LOOP DATA: Skinner Needs To Turn Strong Stats Into Nashville Win
07-27-2009 7:08 pm

With a runner-up finish at O'Reilly Raceway Park last Friday night, Mike Skinner (No. 5 PC Miller Navigator Toyota) leapfrogged Matt Crafton (No. 88 Menard's Chevrolet) into second place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings.

Skinner is now 174 points behind points leader - and winner of four straight races - Ron Hornaday Jr. The gap can't be erased in one race, so a "chip away" strategy will be employed by the 1995 series champion.

A large chunk can be knocked off this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, a track where Skinner is strong - and Hornaday has hiccupped.

Skinner has finished in the top five in two of the last four races, racking up a number of series-best statistics. Since the inception of Loop Data in 2005, Skinner has a series-best Driver Rating of 123.3, a series-best Average Running Position of 3.8, a series-high 575 Laps in the Top 15 (95.7%) and a series-high 83 Fastest Laps Run.

Hornaday's numbers trail Skinner's by a wide margin, mostly thanks to a 33rd-place DNF in 2006 (his last two races at Nashville resulted in top-five finishes).

In his Nashville career, Hornaday has a Driver Rating of 98.2 (25.1 points lower than Skinner), an Average Running Position of 11.5 (7.7 positions lower than Skinner), a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 68.6% (27.1% lower) and 20 Fastest Laps Run (63 fewer).