Mike Skinner pulled double duty this weekend while in Indianapolis.  On Friday night, he brought his Toyota Tundra home in the 19th position, but then headed to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway to try and qualify the No. 23 AutoManiac car for the running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Due to NASCAR's new rules regarding qualifying, the No. 23 driver and team were not guaranteed a spot for the race and had to get their car in on time, which was not going to be an easy task.  The team had a successful test at the 2.5-mile oval two weeks ago in preparation for the event and knew what needed to be done to make the field.

In the two-hour practice session on Saturday morning before qualifying, Skinner had the No. 23 car close to the top of the speed charts.  He told his crew the car was a little loose getting into the corners but felt like it would be good come qualifying time later that afternoon.  The team made a couple of small changes to the car hoping to get some of the twitchiness out before the trial laps.

The No. 23 team was the last car to make a qualifying lap and knew they must beat a 50.00-second lap to get into Sunday's race.  Skinner drove it hard into turn one and got a little loose then pushed up the race track, but still managed to run a lap of 49.993, which was good enough for the 34th spot for Sunday's event.  That marked the fifth time this year Skinner has successfully qualified for a NASCAR Nextel Cup show.

When the green flag flew over the 43-car field on Sunday afternoon, Skinner was on a mission to get to the front.  In the first twenty laps, the veteran picked up 11 spots and was running times as quick as the leader Elliott Sadler.  When the caution came out on lap 21, Skinner told his crew saying the car was a little tight.

The team decided to pit and take on four fresh tires and filled the car with fuel on lap 23.  They also made an air pressure adjustment to the car to try and free it up for Skinner.  When the race restarted on lap 26, Skinner was in the 22nd position.

He called into his crew on lap 34 explaining he didn't like the set of tires on his car.  He told crew chief Jimmy Penland his car was pushing like a dump truck.  The team came up with a plan for changes to the car on the next stop.  On lap 37, the caution flag was displayed to the field and Skinner took the opportunity to come in and make changes to his car.  The team put on four fresh tires and filled the car with racing fuel.  They also made a number of chassis adjustments to try and help Skinner on the track.

When the caution came out on lap 91, the team took a gamble to try and pick up track position by taking on two tires.  When the race was restarted, they were in the 23rd position but in only five laps the team fell back into the 38th position.  Skinner told his team his car just would not turn and wanted to get the car setup back to the way it was at the start of the race.

The team made their last pit stop of the day on lap 124 taking on four tires and fuel and making a number of changes to try and help Skinner's tight condition.  Skinner fought for the final 30 laps to try and keep his AutoManiac car in the top 25.  When the checked flag flew over the field Skinner was in the 29th position, posting his best finish in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series this year.