Hampton, GA (My Sportsbook) - Veteran Mike Skinner secured the pole for Saturday afternoon's EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The No.5 Toyota driver circled the 1.54-mile tri-oval in 30.363 seconds (182.591 m.p.h.). The pole victory was the 1995 series champion's sixth of the season and 23rd of his Craftsman Truck Series career. Starting on the front row with Skinner will be series points leader Ted Musgrave who posted a second-best time of 30.458 seconds. We had a change in the lead of the Craftsman Truck Series at last weekend's Martinsville event. Dennis Setzer entered the race with a five-point lead, but two accidents and a 19th-place finish left him 54 points behind Musgrave. The No.1 Ultra Motorsports driver has put on quite a show down the stretch, finishing no worse than sixth over the last two months. He has turned around his season which saw him 227 points behind Setzer after the race at IRP in early August. Setzer will start sixth in the 36-truck field. "After Indy it was like 'engrave the trophy and give it to him,'" said Musgrave. "We just wanted to keep working real hard. It's very seldom that a driver gets good luck all year long and we still had the capability to come back." Brandon Whitt (30.568) and Todd Kluever (30.570) will start in row two. The race is scheduled to begin this afternoon at 3:15.p.m. (edt). |
