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09-08-2005
Skinner Takes Two in Richmond
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High Sierra Photo | Mike Skinner drove to his second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win in the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 at Richmond International Raceway. Skinner started from second and fought back to the lead after dropping into the pack during pit stops to win his 18th career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
Skinner had the dominant truck but was forced to come from the middle of the pack after pit strategy put several others near the front of the field. As the race came back to Skinner, he was forced to race hard with Todd Bodine for the second race in a row for the win. Skinner was able to dip inside to retake the lead after the 11th caution flag of the night and was forced to endure two late race restarts before closing down on the victory.
Bodine settled into second for the second race in a row, but he had to fight off a hard charging Kevin Harvick. Harvick also led several laps in the middle stages of the race, but dropped back into the pack after his second round of stops.
Ted Musgrave got into a scuffle with Terry Cook within 10 laps to go, but was able to pick up the fourth spot at the finish and pick up considerable ground on point leader Dennis Setzer. Setzer had a right front tire go down and spent many laps on pit road while his team made repairs to the sway bar arm underneath the truck. Setzer unofficially finished 34th on the night.
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High Sierra Photo | Tracy Hines picked up 21 spots to finish fifth, his first top-10 of the season and the first top-5 finish since Mansfield in 2004.
Mike Wallace was sixth with Matt Crafton right behind in seventh. Robert Pressley finished eighth with Jimmy Spencer in ninth and ROn Hornaday rounding out the top-10.
Brandon Whitt was involved in a hard crash in turn one that also collected fourth-place runner Todd Kluever. Whitt made contact with the driver's side, and in the stack up Kluever got hit from behind by Jack Sprague, who was laps down after he had a brake problem early in the going. Kluever had damage to the nose the dropped him from fourth to 32nd at the end. Cook also was knocked out of fourth late in the going when he spun in turn one and dropped him back to 19th at the finish.
The next race for the NCTS is next Saturday at the New Hampshire International Speedway.
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