Skinner

LOUDON, N.H. -- Things just keep getting worse for Mike Skinner.

Days after being involved in a fiery wreck during testing at Kansas Speedway in which he injured his knee and suffered burns to his face after a blown tire sent him into the wall, it looked like Skinner might be in for some better luck this weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway. Skinner qualified his No. 4 Chevy in the fifth spot for Sunday's New Hampshire 300, marking his fourth top-10 start this year.

Fast forward 40-plus laps -- and through a rain delay -- and Skinner's day came to another premature end. The No. 4 car suffered engine problems and was the first car out of the race.

Skinner said the car was capable of running in the top 10 or 12 and that the team was planning some pit road tweaking to improve it before "something happened to the engine."

It was just the latest disappointment for Skinner, who has yet to score a top-10 finish this season, his first with Morgan-McClure Motorsports. This just three seasons after finishing 10th overall in a Richard Childress car, an effort he followed with a 12th-place standing in the final 2000 points race.

The former Craftsman Truck series champ, in fact, has notched only three top-20 finishes all season. To put that in its proper perspective, Sunday's DNF was the team's fourth this season due to a blown engine.

"It's been one of the worst seasons I've ever had and I've been able to up until this week stay in great physical shape and not have accidents," said Skinner, who fell to 32nd in the points race. "We've just struggled with the race team. We've had trouble with making calls on pit road, we've had trouble with engines, we've had trouble with gas mileage, we've had trouble with a lot of things."

The Morgan-McClure team went through four different drivers in 2001, including two who raced at Loudon on Sunday (Robby Gordon and Kevin Lepage), without scoring any top-10 finishes in 34 starts. Bobby Hamilton had two top-10s during the 2000 season, his last with the team. Hamilton finished 30th in points that year after placing 10th (1998) and 13th (1999) in points the previous two years with Morgan-McClure.

To sum up, this team has some work to do to regain its form of yesteryear. But Skinner thinks it can be done.

"It's a growing thing. It's just going to take us some time to get our act together," said Skinner, who is still looking for his first win in a Winston Cup points event. "But I've got a lot of confidence in this race team. I've got a lot of confidence in the sponsor.

"Car owner Larry McClure -- I get along with him very, very well. And I'm looking forward to the rest of the year. We'd like to get this thing turned around and win a race or at least put ourselves where we're a threat to win races before the end of the year so when we get here next year at this time, we won't be having this same conversation."

And with the troubles the team has encountered this season, it's no surprise that Skinner already is looking toward 2003.

"I got a big eye on (next season). It's one of those situations where we've got some time. We've got a lot of things to still do to get better. But everybody's up for it. Everybody wants to get better -- that's the main thing. I feel confident."

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