Mike Skinner's dream date would be with a certain country singer. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Skinner

LOUDON, N.H. -- Mike Skinner was the first champion of the Craftsman Truck Series in 1995.

After coming back to the Truck Series in 2004 with Bill Davis Racing, Skinner is on a tear this season with two victories in the last month with the No. 5 Toyota Tundra.

During a break in preparations for the Sylvania 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway, Skinner sat down to answer 10 questions not necessarily related to his racing career.

1. What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own?

Skinner: A Lexus.

Q: Which model do you crave?

	Credit: Nate Mecha/HSP
	Inside the Numbers Mike Skinner in the Craftsman Truck Series Starts 98 Wins 18 Top-5s 49 Top-10s 60 Poles 18 Avg. Start 7.3 Avg. Finish 10.7

Skinner: I'd kind of like to have the GX 470 -- the SUV. It's pretty nice, but I'd like to have one of each kind of Lexus, if you're asking me what my ultimate dream would be.

Q: That's a Toyota brand, right? You could pull some strings if you keep winning races, so you might line 'em all up, right?

Skinner: Absolutely -- that's my goal!

2. If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet, even though I understand you might already have it?

Skinner: My ideal pets would be my dog and my two cats. They are our children and they go on the road with us, everywhere we go.

We're here at Loudon and it's the first place we didn't take the motor coach on the road all year, and I already miss 'em.

Q: You know, when I asked Mark Martin about pets he said all he would consider for a pet is making a deal with you to get your dog -- but hearing you describe them that way, I know you and Angie would never give him up, right?

Skinner: Well, no. I think what the deal is, is that we both have the same CPA, and my CPA is the executor to my estate. He's already been informed that if anything was to ever happen, God forbid, to Angela and I, Mark gets the dog.

3. What's your biggest pet peeve while driving on the road?

Skinner: I'm telling you what (laughing), people that don't pay attention and get over there in the fast lane, and go slow.

Q: Is there anything you've noticed in particular that distracts them -- like cell phones?

Skinner: Most of the time they're on a cell phone, but just as much of the time they're just spaced out and cruising down the road and they don't realize they're just (in the way).

Basically it's just a lack of paying attention.

4. You've had a long career in racing, so what's your worst hotel experience?

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Skinner: Well, I've got a beautiful motor coach and my worst hotel experience is every time I have to stay in a hotel.

5. What's your favorite food?

Skinner: Man, I'll tell you -- you can tell by the size of my belly that I've got a lot of favorite foods, but I love Ahi Tuna and I love steak. And actually, anything that Angie makes.

Q: Being in the coach lot so much it sounds like you could come up with some pretty good recipes for tuna and steak on the grill, no?

Skinner: My wife is the master of the 20-minute meal in the motorcoach lot. Now, the night before a race we'll usually cook up a steak and potato and maybe have a glass of wine, or something.

But if it's a throw-together meal, Angie's the master.

6. If you had to choose, would it be being honest, or being nice?

Skinner: Well (laughing), I'm pretty honest -- I'm not very nice, usually, so I guess being honest.

Q: There are no problems with the way that comes back around, are there?

Skinner: Nah.

7. What's your fondest childhood memory?

Skinner: Man, there are so many it's pathetic but one that sticks out in my mind is when I was, I don't know, seven or eight years old and I got a Schwinn Stingray.

It had the butterfly seat and it was metal flake green and I just thought I was the cat's meow on that bicycle. It was pretty cool.

Q: Did it help you do pretty well with the girls?

Skinner: Well, actually I think the motorcycle later on in life helped with the girls.

But I was a guy who put Brylcream on and wore my hair slicked back so I was a little bit geeky when I was real young. I guess I'm still kind of geeky but you are what you are.

8. What would your dream date be? Where and with whom?

Skinner: Wow! Anywhere with Shania Twain.

9. Racing and pranks seem to go hand-in-hand, so what's your worst prank, either perpetrated by you, or done to you?

Skinner: I'm not a big prankster, but I know when I was at RCR and watching Chocolate Myers and my son, Jamie taping weights to the driveshafts of their cars or jacking the wheels up so they just wouldn't go -- there have been several of them.

But the guy that spotted for me when we won in Japan, Christian Lovendahl, used to pick on my son Jamie all the time.

So he fell asleep one time and they shaved a big "X" in his back and sent him home to his wife with things in his bag that shouldn't have been there.

10. Finally, what would you consider your "Welcome to NASCAR" moment?

Mike Skinner: You know, I think winning the inaugural truck race, at Phoenix was the icing on the cake.

But Gene Petty and I showed up at Charlotte one time (May 1994) with a Busch car with Kentucky Fried Chicken on the car and we were underdogs. We blew up eight laps into practice and we didn't get any more practice.

We had not tested, it was a new car and it was the first time we'd been there together and we borrowed a motor and set on the pole -- so that was pretty big, too.