Mike Skinner finished 13th last season at IRP. Credit: Autostock

Skinner hopes history repeats itself at IRP

Two-time dominator on Indy short track hopes to turn fortunes

It's rare enough when a driver leads every lap of a single race. It's downright spooky when a driver leads every lap of two races in a row at a single racetrack.

Mike Skinner did just that at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1995 and '96, the first two years that the Craftsman Truck Series competed at IRP, the site of Friday's Power Stroke Diesel 200.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Mike Skinner at IRP in the Craftsman Truck Series Year Start Finish 1995 1 1 1996 1 1 1997 26 32 2003 7 22 2004 4 13 Avg. 7.8 13.8

Despite that, as Skinner knows all too well, nine years is a long time ago.

"I think IRP fits my driving style. I love short tracks," said Skinner. "I feel like I am a better short-track racer [but] I do not think our program is where it needs to be to capitalize on them."

The numbers seem to back Skinner's statement. His best short-track effort of the season so far is a ninth-place run at Martinsville in April. It goes down from there. He finished 28th at Mansfield Motorsports Park in May and 29th in the most recent NCTS race at Memphis last month.

"IRP was a race track that was good for me and it has been very frustrating this year because we have been so good on the short tracks in the past."

Perhaps even more frustrating for Skinner personally is that he has a handle on what the problem is. He and his team just haven't been able to figure out how to make it better.

"The differences between 1995 and today are the shock packages that we run each week," Skinner said. "What I did was run the packages that I had on my late model car and Todd (Berrier, chassis specialist, now crew chief for Kevin Harvick) made it better and better. It really worked for the first couple of years and then everybody caught up.

"I think the trucks are a lot more aero dependent now than they were back in the early days. The tires and chassis have changed so much and the level of competition gets higher and higher each year that passes."

Again, there is statistical evidence. Skinner had 18 top-10 finishes in 20 races en route to the Truck title in 1995. This year, he has seven top-10s in 14 starts and sits 11th in the standings, 369 points behind leader Dennis Setzer.

Skinner, among five former IRP winners entered in Friday night's race, hasn't scored a victory in the season-and-a-half he's spent at Bill Davis Racing.

Still, Skinner isn't short on confidence.

"I think this race team that we have at Bill Davis Racing has the potential to be as strong as my team back in 1995," Skinner said. "We are not there yet. Our mile-and-a-half program seems to be one of the best, since we have dominated some races and ran awfully well, but as a whole we are missing some things.

"I think the more we work on our program, the stronger we are going to get and hopefully will be as dominant as I was back in 1995 and 1996."