NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

All that being said, Truck Series regular Mike Skinner has had a busy 2009 thus far. In addition to his regular job as driver of the No. 5 Exide Batteries Toyota Tundra for Randy Moss Motorsports, Skinner filled a recent gap in the truck schedule with a trip to the legendary Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, where he drove the Red Bull Camry Cup car. He has also driven the Tommy Baldwin Racing Camry in a few Cup races this year as well.

First and foremost for Skinner, as always, is his Truck Series effort, which is very much a full-time job. Shortly before the 2009 season began in Daytona, the inaugural Truck Series champion transitioned to Randy Moss Motorsports to drive the No. 5 Tundra as part of a two-truck effort alongside rookie driver Tayler Malsam. It was quite an undertaking.

“We started out really just three to four weeks prior to Daytona,” Skinner says. “These guys were having to change manufacturers, bring in two new drivers and they had a lot to do and a short time to do it in. They got to Daytona with two pretty competitive trucks.”

Both Tundras were indeed competitive, with Skinner finishing seventh and Malsam 10th in the Daytona season-opener. Since then, Skinner has six top-five results in 13 starts, including a victory at Kansas Speedway in April. He is currently second in the point standings, trailing leader Ron Hornaday by 174 points just past the halfway point in the season.

Malsam, in turn, has six top-10 finishes and is seventh in points. According to Skinner, the team’s performance is all the more impressive because it isn’t working with the same resources as many of its competitors.

“We’ve been underfunded, we’re understaffed and these guys are doing a heck of a job with less than a lot of the others that are behind us,” he says. “I’ve got to grade them definitely an ‘A’ for their efforts of getting in there without having 10 or 12 trucks and getting in there without having the money to get out here and hire more people and stack the deck. They’ve done a heck of a job. I’m pretty impressed. I know we’ve exceeded my expectations of where we would be right now.”

While Skinner may be impressed with the team’s performance given the circumstances, he also still believes he and the team have what it takes to challenge for the championship. He points out that the team has several “irons in the fire” and could make a deal or deals that would enhance the team’s chances. Absent that, he still thinks they can bring home the title.

“We can win it,” he says emphatically. “We had a bigger lead than that (currently 174 points) two years ago at a couple points in the season and lost it due to a wheel coming off. Anything can happen. Hornaday and (Kevin) Harvick’s group is awfully strong and the 88 (Matt Crafton) is running the same stuff they are. That’s all KHI (Kevin Harvick Incorporated) stuff, so they’re going to be hard to beat, but we’re not going to lay down for them. We’re going to get in there and dig as hard as we can go.

“We’ve got a couple things structured for this race team that, if it was to happen in the next month, we’re going to be a lot stronger. We’re going to be able to go out there and spend a few bucks. If it doesn’t happen, we’re not going to be any worse off than we are right now, and we’re doing pretty good.”

Indeed they are, as back-to-back second-place-place runs in the last two races at Kentucky and Indianapolis’ O’Reilly Raceway Park will attest. Perhaps those performances can be attributed to a sort of “summer vacation” for Skinner in the down time between the race at Memphis on June 27 and Kentucky on July 18.

Skinner and his wife, Angie, traveled with NASCAR Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Hunter and his wife to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Skinner dazzled the crowd with a series of burnouts in the Red Bull Camry. In truth, however, it was Skinner who was dazzled by the experience to participate in an event that annually features legendary racing vehicles and drivers from all over the world.

“It was the most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen,” Skinner said. “I’ve never seen anything like that over here in the States. It’s cars from the early 1900s to current Formula 1 cars and the new CoT ’09 Red Bull Camry. It’s a huge spectrum of racing, everything from motorcycles to Rolls-Royces. It was phenomenal.

“I think everybody enjoyed it over there. My next step would be to take a truck over there and let the race fans over there see one of these trucks. You explain it to them that it’s basically a Cup car with a truck body, but I think they all want to see it, touch it and get to experience watching a truck go up that hill.”

Once the festivities wrapped up at Goodwood, Skinner and Hunter hopped over to Scotland for a few rounds of golf. It appears that experience allowed Skinner to recharge his batteries for the stretch run of the 2009 Truck Series season.

“It was over the top,” Skinner said of Scotland golf. “It was one of the things on my ‘Bucket List’ that I got to check off, and by the time I got back to the States, I put it back on. I want to do it again. We talked about going some other places, but if I have my way about it, I’ll be back over there and stay in that Old Course Hotel again and get that experience again.”

As if the Truck Series schedule and the overseas trip weren’t enough, Skinner has also helped out Tommy Baldwin Racing in its efforts to build its Sprint Cup Series program by driving the team’s No. 36 Camry. Make no mistake, however, Skinner has no desire to return to the Cup Series.

“Our love lies in the trucks,” Skinner says. “As long as I’ve got a truck ride and can pay the bills, this is what I’m going to do. Tommy needed somebody that had a reputation and the ability to be a pretty good qualifier. I think we’ve made three out of four for him. We’re really, really hoping that good things happen for Tommy.”

It’s safe to assume that there are also a lot of people hoping that good things continue to happen for Skinner, in the 2009 Camping World Truck Series and for many years to come.