Skinner is hoping that his great grandfather’s high-flying accomplishments will be a good luck charm at the track this weekend since Dover is also home to the largest and busiest aerial cargo port in the Department of Defense, Dover Air Force Base. Skinner’s great grandfather was a pioneer in flight and is credited with his inventions relating to the crop duster. Skinner’s father also worked for McDonald-Douglas for 25 years.

The No. 42 Toyota Tundra team will be taking Dolce (meaning ‘Sweet’ in Italian) to the track this weekend. The chassis has seen many laps in testing at Talladega and Daytona and racing action in Daytona, but its race debut was cut short when an accident took the No. 42 team out of contention on Lap 52. The Bang Racing team recently completed an entire overhaul on the truck which includes a new body. “I decided to name this truck Dolce because it ran so sweet in Daytona,” Skinner said. “Dolce is an after dinner dessert wine made by one of our favorite wineries in Napa, Far Niete, and it's also Angie's favorite.” Keeping with the wine and cheese chassis theme this year, teammate Travis Kvapil will be taking Velveeta to Dover.

Mike Skinner’s Thoughts on Dover  Talk to me about racing at the “Monster Mile.”  “It’s like a big Bristol. It’s awesome and absolutely intense racing. I really like the race track and generally run well there. In the 2000 Busch race, I started on the pole and was running away from the field until my motor broke. I also got my first Top-10 in the Winston Cup Series there.”

Do you think it will be a challenging race track for your Bang Racing team?  “No, I don’t really think so. I’m certain my experience and testing that we’ve done at other race tracks will help the team out. I think Rick and I are going to throw away our notebook this week and just give the truck what it wants to have. He’s run well at Dover in the past. So we’re going to start out like he’s run there with a truck and just adjust from that point on.”

Are you looking forward to the busy schedule ahead?  “I’m definitely looking forward to our upcoming schedule and getting back on track. I’ve enjoyed the time off, but I’m on a mission. And this team is on a mission as well. The Top-10 in this truck series right now is so tight that it’s realistic that a driver in 15th place could win the championship. This early in the game, I’m really, really anxious to fine tune our race team and run good week in and week out. Toyota and TRD have given us great equipment, so we just have to go there and race hard and take what we can get out of this particular track and go on to the next place.”

Crew Chief Rick Ren’s Thoughts on Dover  Your experiences at Dover have been pretty positive?  “My experiences at Dover in the past have been really good. I’ve been there with Ricky Craven and had a lot of Top-three qualifying and finishes with him, and I’ve been pretty fast there with Ward Burton in the Busch Series. I’ve had a shot at sitting on the pole with Terry Cook and Travis Kvapil during the last two years, and we ran in the Top-5 there with Andy Houston and with Kvapil until Kvapil’s engine expired. Dover’s a real ‘racey’ track. There’s not much room for error, and the giving and taking is rough there as well. It’s easy to destroy a truck at the Monster Mile.”

You’re basically taking a new truck to Dover even though it saw 57 laps of racing action at Daytona. Having refurbished Skinner’s ride, how are you looking at setup for the event?

“I’m going to go on pretty much how I ran there over the past two years with Cook and Kvapil and two different manufacturers, Chevy and Ford. The thing about concrete is it doesn’t change, so I’m not worried about my setup unless this tire doesn’t like the setup when we get there. We’re going to be fighting the tire more than anything.”

Skinner Appearances at Dover International Speedway  Mike Skinner will be joining other Craftsman Truck Series drivers at an appearance at Dover Air Force Base on Thursday, June 3 from 7-8 p.m. The drivers will sign autographs for military personnel and their families and take a tour of a C-5 and the air traffic control tower. The event is closed to the public.

Military Ties Run Deep On No. 42 Toyota Tundra Crew  The Bang Racing team will feel right at home in the military town of Dover, Delaware, as several of the team members as well as their families have served in the Armed Forces. Truck Chief and Rear Tire Changer Chad Rainey and Hauler Driver Tom Czoka served in the Army. Czoka spent a year in Germany as a tank driver in the 1st Infantry Division, and Czoka’s father was a Staff Sergeant in the Army during WWII. Jackman Steve Hill’s father served in Vietnam in the Air Force. Front Tire Changer Ryan Langley’s grandfather was in WWII and great uncle was killed on D-Day as a paratrooper in Normandy. Both served in the Army. Front Tire Carrier Ryan Crellin broke family tradition as his great grandfather, grandfather and father spent time in the Navy. His grandfather was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project.