Steve Keller/TruckSeries.com Photo

This past weekend of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing was interrupted by Mother Nature on Friday, as  rain pounded the Dover, Del., area all day.  Luckily, the truck teams got all of their on-track race preparation completed on Thursday before the rain arrived, which gave Skinner and his No. 5 Toyota Tundra team just enough time to lock in a sixth-place starting position and to get in a good amount of practice before taking the green flag late Saturday afternoon.  Then, they turned around and managed to take their top-10 start and turned it into a top-10 finish by the time the checkered flag waved to conclude the eighth Craftsman Truck Series race of the 2005 season.

As the MBNA RacePoints 200 got underway, Skinner had his hands full with a very loose-handling Toyota.  He radioed his team the truck was loose in the middle and shoving on the gas as he worked to hold on to his top-10 run.

Taking advantage of the third yellow flag of the afternoon on lap 36, Skinner came down pit road for four tires and fuel.  To try to tighten up the No. 5 Tundra, the Bill Davis Racing team made track bar and air pressure adjustments, as well.  Racing was back to green on lap 43 with Skinner still running in sixth place.

As the race progressed, the loose handling still lingered but Skinner was determined to not let go of his top 10 and that is exactly what he did.  In fact, the No. 5 Toyota truck driver raced inside the top 10 for almost 190 laps of the 200-lap competition.  He only fell outside the top 10 once throughout the entire race.

Skinner and his No. 5 Toyota Tundra team eventually wrapped up their day with a well-earned 10th-place finish.  The best part of the day was the strong finish also helped the No. 5 BDR truck team gain three positions in the overall NASCAR Craftsman Truck championship standings, moving from 18th to 15th.

M. Skinner Quote:
"That was a very loose-handling truck.  It seemed like no matter what we did to it, it just got more and more loose as the race went on, but we didn't give up and our entire run and finish shows just that.  We definitely didn't lose anything here today.  That should move us up some more in the standings and that is our main goal to get up there inside that top 10.  It's a good day and I'm just glad we got this race in here today."