Mike Skinner celebrates his first victory at Bristol's .533-mile bullring. Credit: Nate Mecha

Skinner blisters tires, field to win O'Reilly 200

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Mike Skinner wrested the lead from pole-sitter David Reutimann in Turn 3 of the first lap of the O'Reilly 200 on Wednesday night and dominated the field en route to his first Truck Series victory since Nov. 3, 1996, at Bakersfield, Calif.

Skinner, who won 16 NCTS races in 1995-96, led 190 laps and became the all-time laps-led leader at Bristol. He now has been on point for 442 laps at the .533-mile track, surpassing Ron Hornaday Jr. (388).

O'REILLY 200 •   Results •   Standings WinnerMike Skinner celebrates his first Craftsman Truck win since 1996 Early cautionBrendan Gaughan finds the wall early in the O'Reilly 200 Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"This race team deserved five or six of these [wins] by now," said Skinner, who battled front-right tire blistering through the latter stages of the race.

"We got out of sequence on tires, and I was just riding and I got to save the tires."

Todd Bodine, Jack Sprague, Johnny Benson and Kyle Busch completed the top five, while Ted Musgrave, Jimmy Spencer, David Starr, Mike Wallace and Ken Schrader rounded out the top 10.

Bodine caught Skinner with 18 laps remaining when the leaders were bogged in traffic. However, series points leader Dennis Setzer crashed on Lap 186 to bring out the caution.

After the restart on Lap 195, Skinner managed to fend off Bodine's challenge for his first Truck victory at Bristol.

"It's never easy to win in this series," Skinner said. "Bristol's the baddest place on earth -- Daytona, Bristol, the Brickyard ...

"I had a lot of concerns all night; I slowed down, saved the tires, saved the truck. ... We were good on restarts all night, and I thought if we could get out there [in front] we could hold [Bodine] off -- and we did."

The 1995 Truck Series champion, Skinner jumped to the Cup Series in 1997 and ran stock cars full-time through 2003. He returned to the Truck Series last year and finished 11th in points.

His best previous finish this season was fourth place -- at Nashville, Kansas, Texas, St. Louis and Kentucky.

Setzer now leads Musgrave by 143 points. Defending series champion Bobby Hamilton is third (-257), Hornaday is fourth (-261) and Spencer is fifth (-280).