Five Toyota Teams In Top-15 at Bristol

Although veteran Mike Skinner dominated Wednesday night's O'Reilly 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, he was not among the five Toyota Tundra drivers to record a top-15 finish in the 200-lap test at the Tennessee short track.

Skinner, who started his No. 42 Bang Racing Tundra on the outside of the front row, charged into the lead on the first lap and led the first 50 circuits around the Bristol half-mile. After pitting for fuel and tires, Skinner returned to the track and worked his way back into the lead on lap 103. He maintained that lead through lap 179, before being passed by the eventual race winner Carl Edwards.

"My tires were going away towards the end of the race and I just wasn't able to hold Carl off," said Skinner, following the race. "My Tundra ran really, really good, but we probably should have pitted again and put on new tires. I really felt like we had the truck to beat tonight, but we just asked for a little too much from the tires."

Later, with just a handful of laps remaining, Skinner was trying to hold off Dennis Setzer from making a pass when there was contact between the two trucks. "I thought Dennis would have tried to pass me clean, but instead he knocked me out of the way," said a disappointed Skinner. "I was probably holding Dennis up, but he should have tried to pass me cleanly. He's a good guy and a good driver, and we've had lots of good races -- but I expected him to make a clean pass there. But, this is just Bristol -- those things happen here and there's not much you can say."

Hank Parker Jr., driving the Innovative Motorsports No. 21 AirVest Tundra, was the top finishing Toyota at Bristol with a sixth-place finish. Despite battling a virus all night long, Parker Jr. managed to record his third best finish the season. "I wasn't feeling well tonight, especially during the caution periods," said Parker Jr. "But, I just focused on what I needed to do -- which is run a strong race and bring my Tundra home in one piece. Once we got running, I forgot about being sick and concentrated on racing. From racing at Bristol in the past, I know you can't get impatient here. We took our time and worked our way through the field. If the race had been longer, we might have even had a better finish."

Crossing the finish line after Parker Jr. were Travis Kvapil (8th) in the No. 24 Bang Racing Nutzz.com Tundra, David Reutimann (11th) in the No. 17 NTN Bearings Tundra, Johnny Benson (13th) in the No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Tundra and Bill Lester (14th) in the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Tundra. Robert Huffman, driving the No. 12 Innovative Motorsports Tundra was sidelined early with a suspension problem and finished 32nd.

After 16 2004 NCTS races, three Toyota drivers sit among the top-15 in the unofficial championship point standings. The finish at Bristol enabled Kvapil to move into fifth-place in the standings with 2,180 points, just 235 points behind standings leader Bobby Hamilton. Skinner is 9th (2,020 points) in the standings and Reutimann is 14th (1,915 points). Reutimann also tops the Rookie-of-the-Year standings.

The next NCTS race is at Richmond International Raceway on Thursday, September 9, beginning at 8:30 PM (EST). SPEED Channel will provide live television coverage of the race.

Toyota Finishing Positions - Bristol Motor Speedway: