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closeSkinner bumps to the front
JIM UTTER, jutter@charlotteobserver.com
Friday, Mar. 16, 2007
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Mike Skinner didn’t waste his one opportunity to take the lead.
Skinner, who started from the pole, went to the outside to pass then-leader Clint Bowyer on a restart on Lap 124 of 130, then held off Todd Bodine to win Friday night’s American Commercial Lines 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It’s Skinner’s second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the season and 21st of his career.
“I knew I had to get a really, really restart to have a chance. Clint had been mirror-driving us pretty good there,” Skinner said. “I wasn’t going to wreck him to win. I just wasn’t going to do that.
“I got on the outside of him, was able to keep (the gas pedal) on the floor and got away.”
Skinner did nudge Bowyer out of the way, however. But Bowyer, driving a Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc., said he wouldn’t cry foul.
“It was just racing. He did what he had to do to win,” Bowyer said. “I’m not going to whine.”
Skinner, who won the championship in the series’ inaugural season in 1995, took over the series lead and holds a 69-point advantage over Bodine, the reigning series champion. It’s the first time Skinner has led
the points since the 14th race of the 1996 season.
Bodine’s Toyota was strongest on long runs, but a wealth of cautions – there were a record-setting nine in the race – didn’t give him enough laps to catch Skinner at the end.
“When Mike and I got out front, we saw that picture earlier in the race. I could run with him, but I couldn’t get out front of him until we ran about 15 laps or so,” Bodine said.
Matt Crafton tied his career high finishing third, Rick Crawford was fourth and Bowyer fifth.