Mike Skinner drove Randy Moss Motorsports to its first Camping World Truck Series victory Monday in the rain-delayed and -shortened O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.
Skinner’s win was his first of the season and 26th of his career. He joined the team, formed when NFL star Moss became partners with Morgan-Dollar Motorsports owner David Dollar this past July, in January to form a two-truck effort with rookie Tayler Malsam. NASCAR.com
The 1995 series champion also gave team owner and NFL All-Pro wide receiver Randy Moss his first victory in NASCAR competition.
“Randy, we got it buddy,” Skinner said. “We got us one, and it’s really cool. We got a lot of effort going on here to build this whole program at Randy Moss Motorsports with Tayler (Malsam) and myself. We’re just going to keep digging man, and hopefully we can win another one or two of these things before the year’s out.”
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The 250-mile race at Kansas was scheduled for Saturday, but after 52 laps were completed, rain and then impending darkness forced NASCAR officials to postpone it two days later. Skinner held the top spot when the race was halted.
Ron Hornaday Jr. captured the lead from Skinner after he was quickest off of pit road at the half-way point, but Skinner reclaimed the top position during the next round of stops, which occurred just before rain fell on the track again.
NASCAR displayed the yellow flag for rain on lap 123 and ran the next 10 laps under caution before concluding the event.
Johnny Benson finished second, and Brian Scott was third.
Hornaday, the pole sitter, came in fourth. He won at Kansas one year ago. MiamiHerald.com
Skinner, who led three times for 67 laps and took the lead for good from Stacy Compton after a re-start on lap 119, conceded it was getting dangerous on the track.
“It’s good and bad being the leader,” he said. “It’s always good to be leading the race, but you’re the first guy to get to the water. It was definitely too dangerous to drive, and my biggest concern was even if we didn’t slip and slide and wreck our own truck, in these times, it’s tough on the owners, and if one of these trucks slips and wipes out four or five trucks, it’s a lot harder on the owners than it is on the drivers.”
Skinner reported the conditions to NASCAR officials on his radio, but wasn’t sure if he was convincing.
“When you’re the leader,” said Skinner, “and you’re giving that feedback to NASCAR, they expect you to want to stop because you’re past halfway, and you’re leading the race. I understand that NASCAR has to make a gallant effort, giving to the fans and our TV viewers, and they did. For gosh sake, they burned up a lot of jet fuel out there trying to dry this race track.
“I’d like to say we could have won the race anyway, but we don’t have to worry about that now.” Kansas City Star
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