Race winner Mike Skinner celebrates in victory lane. (Nate Mecha/High Sierra Photo)

Mike Skinner had earned three consecutive poles in the desert, but going into tonight's Smith's Las Vegas 350 the victory trophy managed to elude him. After dominating the race - leading for 114 of the race's 146 laps - Skinner not only takes home the trophy but made the statement that he and the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota will be a force to be reckoned with throughout the remainder of the 2006 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season.

Skinner defeated defending series champion Ted Musgrave in a surprisingly clean and competitive race on the newly reconfigured 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway tri-oval. Musgrave made a strong move on a late-race restart, going past Skinner on the outside to take the lead. But not to be denied, Skinner repaid the favor on the final restart of the night to reclaim the lead and motor on to his 19th career series victory.

"The move Ted (Musgrave) made on me there was pretty awesome," Skinner said. "I was still trying to catch my breath after (Ron) Hornaday had my rear tires lifted off the ground down the backstretch. "The results tonight were pretty awesome. We had a really good truck. We quit practice early yesterday, and then we quit practice early again today because I wanted to save laps for the race. I knew if the race stayed green we had a truck that was going to be hard to beat. I think our truck turned just a little better than Ted's in the corner."

For Skinner, the win vindicates his Jeff Hensley-led crew after a year's worth of frustration.

Mike Skinner celebrates his first win of the season with an impressive burnout at the finish line. (Christina Ramzel/High Sierra Photo)

"It's about time," Skinner said. "This team has been strong enough to win races all year. It's either been the driver messing up, or a mechanical problem, or a pit stop going wrong, or that caution flag. And, I was praying that a caution wouldn't come out those last five laps. We've dominated so many races this season and come up short. This easily could have been our fifth win this year. We've doiminated four or five of these races and just come up short for one reason or another."

Musgrave's strong run and second-place finish was a nice rebound after a tough result in New Hampshire last week. He led laps for the first time since May in Mansfield, and kept the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota in contention before eventually finishing 0.309 seconds off Skinner for the win.

"That does put some wind back in the sails after last week," Musgrave said. "We came out and had a strong run and that's what these guys need. I've never finished out of the top three in the points, and last week certainly didn't help that effort, but we are in the strongest part of our season. I traditionally make a pretty good charge late in the season, and we are definitely going down swinging."

Mike Bliss finished third in the No. 16 XPress Motorsports Chevrolet. Bliss expressed his surprise that the racing was as good as it was on the new surface.

"I was definitely surprised with how well the race went," Bliss said. "I didn't expect the high side to be as good as it was. We went up there a couple of times and were able to make some moves. I wasn't to thrilled about it but it worked out."

Johnny Benson finished fourth in the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, a strong finish despite the fact he fought transmission problems following his first pit stop of the evening.

"These guys never gave up," Benson said. "We don't have any races circled on the calendar or any crossed off. What we do have circled is that date in Orlando. We're doing everything we can do to make sure we get there first. If not we may come home in second or we may not. But that's the ultimate goal. We struggled a little bit with the transmission for the second week in a row. Last week it wasn't a big deal, except it didn't let me do a burnout. This week it was a little more of a problem."

Ron Hornaday rounded out the top five, with David Reutimann sixth, Marcos Ambrose seventh, Dennis Setzer eighth, Kraig Kinser ninth, and Aric Almirola rounded out the top ten.

The pre-race concerns of problems with the surface and numerous incidents proved unfounded. A jet dryer fuel spill on the track prior to yesterday's open test raised concerns, but in the end the track held up with no deterioration and offered two- and even three-wide racing at times. Four on-track incidents drew the caution flag - there were seven total for 31 laps - but none were for major incidents. Bobby Hamilton, Jr. had a tire go down entering turn three on lap 53 forcing him into the turn three wall. Michel Jourdain spun in turn two and impacted the inside wall, while his Roush Racing teammate Peter Shepherd spun off turn four without making contact despite being in a pack of traffic. Finally, Jack Sprague did a Joie Chitwood imitation with a smokey spin in front of the packed frontstretch grandstands while racing with Setzer to bring out the final caution of the day on lap 122. The numerous cautions held the race to a 117.812 mile per average speed, the slowest of the 11 NCTS races run at LVMS.

Bodine continues to lead the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings, but took a 33-point hit in the standings. Benson has now cut the lead unofficially to just 91 points with six races left in the 2006 season. David Reutimann is third, with Musgrave back up to fourth and Rick Crawford in fifth. David Starr is sixth, Hornaday seventh, Bliss eighth, Sprague ninth and Terry Cook rounds out the top ten.

Next up for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is the Talladega 250, the inaugural series race at Talladega Superspeedway. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting on Thursday October 5th with TrackSideLive! coverage of practice, followed by Live! Bud Pole Qualifying on Friday October 6. Round 20 of the 2006 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is scheduled for Saturday October 7.