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Mike Skinner's Bristol Preview

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Race: O'Reilly 200
Location: Bristol Motor Speedway
Date: Wednesday, August 20, 2008

NOTES:
  • This week’s race truck for Bristol Motor Speedway is Chassis No. 5-59.  Bristol Motor Speedway will be the first time chassis No. 5-59 has seen action in 2008.
  • Calling the Shots… Interim crew chief Joe Lax will sit on top of the pit box again this week.  Lax most recently guided rookie Michael Annett to two wins and four top-10 finishes in five ARCA RE/MAX Series starts.
  • Past Champion… Skinner brought Bill Davis Racing its first win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2005 with his victory at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile.”  The organization has since won 22 NCTS events in the last three seasons.
  • Double Duty… Not only will the 1995 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion be behind the wheel of his No. 5 Toyota Tundra this week, but he will also attempt to qualify the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 00 Toyota Camry for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event.  This will be the second consecutive week the 51-year-old driver will be behind the wheel of the No. 00 machine.
  • Golf Anyone?  Mike and Angie Skinner will spend Thursday participating in Larry McClure’s celebrity golf tournament in Abington, Va.
  • Nice Start… In his six starts in “Thunder Valley,” Skinner has started no worse than sixth and has won two pole positions.  He has an average starting spot of 2.83 at Bristol, the best of the NCTS.
  • Listen and watch… The O’Reilly 200 scheduled to start at 8 p.m. EST, Saturday, Aug. 20.  It will broadcast on SPEED (TV), MRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio (Ch. 128).

Mike Skinner on Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:

“Winning Bristol was awesome.  We’ve run well there, so we expect to have a competitive run.  Bristol has been a great place for me, and hopefully we can be competitive when we unload there Wednesday night.  It is definitely one of the races this team looks forward to every year.

“Driving at Bristol is like running around in a punch bowl.  It is amazing.  It is probably the fastest race track we go to per scale.  The speeds we run at Bristol to the size of the track — I do not know if there is a place that is any faster.  It is exciting.  It is really hard to work on the chassis, so you run very conventional setups there.

“Winning the race there in 2005 was one of my favorite memories from Bristol.  Being able to make races there early in my career in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as well as the NASCAR Cup series also make for fond memories.  We would show up with our fifth-wheel trailer and be competitive, and I can remember how good that felt.  I am hoping to make some more memories this week in ‘Thunder Valley.’”

Mike Skinner - Bristol Motor Speedway