A few weeks before NASCAR resumes at Daytona, Angie Skinner can easily burn through a dozen cell-phone batteries.

She's just that busy. Busy because Skinner's the wife of a racer preparing for a season full of long road trips and short stints at home.

“

Whenever Mike talks he always says 'we' and gives me lots of credit.

”

-- ANGIE SKINNER

From correcting botched haircuts, approving hero card photos and cleaning out the motorhome and restocking it with this year's sponsor-friendly attire, her list goes on and on. They may call her husband -- Camping Word Series veteran and its first champion, Mike Skinner -- the gunslinger but Angie is the clipboard flinger!

"I was just sending an e-mail to Toyota asking them to please not use the following photos of Mike. Just send them to me because he gets a crazy eye every once in a while," Angie said.

She laughs about the "crazy eye" but it is serious business because the photos will be used for promotional purposes for the rest of the season, just like the bad grade-school photos your mom passed around all year long.

"Exactly, and right now I tell everyone it's my back to school time," Angie said. "We've been having a lot of fun but now it's back to school season. Our friends want to go out and do things but the closer we get to February the less we can do."

Closing in on her 11th NASCAR season, Skinner is not just her husband's keeper -- a duty most wives hold -- she also is his manager. Calling personal service sponsors, negotiating contracts, designing uniforms, ordering safety equipment -- it all falls on her "honey-do" list.

"I still have to call Uncle Jay [Frye] and ask if Red Bull want its senior athlete this year," she laughed. "One of my favorite things to do is hats for Victory Lane. If you're on our truck or on the uniform I have to always have a hat for Mike in Victory Lane."

(Mike, who will turn 53 in June, made seven Cup Series starts for Red Bull in the No. 84 Toyota in 2008. Frye is the team's general manager.)

While what Angie does appears to be organized chaos, this season is a breeze compared to this past year.

"A blessing, because around this time last season we were still scrambling for a job," she said. (Continued)