Mike Skinner, What Happened?

It’s great to see that Mike Skinner is having success in the Craftsman Truck Series, but I’ve often wondered why he struggled so much in the Cup cars (as they were called back then). He won the Dayton 500 pole in 1997, his rookie season, and it seemed to be the start of a great career. In 1999 he finished the season 9th in points and got sit at the “big table” for NASCAR’s end of year jubilee at the Waldorf Astoria. Things were looking up in the ‘Cup cars.

By 2000 however, he was starting to have a string of bad luck, with broken parts, bad decisions, and even worse driving at times, and it wasn’t long before he was starting to sound very bitter during on-track interviews (and usually after finishing a race early). He even implied to more than one NASCAR reporter that he felt his team wasn’t getting the full attention of Richard Childress during his struggles. In 2001, Childress let him go, and he in 2002 and 2003, he drove for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, but by that time, his ‘Cup gig was pretty much over, and he bolted for the Truck Series.

I have to believe that Skinner has earned some respect in the garage area, and it would be great to see a multi-car team give him another chance to see if he really has what it takes to make it in the Nextel Cup series.