The 1995 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion Mike Skinner and his No. 5 Toyota Tundra team had two reasons to look forward to Saturday's event at Talladega Superspeedway, Skinner has experienced much success at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, and he would be driving the same truck that finished fourth at Daytona International Speedway earlier this season.

The No. 5 team spent Thursday's practice sessions working on drafting and qualifying. The first practice session was dedicated to seeing how the Tundra handled in the draft. Skinner told his crew the truck was really responsive, and he could move around on the track. He also commented that the newly repaved track had tremendous grip, which would play to his advantage on raceday. Realizing the importance of starting in the front, the team devoted the second practice session to single lap runs. Skinner again said his truck felt good, and he could run the on the bottom with no problem.

The team's qualifying efforts resulted in a 12th-place starting position Saturday afternoon. By lap 10 of the 94-lap event, Skinner had fallen to 19th, but he was experimenting with different lines to use at the end of the race. The team received the black flag two laps later because the passenger side window was missing on the truck. Skinner pitted on lap 15 for fuel and a window.

The stop put the team a lap down to the leader, but it knew a caution could reverse its misfortune. When the caution flag waved on lap 22, the No. 5 Toyota Tundra team received the "Lucky Dog" pass, thus returning it to the lead lap. Skinner restarted at the rear of the field and patiently began to head to the front.

It took 50 laps, but Skinner was finally in position to battle for the victory. He stood eighth with four laps remaining in the event. Skinner knew he would have one shot to make his move to the front and would require drafting help behind him. The No. 5 and No. 40 trucks moved to the outside lane and made it four wide on the backstretch on the white flag lap. Skinner's Tundra and the No. 15 truck bumped in turn four and sent Mike Wallace's truck into the outside wall. Skinner avoided the wreck and brought his Tundra home in the runner-up position.

The Craftsman Truck Series takes a weekend off before it returns to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the Kroger 200.