Skinner Grabs Kentucky Pole
Mike Skinner captured the pole for tonight’s Built Ford Tough 225 at the Kentucky Speedway. The #5 Bill Davis Racing Toyota driver rounded the 1.5-mile speedway in 31.487 seconds (171.499 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Skinner’s third of the season and 46th of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career.
“Our truck just really wasn’t good enough to get the pole today,” Skinner said. “I don’t know how many of these things we’ve gotten because I was just dumb enough to hold it wide open and the thing didn’t hit the fence…The truck is very, very fast. We just got to get our racing program a little bit better and get this thing back to victory lane.”
Skinner won a series-high five races in 2007, but has yet to score a victory so far this season. His most recent win came last October in Martinsville, VA.
Starting on the front row with Skinner will be Kyle Busch who posted a time of 31.539 seconds.
Busch, NASCAR’s hottest driver, returns to the Truck Series for the first time since June at Michigan. Busch will attempt to win his third different national series race in consecutive starts after posting victories in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide events this past weekend at Chicagoland. He has two truck victories this year.
Colin Braun (31.565) and Johnny Benson (31.582) will make up row two.
With the series now approaching the half-way mark of the season, the top-five drivers are all within 74 points of each other. Defending series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr. currently holds a 27-point lead over second-place Matt Crafton and a 54-point advantage of third-place Todd Bodine. Benson is just two markers behind Bodine. Rick Crawford occupies the fifth spot.
Sixth-place Skinner (-113) is the defending race winner at Kentucky. He won last year’s race in dominating fashion, leading 135 of 150 laps. He crossed the finish line more than five seconds ahead of Travis Kvapil.
Willie Allen will start 20th (Rascal Flatts Chevrolet) in NFL All-Pro receiver Randy Moss’ debut as a NASCAR team owner. Allen, the rookie of the year in the series last year, is driving the No.81 Chevrolet for Randy Moss Motorsports at Kentucky.
Moss, who set the NFL single-season touchdown reception record during his first year with the New England Patriots in 2007, has been a NASCAR fan for several years. He is attending his first, and likely only, race of the year before departing for the Patriots’ training camp.
Chrissy Wallace, driving the GEICO/Germain Toyota Tundra rolls off from the 11th starting position and Jennifer Cobb in the Annexus Group Dodge starts 35th.
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