Last weekend's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Gateway International Raceway initially looked like the salve Mike Skinner, winless in 2008, so desperately needed. He led laps and was a serious threat for the win before a loose tire penalty during the final pit stop shuffled him out of contention.

In some respects, that moment and ensuing penalty are representative of Skinner's entire season … strong and consistent but unable to close the deal for various reasons.

If momentum truly exists, Skinner, currently fifth in Truck Series points, had a monopoly on it in 2007. Neck-and-neck with Ron Hornaday for the championship heading into the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season, Skinner had the "Midas touch" until a wheel fell off his truck on the race track.

That mishap appeared to set the tone for the ensuing months and despite a series-high 14 top-10 finishes this season, Victory Lane remains elusive and seemingly farther and farther away every week. Trace it back to the freak incident last November at Homestead.

"When you look at the stats and how much Skinner led and won last season, this year looks miserable for him," said SPEED reporter Ray Dunlap. "I think it's a significant reflection of the way the season ended last year at Homestead. His wheel falling off at Homestead was one of those shots to the gut that is really hard to overcome. If the engine had blown or Skinner had made a mistake and crashed, the team would have had a whole different feeling about losing the championship. But when the wheel fell off, which almost never happens, it was representative of that race and their season. That was a pretty big pill for everyone on that team to swallow."

Make no bones about it - Skinner knows the task that looms before him.

"Compared to last year, we've had a terrible season and there is no question we've lost the momentum we had last season," Skinner, the 1995 series champion, said. "When you get momentum on your side, your guys are excited, happy and ready to work. This team is beat down now - nobody is jumping around and laughing and having a good time. Everyone is frustrated. There is not much spark in us now and we have to get that back if this team is ever going to get going again."

The polar opposite on the momentum spectrum is Skinner's teammate at Bill Davis Racing, Johnny Benson, who holds a 94-point advantage over second-place Hornaday in points and is tied with Skinner for most pole positions at three this season. With four victories in 2008, three of those consecutive, Benson has ridden the wave of positive momentum as high as it would take him.

"Momentum is huge in NASCAR," Benson said. "When things are going well, they seem to go really well. This No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Toyota Tundra has really had momentum since halfway through last season. We have won a lot of races and run up front. We unload every week at the track confident we have a truck that can run in the top-five. Having that kind of mentality helps us focus on our jobs. We know how to cope with a bad week and are confident we can rebound the next week."

And with vast experience in NASCAR, if Benson has an off-day at the race track, he is able to rally back, even if the scoreboard tells another story.

"Being a veteran plays in the team's favor," he said. "I have been around for a long time and very little gets to me. A rookie has so much pressure to prove themselves as well as have the on-track performance and be the team's cheerleader. A veteran has been through the ups and downs so many times that they have a better ability to cope with the negatives and turn them into positives."

While Benson isn't qualified for it right now, Skinner could give a clinic on trudging through the hard times.

"Negative momentum gets a lot people down and I try not to let it affect me, but no matter how hard you try, things happen," Skinner said. "You've got to stay on your game. I was pretty excited last week because we were running well before the mistake on pit road. But it's okay. If you don't handle it well, you won't be here long. You have no choice but to handle it."

Heading into Saturday's event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET on SPEED; NCTS Setup hosted by Krista Voda at 2:30 p.m. ET), Skinner has a game plan to get back on track and into Victory Lane.

"We've got to get mad," Skinner explained. "If you're not really mad about running bad, you won't run well, and I don't think we have enough people mad about running bad. We've got a good team. I look at my guys and it's the same group from last year. We can do better than this. Once we get the program back on track, it's going to be big."

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on SPEED continues to enjoy double-digit ratings growth in Nielsen Household Ratings, seeing increases in 12 of 14 events this season. Since scoring a 1.13 at Charlotte in May, ratings for the Truck Series have been up an average of 28 percent (.77 vs. .60) from a year ago.

SPEED, now in nearly 78 million homes in North America, is the exclusive home of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Gatorade Duel at Daytona, NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The only network delivering live, at-track programming all season long, SPEED offers the definitive pre- and post-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series programs - NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, as well as other popular NASCAR programs including Trackside Live, Tradin' Paint, NASCAR Performance, NASCAR Live!, This Week in NASCAR, NCTS Setup and Go or Go Home.