Mike Skinner continues assault on qualifying record book

NEWS AND NOTES

Mike Skinner (No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota) continues his assault on NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series qualifying records. Skinner knocked down his third
Budweiser Pole of the 2006 season at Michigan International Speedway on June
17 and moved his career qualifying needle to 27 poles.

The number "27" is significant in that it matches the all-time
record held by
Jack Sprague (No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota). Sprague had held the mark alone
since the 2001 season during which he surpassed Skinner's qualifying record
of 15 poles.

Skinner has matched Sprague's record in fewer than half as many starts -- 114
vs. 232. That works out to roughly one pole every four races.

Skinner's bid to break the record could be blunted this week as Sprague is
the defending Budweiser Pole winner at The Milwaukee Mile with four poles
overall at the flat, one-mile speedway. Skinner was the No. 1 qualifier for
Milwaukee's inaugural event in 1995 and the first of five pole winners to win
the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200.

Career season adds up to huge point lead for Bodine ... Todd Bodine (No. 30
Lumber Liquidators Toyota) had to hustle for his eighth top-five finish of
the year in Michigan's recent event. Bodine qualified 25th in the 36-truck
field but stood fourth at the conclusion of the race. The finish pushed his
championship lead to a record 178 points after 10 races as David Reutimann
(No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota), despite finishing 15th, overtook Ted Musgrave
(No. 9 Team ASE/Germain Toyota) for the runnerup spot. The next-largest lead
at this point in the season is 92 points -- Sprague heading Greg Biffle in
2000. Biffle, however, rebounded to win the championship. This week marks the
one-year anniversary of Bodine rejoining Germain Racing. He's won eight races
and recorded 18 top-five finishes in those 25 races.

But the second half of the top 10 is incredibly close ... Rick Crawford (No.
14 Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford) took over the sixth position at Michigan --
for now, anyway. Just 10 points covers positions six through 10th with
Crawford scoring 1,318 points to No. 10's Mike Bliss (No. 16 IWX Motor
Freight Chevrolet) 1,308.

Benson bags No. 1 in 60th appearance ... Johnny Benson (No. 23 Exide
Batteries Toyota) welcomed a new sponsor in style with his first NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series victory that came, appropriately, before an estimated
60,000 mostly partisan fans at Michigan International Speedway. Benson had
finished second on four occasions, the most recent coming in June 2005 at
Texas Motor Speedway. The former NASCAR Busch Series champion became the 17th
different competitor to score victories in all three of NASCAR's national
touring series. The win was the third for team owner Bill Davis and seventh
for crew chief Rick Ren, who has guided four different drivers to Victory
Lane.

ETC. ... Thirty of 34 finishers in Saturday's Con-way Freight 200 completed
all 102 laps to eclipse by three the record for most lead lap finishers. The
previous mark was recorded three times -- including last year's Michigan race
and most recently last October at Martinsville Speedway. ... This week's race
marks a homecoming for several members of Billy Ballew Motorsports including
crew chief Richie Wauters (Green Bay), mechanics Darin Bravery (Edgerton) and
Jay Czarapata (Krakow) and hauler driver Chris Wood (Sun Prairie). In
addition, Nacedah native Johnny Sauter has been tapped to drive the team's
No. 51 Bowen Family Homes Chevrolet. Crew member J.R. Norris won last
August's NASCAR AutoZone Elite Series, Midwest Division race at The Milwaukee
Mile. ... Ryan Moore (No. 40 AutoMotion Chevrolet) has become the 18th member
of this year's Raybestos Rookie of the Year class. Erik Darnell (No. 99
Woolrich Ford) continues as the standings leader. ... The Milwaukee Mile has
produced just one rookie winner in 11 previous races. Kurt Busch's 2000
victory was the first of four in his record-setting freshman season. ...
Reutimann has fashioned back-to-back top-10 finishes in NASCAR Busch Series
competition at Nashville and Kentucky and will do double-duty this weekend as
well. The Milwaukee Mile hosts NASCAR Busch Series racing on Saturday marking
the first of two weekends on which the two series appear together in 2006.
They'll next share the pavement Aug. 4-5 at the newly named O'Reilly Raceway
Park in Indianapolis. Others slated to drive in both Milwaukee events are
Sauter, Bliss and Erin Crocker (No. 98 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge).

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Champions prevail at The Milwaukee Mile ... Seven of 11 races have been won
by five NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champions although only one -- Skinner
-- has been able to win Milwaukee and a title in the same season (1995). All
will compete in this year's race: Skinner, Sprague, Bliss, Musgrave and Ron
Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 Chevrolet). Musgrave is the track's only multiple series
winner with victories in 2001 and 2004.

Add these three and the field boasts eight former winners ... Also competing
are defending winner Dennis Setzer (No. 85 FlexFuel Chevrolet), Terry Cook
(No. 10 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford), the 2002 winner and
Brendan Gaughan (No. 77 Orleans Racing Dodge), who visited Victory Lane the
following year.

QUOTEBOOK

"We had a solid run last week in Michigan and you can feel our race team is
really coming together. Milwaukee is a good track for our team. We've had top
10s there the last three years and we're on a roll coming into this year's
race." -- Rick Crawford, who's showed the most rapid rise in the standings in
the past five races -- 14th to sixth.

"I raced up there quite often when I was 'cutting my teeth' in racing more or
less. I ran a lot in the Wisconsin area and when I go back to Milwaukee there
are a lot of fans, a lot of friends and some family that come out to the
races." -- Ted Musgrave, who competed out of Franklin, Wis. for many years.

"In North Carolina, when I tell people I'm from Minnesota, they say, 'You
don't really race cars up there -- maybe snowmobiles.' Actually we have about
three or four pretty good tracks up in Minnesota and there's a lot of late
model racing going on there." -- Joey Miller, No. 12 Curb Records Toyota,
who'll be racing one state away from his home this week.

"We'd certainly like to dominate the race like we did last year but our team
really needs a good, solid contending run right now. We're not going to be
able to take the same truck that won last year because that truck hasn't been
repaired from a wreck we had at St. Louis on the last lap. But we'll be
putting a similar setup underneath this truck and hopefully have some similar
results to last year." -- Dennis Setzer, defending winner of the Toyota
Tundra Milwaukee 200.

IN THE LOOP

Last year's winner, Dennis Setzer, came within a fraction of a percentage
point of recording a perfect Driver Rating of 150.000. Setzer scored a
149.800 rating as five finishers had Driver Ratings in triple digits.

Unsurprisingly, Todd Bodine is the season leader with a Driver Rating of
115.2. David Reutimann is next at 107.3 with Johnny Benson third at 101.7.
Bodine has run 99.75 percent of this year's 1,607 laps (1,603). Rick Crawford
is second in the category at 99.38 percent (1,597/1,607) while Matt Crafton
is third with 98.20 (1,578/1,607).

FROM THE ARCHIVES

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Two competitors -- Mike
Skinner and Dennis Setzer -- who battled for victory in the final laps of the
1995 inaugural race at The Milwaukee Mile are among favorites to win this
year's Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200. They finished one-two in an event
contested at a 125-mile distance. The race was expanded to 200 laps in 1996.
Other top-10 finishers from 1995 expected to compete for this year's victory
include Ron Hornaday Jr. (third), Johnny Benson (seventh) and Jack Sprague
(ninth).

FAST FACTS

What: Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 (Race 11 of 25).
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