Mike Skinner weathered a roller coaster ride with his No. 42 Toyota Tundra at the Built Ford Tough 225. From his first practice runs placing him in the top-three atop the board to the last laps of the 150-lap event struggling to gain back laps, Skinner maintained his 11th place position in the point standings after a difficult weekend in Kentucky.

Beginning the race in 11th position under green-yellow conditions, Skinner managed to wheel his way inside the top-10 before the team's first pit stop on lap 52. Following track bar and air pressure adjustments along with four tires and fuel, Skinner quickly exited pit road ready for the restart in fifth.

Falling back to 20th and one lap down after 86 circuits at the 1.5-mile venue, Skinner again pitted on lap 100 for left track bar adjustments, wedge additions, fresh tires and fuel to tighten up his Tundra. Falling another lap down fighting increasingly loose conditions, the No. 42 team put a spring rubber in the right front, changed four tires and added more fuel following Terry Cook's accident in turn 4. As the checkered flag flew for veteran Bobby Hamilton, Skinner returned his Toyota Tundra onto pit road in 18th.

"My truck was really, really good in practice," Skinner said. "I just felt so good before the race and felt like I had a chance to win. After the green flag dropped, I was a little bit loose and fell back to around 12th place. When we finally got an opportunity to make some adjustments, it turns out they weren't near enough what the truck needed. As a matter of fact, they made it worse. So at that point, the team was thinking that possibly a shock or spring had given up, and that's exactly what happened. The left front spring had collapsed. I had one give up earlier in the year, so we had an idea that something might have been mechanically wrong. The truck was so loose I could barely hold onto it. It was pretty ugly all night."

"It did feel good to be back with my former crew though," Skinner said. "We had a good practice. We were really fast and very competitive, and they made some good changes. All of that was a positive, and I think it was positive on Travis' side as well so I'm looking forward to a lot of good things to come. We just have to get this monkey off our back."

Skinner will make his second start at Gateway International Raceway during the 12th race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season in St. Louis on July 17. SPEED Channel will carry the event LIVE at 7 p.m. CST. Racing radio coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. CST on more than 350 MRN affiliates nationwide.