Mike Skinner (racing driver)

Mike Skinner

status	not active
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	10th - (1999)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 286 - 6th 39
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	27.- (2001)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 52 1 3 16
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics
Best placement	1st - (1995)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 231 28 49 144

Mike Skinner (born June 28, 1957 in Ontario , California ) is a retired American automobile racing driver . From 1986 to 2012 he raced in all national series of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series . He was the test driver for the series The Grand Tour of Amazon Video in the first season 2016th

Career

Beginnings

Skinner got his first start in NASCAR in 1986 in the Winston Cup , today's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series , when he took part in the Sovran Bank 500 at Martinsville Speedway . He started in 27th place and finished 22nd. In the years to come, Skinner drove very few Winston Cup races. From 1986 to 1994 he competed a total of ten times in the Winston Cup. He never got a better result in these starts than what he got in his very first start, 22nd place.

1995 to 1996

In 1995 Skinner started in the newly formed Craftsman Truck Series. He won eight races, including the first ever race in the series and the season finale. He started from pole position seven times. At the end of the season, his 3224 points were enough to win the championship. In 1996, too, he drove the full truck season. He won again eight times and made it into the top 10 20 times, but it was only third in the overall standings. Champion was Ron Hornaday Jr. The "fights" for the championship between Ron Hornaday Jr. and Mike Skinner shaped the image of the racing series.

1997 to 2001

In 1997, however, Skinner only competed in very few races in the Craftsman Truck Series, as he drove as a full-time driver the # 31 Richard Childress Racing in the Winston Cup, where he took his car in the first race, the Daytona 500 Brought pole position. He won the Rookie of the Year Award and finished 30th in the drivers' overall ranking. Three times it was enough for a top 10 placement, twice for pole position, for the first time in the Daytona 500 and then again in the Pepsi 400 , the second race at Daytona Beach . The 1998 season was relatively uneventful for Skinner. In the Daytona 500 he helped his teammate Dale Earnhardt to victory. It was Earnhardt's first win in the Daytona 500. Skinner finished four times in the top-5 and nine times in the top-10.

Mike Skinner (# 31) in the Coca-Cola 600 of the 2000 Winston Cup season

The 1999 season was the best in Skinner's Winston Cup career. He was in the top 5 five times and in the top 10 14 times, which earned him tenth place overall. His best placement was a third place in the UAW-GM Quality 500 . He started from pole position in the Pennsylvania 500 and Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400 . In the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series , in which he competed 13 times in 1999, Skinner won the Yellow Freight 300 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway . In the 2000 season, Skinner nearly won his first race when he led the spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 , for 191 laps, but then had to retire shortly before the end with an engine failure. A few weeks later in the DieHard 500 he finished second behind Jeff Gordon . That was his only top 5 placement in the 2000 season. He made it into the top 10 eleven times and was twelfth overall.

Also in the 2001 season Skinner drove again for Richard Childress Racing in the Winston Cup, but he left the team at the end of the season due to an injury and poor performance. He only drove 23 of the 36 races, with his best finish in a point race being ninth in the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 . Skinner won the second Gatorade Duel , making him one of the few drivers who won the Gatorade Duel but never won the Cup series.

2002 to 2003

For the 2002 season, Skinner found a place at Morgan-McClure Motorsports , where he drove the number 4 car. As many expected, the season was disappointing for Skinner. He was in the top 10 only once. He had to give up five times with engine problems. He was only 31st in the drivers' championship. The 2003 season was also disappointing for Skinner, so that he left the team after 14 races. Until the end of the year he drove for various teams, including the car with starting number 00 from Michael Waltrip Racing . In the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 , he started on pole position. However, he didn't even make it into the top 10 for the whole season, so he decided not to drive the full season in the Nextel Cup in 2004, but to return to the Craftsman Truck Series to help Toyota get into NASCAR.

Since 2004

In the Craftsman Truck Series 2004 season, Skinner made it into the top five four times and nine times in the top 10. He started from pole position in the Las Vegas 350 and Silverado 350K . He finished the season in eleventh place in the overall standings. The year 2005 was already much better for Skinner, he won the O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol , Tennessee and a race after that in the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 at Richmond International Raceway . In the overall standings, it was fifth. In 2006 it was only tenth in the overall ranking. He achieved eight top 5 placements and 13 top 10 placements. At Smith's Las Vegas 350 he won after leading 114 laps of the race.

At the start of the 2007 Craftsman Truck Series season , Skinner was not considered one of the top favorites for the title, but relatively quickly he showed that Skinner would drive for the championship. After finishing fourth in the first race of the season, he won three times in a row. In the spring race in Atlanta he began a series of six consecutive pole positions. In the course of the season it emerged that there would be another fight between Hornaday Jr. and Skinner, which shaped the image of the series in its early years. At the end of the season, Skinner and Hornaday Jr. had more bad luck, so the points lead changed frequently. Before the last race of the season, the Ford 200 , Skinner was 29 points ahead of Hornaday. During the race he had to deal with tire problems. As a result, he finished eleven laps behind in 35th place and lost the championship lead in the last race of the season. Skinner won five times, made it into the top 5 17 times and made the top 10 20 times.

In 2008 Skinner won the Qwik Liner Las Vegas 350 . He also drove a few races in the Sprint Cup for the Red Bull Racing Team and Michael Waltrip Racing . In the Camping World Truck Series 2009 season he started for Randy Moss Motorsports, he won three races and finished the season in third place overall. In the Sprint Cup, he competed in five races for different teams. In 2010 he could not repeat the success of the previous year, he only achieved two top 5 results, after the season he left Randy Moss Motorsports.

In 2011 he only entered three Truck Series races, of which he was only able to qualify for one. In the Sprint Cup he took part in 21 races, most of them for Germain Racing . In 2012 he was able to qualify for the Truck Series race in Daytona, but retired after an accident. He could not finish any of the four races started in the Sprint Cup.

After 2012, Skinner did not take part in any NASCAR series races, in 2016 he was the test driver for the television magazine The Grand Tour .

Personal

Skinner is an amateur pool player and participates in tournaments during the winter when there are no races. He is also a passionate golfer .

Web links

Driver statistics on racing-reference.info