stretch a dollar as far as we’ve done,” Skinner said. “It’s not very realistic what we’ve done this year with the amount of money we’ve done it on, so I’m pretty blessed in that aspect. There’s a bunch of teams that’s had a heck of a lot more money to run with than we do that are behind us.”
Skinner’s recent wins – which came in back-to-back races at Iowa Speedway and Gateway International Raceway – couldn’t have come under much different circumstances.
At Iowa, the veteran driver led 180 of 200 laps during a race in which his truck was easily the class of the field.
Skinner’s win at Gateway was more of a result of being in the right place at the right time – he moved from third to first when Hornaday crashed and Crafton was black-flagged after those drivers tangled in the closing laps.
“It’s funny because I can sit here and tell you over the past few years at least 10 races that we have smoked them all day and then something happened at the end, and we’re the guy that loses the race,” said Skinner, a winner of 28 races in NASCAR’s No. 3 series. “I can tell you one of them [Gateway] that we had a good truck, but we didn’t have track position, and we did get some help, so it kind of came back around for us. … I tell people we backed into it, but if we had been up front, they couldn’t have passed us, so I don’t want to give the trophy back.”
Nor would he take back his decision to join Randy Moss Motorsports. The organization, co-owned by Dollar and pro football player Randy Moss, picked up Skinner after he was left without a ride when Triad Racing Technologies absorbed Bill Davis Racing in the offseason.
“There’s no question that we have exceeded my expectations, but just like in years past, whenever you achieve a goal and the season’s not over, you just raise the bar higher,” the 52-year-old Skinner said. “You draw a new line in the sand and go, ‘Hey, I want to get to this point.’ We’ve already got to the point where I didn’t think we’d get, so now I want more. And it’s like if you get a chance to keep going, you have to do that.”
As for areas where his young team could grow and improve, Skinner says there can certainly be better communication within the company and fewer mistakes on pit road.
Skinner gives crew chief Eric Phillips much of the credit for his 2009 success and hopes the sponsorship situation will allow both to return in 2010.
“Eric and I are going to these places together for the first time,” Skinner said. “That’s one of the reasons that I’m working pretty diligently at trying to keep this group together. We need another season together.
“I think our best chance to win a championship is to stay together so when we come back around to these places we’ve got some notes.”
