(Sports Network) - Mike Skinner earned his first victory of the 2009 Camping World Truck Series season after being declared the winner in Monday's rain-shortened O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.

Skinner held the lead when NASCAR (web | news) pulled the plug 35 laps short of the 167-lap distance due to precipitation. He recorded his 26th career victory, putting him two wins away from tying Jack Sprague on the Truck Series all-time race winners list.

The 1995 series champion also gave team owner and NFL All-Pro wide receiver Randy Moss his first victory in NASCAR competition.

"Randy, we got it buddy," Skinner said. "We got us one, and it's really cool. We got a lot of effort going on here to build this whole program at Randy Moss Motorsports with Tayler (Malsam) and myself. We're just going to keep digging man, and hopefully we can win another one or two of these things before the year's out."

Skinner spent the past four years with Bill Davis Racing, but after the team folded due to economically troubling times, he moved over to Moss and teamed with Malsam.

The 250-mile race at Kansas was scheduled for Saturday, but after 52 laps were completed, rain and then impending darkness forced NASCAR officials to postpone it two days later. Skinner held the top spot when the race was halted.

After a four-hour rain delay, the race finally resumed just after 2:00 p.m. local time.

Ron Hornaday Jr. captured the lead from Skinner after he was quickest off of pit road at the half-way point, but Skinner reclaimed the top position during the next round of stops, which occurred just before rain fell on the track again.

NASCAR displayed the yellow flag for rain on lap 123 and ran the next 10 laps under caution before concluding the event.

Johnny Benson finished second, and Brian Scott was third.

Hornaday, the pole sitter, came in fourth. He won at Kansas one year ago.

Brian Ickler, who made his series debut, completed the top-five. Ickler drove the No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota, stepping in for Kyle Busch, who was competing at Talladega Superspeedway over the weekend.

Colin Braun, Matt Crafton, Chad McCumbee, Johnny Sauter and Jason White were sixth through 10th, respectively.

With the victory, Skinner grabbed a 25-point lead over Hornaday in the championship standings. Todd Bodine slipped to third in points (-57) after finishing 21st.

Bodine got loose and slammed into the wall on lap 10. He sustained heavy damage to the front end of his truck and spent 44 laps behind the wall for repairs.









Copyright 2009 The Sports Network
All rights reserved

 Email To Friend