Mike Skinner might not be a kid anymore, but he still has the enthusiasm of one.
Skinner, 52, is one of the oldest drivers in NASCAR, but like fellow over-50 pals Mark Martin and Rom Hornaday Jr., he's still very much enjoying a productive career.
Last season, Skinner won three races en route to a third-place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings, and along the way, he claimed three poles. That brought his series record up to 50, a number that's doubly impressive when one considers that Skinner ran just 10 Truck Series races over the seven-year period from 1997-2003.
Last year at Daytona, Skinner qualified fifth and finished seventh, kicking off a season-opening streak of five consecutive finishes of 11th or better, including a victory at Kansas and top-five finishes at Atlanta and Martinsville. And although a horrifying wreck at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May knocked Skinner out of the points lead for good last season, finishing third behind Hornaday and Matt Crafton was nothing to sneeze at.
This year, the 1995 Truck Series champion will be back driving the No. 5 Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota Tundra, with new crew chief Gene Nead leading the team into battle. And while some drivers are kicking back and milking the too-short NASCAR offseason for all the time off they get, Skinner's itching to get to Daytona for Speedweeks and the start of the 2010 season.
Skinner is hoping to build on last year's success this season.
"First of all, when you get my age, you're not supposed to have as much desire as I do to go get started and get racing again," said Skinner. "I wish Daytona was tomorrow. We are actually going to Daytona this week to do some short track testing at New Smyrna Speedway. It will be our first time back in a racecar or truck in this case since Homestead. I'm just chomping at the bit. I can't wait to do it."
And Skinner is glad that the NASCAR youth movement that was so big has started to ebb, and experience is once again a commodity team owners value in their drivers.
"Golly, a few years ago if you were old enough to shave, you were washed up, too old to run NASCAR," said Skinner. "Now us old guys have came back. In this past year I won three races. I think Ron won five or six, I'm not sure. Mark Martin, he won a bunch of races. You know, it's kind of like the old guys have came back and we had really great success last year."
And that suits Skinner just fine, thank you very much.
"There's no substitute for youth, but there's also no substitute for experience," said Skinner. " … It's amazing what a fine line it is between the young guy that's coming in, the Joey Loganos that's coming in, that's going to be the face, the future of our sport, and the Mark Martins that have been here forever, guys like Hornaday and myself. We've got that knowledge of what to do. We don't have the youth anymore. For some reason, we're still getting it done."
Last season, Skinner won three races en route to a third-place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings, and along the way, he claimed three poles. That brought his series record up to 50, a number that's doubly impressive when one considers that Skinner ran just 10 Truck Series races over the seven-year period from 1997-2003.