As far as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series goes, Mike Skinner is one of
those guys who has plenty of street cred.
Skinner, of course, was the very first Truck Series champion way back in 1995,
so his opinions on how things are carry a certain weight to them that only the
words of a veteran can have.
And when it comes to the 7/8ths-mile Iowa Speedway, where the NCWTS will race
for the first time on Saturday night, Skinner is positively effusive in his
praise. The Iowa 200 will be televised live on SPEED, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET.
"When they built this place we came here and tested and I said, 'Gosh, this
place is first class,'" said Skinner, driver of the No. 5 Randy Moss Motorsports
Toyota Tundra. "It's like they took a basic design of kind of like a Richmond
and then put it on steroids and just improved it 1,000 percent over what was
built down in Virginia."
Skinner said that he expects Saturday night's race to produce the kind of action
the Truck Series is known for — tight, fierce racing on most every lap.
"Every race I've watched here so far has been exactly like what you would
expect," said Skinner, who this week will carry sponsorship from Toyota of Des
Moines. "You can see three-wide racing and you're probably going to see
four-wide racing in the trucks. I'm not sure how that's going to work out yet.
It's going to be a heck of an exciting race. Hopefully we put on the best show
that they've had at Iowa Speedway so far so they welcome us back next year."
The way this year's schedule fell, with the trucks running at Chicagoland
Speedway last weekend and Iowa now, worked out very well for the teams, Skinner
said, especially given the tight finances for some of the smaller squads.
"It's hard for us to go 1,500 miles and turn around and come back," he said.
"It's awesome to run Chicago and then come up here and run. We didn't even go
home. We just came up here and we've really enjoyed it. What a gorgeous state.
We've been able to enjoy some great golf courses and some good food here and
it's way, way underrated. It's a heck of a lot prettier than I expected."
Skinner has had a solid season so far in his first year with RMM. He currently
is third in points, with a victory at Kansas and six top-five finishes. He's
hoping for another strong run under the lights at Iowa on Saturday night.
"I think you're going to see what you see every race in the NASCAR Camping World
Truck Series, which is big time excitement," he said. "The formula for this
thing is really good. These trucks knock a big hole in the air but they've got a
lot of downforce. … That's how you get three- and four-wide. That's how you get
the excitement built in and these things ricochet off each other and keep going.
I think the fans love that. I hope they don't use much of their seat because if
they don't that means that we put on a great show."
