NASCAR Winston Cup Series Mountain Dew 500 Preview: #31, Mike Skinner
28 August 1997
#31 Mike Skinner, Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo NASCAR Winston Cup Series Mountain Dew Southern 500 Advance Darlington Raceway MIKE SKINNER NOTES & QUOTES: MOUNTAIN DEW SOUTHERN 500 DARLINGTON, SC - Skinner suffered a bruised knee in the Goody's Headache Powder 500 at Bristol, Tn. But he will be 100 percent for this weekend's Mountain Dew Southern 500. "It was a little sore for a couple of days, but it's fine now," said Skinner, who tested out the knee on the golf course Tuesday afternoon. - Skinner was one of the first drivers to test at the "new" Darlington Raceway. He and Steve Grissom took a break from their test session on Aug. 12 to help paint the new start-finish line. "I heard a lot about the Darlington stripe," says Skinner with a grin, "This time I gave the track the stripe instead of it giving one to me. That felt good." - Skinner said the track may have a new start-finish line and a new frontstretch, but "it is the same ole Darlington. It is still one tough race track. It is still extremely difficult to get around," says Skinner. "That hasn't changed. I know every time I've run at Darlington I have had problems with the west corners (now turns three and four). But I feel a lot better about getting through it after the test." - Even though his test speeds didn't compare to the ones run by Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott and Jeff Burton, Skinner was still pleased with the session. "We tried a lot of different things," says Skinner. "And we learned a lot. We feel we are going to be in pretty good shape when we go back." - The rookie driver feels one of the things many of his fellow competitors don't realize is that the new configuration means the old backstretch pit road is now the frontstretch pits. "And I know better than most how tough it is to get into what is now the frontstretch pits," says Skinner. Good pit strategy by crew chief Kevin Hamlin had put skinner out front in the spring race at Darlington. But after leading laps 105-112, Skinner "messed up big time" as it took him three laps to get into the pits. "I was running too fast both times," he says. "You've got to slow down going into three to get in those pits. You can't some around four and dive off. You won't make it." - This will be Skinner's second Southern 500. He competed in the 1993 event for Jimmy Means. Skinner started 36th and had moved into the top-20 when he suffered engine failure only 145 laps into the race. - With 10 races left in the race for the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year Award, Skinner holds a comfortable 34-point lead over Robby Gordon. Skinner has been the top finishing rookie in 12 of the 22 races run so far this season. By Sports Marketing Enterprises