NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series Championship points leader Mike Skinner
established himself as the man to beat when the tailgate
brigade returns to Lowe's Motor Speedway Friday night,
May 18, for the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 presented by
Circle K. Driving the No. 5 Toyota owned by Bill Davis,
Skinner topped the speed chart for the second
consecutive day as Truck Series teams wrapped up testing
with a 10-hour session Friday at the 1.5-mile
superspeedway.
"I honestly don't think that we are
pole material," Skinner said. "We have not made one
qualifying run; we've been totally in race runs. We're
trying to points race a little bit and I don't think our
truck is a threat for the pole. But I think it's
definitely a top-five truck for the race." Just
like the day before, Skinner recorded the fastest lap
during the morning session. His speed of 179.551 mph on
Friday was just slightly quicker than the 179.158 mph
lap that set the standard on Thursday.
Travis Kvapil was second fastest at
179.033 mph in the No. 6 Ford and Tyler Walker was third
fastest at 178.915 mph in the No. 36 Toyota.
Toyotas filled out the top five with Jack Sprague fourth
fastest at 178.577 mph and defending series champion
Todd Bodine fifth at 178.118 mph.
Brendan Gaughan's team took an
unusual approach to the testing session and will have to
make a decision prior to Friday night's race.
"We have two Chevrolets here,"
Gaughan explained. "One has a coil-bind set-up and one
has a traditional set-up. This morning one was eighth
fastest and one was ninth. We couldn't tell which one we
wanted to use as our primary. So, I guess that is the
good thing about our Chevrolets. Either way I
think we have a really good truck for the race. That is
why testing is so important."
Erik Darnell spun exiting Turn 4 and
hit the wall early in the morning session. His No. 99
Ford suffered damage to the rear of the truck, but he
was able to drive back to the garage area. The only
other accident came just four minutes before the end of
the session when Matt Crafton hit the outside wall.
Crafton was evaluated at the Carolinas HealthCare
Infield Care Center and released.
First Day of Testing
Mike Skinner topped
the speed chart Thursday as 35 NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series teams tested at Lowe's Motor Speedway in
preparation for the May 18 Quaker Steak & Lube 200
presented by Circle K. Surprisingly, Skinner set
the standard of 179.158 mph in the morning session and
no one was able to top his speed during the much cooler
evening session. "The race track is awesome-always
is here at Charlotte," Skinner said after climbing from
the No. 5 Toyota. "But the tires are little iffy. I
think it's a good safe tire, but the grip is a little
bit off. The Cup cars saw the same thing, but safety has
to come first so it'll be all right."
Jack Sprague, who also posted his
best lap in the morning session, was second fastest in
the No. 60 Toyota at 179.158 mph while Travis Kvapil was
third at 179.021 mph in the No. 6 Ford. "We've
been fast all day. We brought a second truck that hasn't
been very good but our primary truck is really fast,"
Kvapil said. "The track is great-it's neat looking. I
like the change in the color of the walls. The track is
smooth, fast and has a lot of grip. It seems like
more this year than in the past that we can move around,
we're not just stuck on the bottom. We're running
three-quarters of the way up the hill right now, which
is a little bit different than years past."
Two-time defending race winner Kyle
Busch was back behind the wheel of the No. 51 Billy
Ballew Motorsports Chevrolet and was fourth fastest at
178.556 mph and former World of Outlaws sprint car
driver Tyler Walker rounded out the top five in the No.
36 Toyota at 178.277 mph. Defending series
champion Todd Bodine was also quick throughout the
session in the No. 30 Toyota with a best lap of 177.433
mph. "It's the same old Charlotte-slick in the sun
and a lot of grip when the sun isn't out. We're trying
some different things and we're learning a lot," said
Bodine.
The most serious incident during the
10 hours of testing came during the evening session when
Johnny Benson's No. 23 Toyota slammed the wall.
However, Benson was not driving the truck at the time of
the accident. The Bill Davis Racing team had
allowed what NASCAR called "an unapproved driver" behind
the wheel and, as a result, the team was ejected from
the remainder of the two-day testing session. The driver
was not identified.
"NASCAR has guidelines in place for
who can compete in any sanctioned event, whether it be a
race or a test," said NASCAR spokesman Josh Hamilton.
"The No. 23 team was outside the NASCAR guidelines and
as a result was sent home from the test immediately."
Joey Clanton also spun and hit the
wall, but his No. 09 Ford suffered only minor damage and
he was not injured. Matt Crafton spun, but did not hit
anything, in the No. 88 Chevrolet and Matt McCall also
brought out the caution flag when he lost control of the
No. 16 truck and slid through the grass coming off of
Turn 4.
