David M. Vaughn Photo

Mike Skinner and the No. 5 Toyota Tundra team continue their reign as the hottest team in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage. Since the race at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in August, the team has posted six consecutive top-10 finishes, including two-second place outings and a win at Las Vegas last month. Atlanta Motor Speedway has been a track at which the No. 5 team has had strong runs, but bad luck has prevented the team from strong finishes. The team wanted to break that cycle, add to its streak of top-10 finishes and re-enter the top 10 in the Craftsman Truck Series points standings.

Two inches of rain fell Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which prompted NASCAR to cancel the day's on-track activities. The No. 5 truck finally rolled onto the 1.5-mile track Saturday morning for a one-hour practice session. Though Skinner had the fastest truck on the speed chart, he was not happy with the handling of his Tundra. He told his crew the truck was extremely loose in the corners, which hindered him from running the line he wanted. The team tried a number of front-end combinations, but nothing seemed to work.

The team's apprehension quickly vanished during qualifying, as Skinner posted a lap time of 30.631 seconds, good enough to capture his seventh pole position of the season.

Within the first 10 laps of the 130-lap event, Skinner reported that the truck was way too loose, and he was just trying to hang on. The handling issues also caused him to fall through the field. A pit stop under caution on lap 13 gave the No. 5 team a chance to fix the truck. The team performed a four-tire stop and a major chassis adjustment before returning Skinner to the track in the 20th position.

Skinner was on a mission to return to the front of the pack. By lap 50, he had moved up to the 11th spot. He communicated to his crew that the handling of the truck was starting to go away, and it was really hard to get into the corners.

Another caution on lap 77 prompted the team to prepare for its last pit stop of the day. After another four-tire stop with a major chassis adjustment, Skinner restarted 21st on lap 83.

Undaunted by restarting so deep in the field, Skinner charged to the front and finished in the eighth position.

The Craftsman Truck Series returns to action Friday, Nov. 3 at Texas Motor Speedway.