Mike Skinner Wins the Copart 200

Mike Skinner kept his truck in the center of the track and out of trouble with the other trucks Saturday in the Camping World Truck Series Copart 200 to cross the finish line ahead of his competition in a green-white-checkered flag finish at Gateway International Raceway.

Mike Skinner wins the Copart 200

Events turned a little unfortunate for the first and second place trucks as they were taken out of the race in back to back restarts with just ten laps remaining in the Copart 200 in incidents with Matt Crafton. During the first restart, Crafton was third, but decided to jump inside of Todd Bodine, who started second during the restart. The two racers approached Turn 1 together, but Bodine’s Toyota turned in and contacted Crafton’s Chevrolet as they went into Turn 1. The contract made Bodine’s car do a spin on the pit lane exit ramp and fly across the track and hit the outside wall. His car hit the race cars of Colin Braun and Rick Crawford, essentially taking them out of the now red flagged race.

During the second restart, Crafton was second behind Ron Hornaday on the grid. He followed Hornaday into the first corner and when Hornaday turned Crafton was inside of Hornaday and contacted the left rear tire of Hornaday’s Chevrolet. This caused Hornaday to spin and back into the outside wall, where he was hit by Jason Young’s race car. This caused the race to once again be red flagged, with Crafton in the lead, but Crafton was subsequently black flagged by NASCAR for overly aggressive driving and the lead was given to Skinner. Crafton being black flagged also moved Johnny Sauter up to second and Brian Scott into third place. Being black flagged meant that Crafton had to restart at the back of the pack and he became the last truck at the back of the grid. Crafton was jeered and cheered as he was forced to drive down pit lane to serve his penalty.

These events allowed Mike Skinner to hold off his competitors during the green-white-checkered flag finish and cross the finish line .285 seconds ahead of Johnny Sauter in a 162 lap race that was two laps longer than scheduled.

Brian Scott finished third in the Copart 200, just ahead of Aric Almirola, Tayler Malsam and Matt Crafton. Timothy Peters finished seventh in his Toyota, Stacy Compton was eighth, Ryan Sieg ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Rick Crawford.

“Image: Zuma Press”