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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
TRUCKS: Skinner, Hornaday Tough Foes
Mike Skinner led 180 of 200 laps at Iowa....
Tom Jensen  |  Posted September 06, 2009   Newton, IA
Mike Skinner (Left) won the Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway, but Ron Hornaday Jr. (Right) widened his point’s lead. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Mike Skinner won the battle, but Ron Hornaday Jr. widened his lead in the war.

Skinner, the 1995 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, decimated the field in the Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway, leading 180 of 200 laps under a full moon on Saturday night.

His victory marked the third straight time Hornaday failed to win, after six consecutive triumphs previously with his Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet Silverado.

No worries.

In the three NCWTS races Hornaday didn’t win, he’s actually widened his points lead over second-place Matt Crafton from 216 to 225. And with 17 of 25 races in the books for the 2009 season, Hornaday is all but assured of a record fourth NCWTS championship.

“The guys on this Longhorn Silverado did a great job,” said Hornaday, who finished the first truck race at Iowa in fourth place, two spots ahead of Crafton. “We didn't have truck to beat tonight, Skinner did. We just fought loose in, tight off all night. Actually we really struggled the last two days, but this is why this KHI team is championship caliber.”

And that was good enough on a night when Skinner was untouchable.

“It was a lot of fun here, we didn’t give up and with eight (races) to go, we still have our lead,” Hornaday said. “Crafton was good tonight. I am not sure how we gained five points on him but we’ll take it. I just want to thank Longhorn, Copart VFW, everybody who helps us on this program.”

But the night clearly belonged to Skinner, who from the time he unloaded had the field covered in his Toyota of Des Moines Tundra.

Skinner simply was in a league of his own in his Randy Moss Motorsports-owned truck, as he easily held off Aric Almirola, Colin Braun, Hornaday and Johnny Sauter to score his second victory of the season and the 27th of his NCWTS career.

“I tell you, all I did tonight was ride on a thoroughbred,” said Skinner, who is third in points, 281 behind Hornaday. “I think I hurt Eric’s (Phillips, crew chief) feelings a little bit yesterday because we took an old backup truck that our teammate gave us that Jeff Hensley and I actually built a couple of years ago and it was faster than this truck and I was struggling to not keep that truck out and race it.

“And Eric said, ‘Just work with me. Just give me a chance and I’ll fix this thing and get it going.’ He went in there and he
started building shocks and he really, really won this race. … The crew chief did a fantastic job with the truck. Man, it drove good. All of the adjustments and everything was just really, really good.”

“He liked that other truck but we’ve run this truck a lot,” said Phillips. “It’s been really good to us. It seems to be really good in race mode and I told him to just stick with me and we’d work on it. And we did make it a lot better. All of my guys did a good job. I knew we had a good truck last night. … I’m just really, really proud of all of the guys on this Tundra and Mike and everybody working on this thing all weekend.”

And so with two-thirds of the Midwest swing complete, the truckers will head to St. Louis for Saturday afternoon’s Copart 200 at Gateway International Raceway, the fourth of six consecutive weekends of truck racing. But Skinner would be happy to stay in Iowa, where he and wife Angie vacationed earlier this week.

“I’m all for adding some more new tracks,” said Skinner. “This is pretty cool. Really, I’m all for coming back to Iowa two or three times. I just love this place.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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