Michael Curtis Skinner (born June 28, 1957) is an American former stock car racing driver. He has competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and he was the first ever champion of the latter in 1995. He has most recently driven the No. 98 Ford Fusion for Phil Parsons Racing in the Cup Series. He is the father of former NASCAR drivers Jamie Skinner and Dustin Skinner. He was born in Susanville, California.
Skinner appeared as the test driver for the first series of The Grand Tour. He was known as "The American," in humorous contrast to the main presenters, who are British. He appeared in the series for one season, until he was replaced with Abbie Eaton.
Skinner began his racing career at Susanville Speedway in the 1970s in a Plymouth Road Runner and at various California dirt tracks, winning three championships. He soon moved to North Carolina and worked as a crew member for Rusty Wallace and at Petty Enterprises. In 1986, he made his NASCAR debut in the Winston Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Pontiac for the Zanworth Racing Team, and had a best finish of 22nd in three starts. The following year, he made his Busch Series debut at Darlington Raceway, finishing 27th in the No. 0 Hunt Tire-sponsored Oldsmobile. He did not compete in NASCAR again until 1990, when he drove the No. 13 Glidden Paints-sponsored Buick for Mansion Motorsports at North Carolina Speedway, finishing 35th with rear end failure. He ran four races for Dixon over the next two years, before running one race in 1993 for Jimmy Means.
In 1994, Skinner began racing late models for Gene Petty, and won a local track championship. He and Petty also began racing in the Busch Series in the No. 88, winning one pole in the Kentucky Fried Chicken-sponsored Chevrolet, but failing to finish a race.
Skinner was chosen by Richard Childress Racing to drive the No. 3 GM Goodwrench-sponsored Chevrolet C/K for the first NASCAR SuperTruck Series season. He won the first race in the series, and collected a total of eight wins, seventeen top-five finishes, eighteen top-ten finishes, ten poles, an average start of 3.9 and an average finish of 4.8, the route to winning the first championship. He equaled his win total the following season, but fell to third in the standings. That year, he ran five races for RCR in the Winston Cup Series, qualifying in the top-ten three times and having a best finish of twelfth in the No. 31 Realtree-sponsored car. He also filled in for teammate Dale Earnhardt when Earnhardt was recovering from injuries suffered in a wreck at Talladega, where he flipped after contact with Sterling Marlin.
In the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup season, Skinner was promoted to full-time, driving the No. 31 for RCR with a sponsorship from Lowe's. He won poles at both of the season's races at Daytona International Speedway and had three top ten finishes. Despite failing to qualify for one race and a thirtieth-place points finish, he won the Rookie of the Year award. He had nine top-tens during his sophomore season, but finished 21st in points after being forced sit out three races due to injury. He also won two exhibition races in Japan during those two seasons, when NASCAR held races in Asia for the first time. He finished no worse than sixth in the first four races of the 1999 season, and held the points lead briefly during the early portion of the season. He had a total of five top-five finishes, fourteen top-ten finishes, two poles, and ended the year with a career-best tenth place in the point standings. He also raced in thirteen races in the Busch Series, driving the No. 19 Yellow Freight Systems-sponsored Chevy for Emerald Performance Group. He won his only career Busch Series race at Atlanta after being disqualified for a rules infraction, before NASCAR overturned its decision.
Skinner had 11 Top 10s in the 2000 season, but fell to twelfth in points and lost his crew chief Larry McReynolds, who retired from NASCAR to broadcast the series on Fox Sports.
In the 2001 season, he had only one top ten and suffered severe injuries in a wreck at Chicagoland Speedway after cutting a right-front tire and crashing head-first in turn 1. He was forced to miss the next five races because he suffered a concussion, a broken ankle, and a torn ACL in the crash. Free agent driver Robby Gordon was tapped to replace him and had a few top-tens. Then the news broke out that Gordon would replace Skinner in the No. 31 Chevy after the 2001 season, and that Lowe's resigned from RCR to sponsor Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick's co-owned team for the rookie Jimmie Johnson in 2002. Skinner returned at Michigan, but after another accident at Richmond, Skinner opted for surgery to repair his ACL. He announced the next morning after the accident that he would miss the remainder of the season. In his announcement, he bid farewell to Richard Childress and his team; he also announced that Robby Gordon would replace him again and wished him luck.
Robby Gordon finished off the season with an upset victory at New Hampshire.
Skinner signed on to drive the No. 4 Kodak-sponsored Chevy for Morgan-McClure Motorsports in the 2002 season. During the 2001 season, the Morgan-McClure team employed several drivers and had six top-fifteen finishes. In 2002, Skinner had a sixth-place finish at Rockingham but only managed three top-fifteen finishes while finishing 31st in the final points standings.
The team switched to Pontiac for the 2003 season, after Joe Gibbs Racing went to Chevrolet and picked up manufacturer support. Skinner continued to struggle. After failing to qualify for the Sirius 400 at Michigan, Skinner was released after fourteen races. Later in the season, he ran four Truck Series races for Billy Ballew Motorsports and returned to the cup series to replace Jerry Nadeau in the No. 01 U.S. Army sponsored car for MBV Motorsports in eleven races. His highlight and lowlight of that car came at a weekend in Richmond, he wrecked his first car in practice after getting loose, Then, after unrolling the backup, earned the pole. After hitting oil in Happy Hour, he had to then go to a third car which was a car that was supposed to run next weekend at Loudon. He continued to run the No. 01 until Martinsville when Joe Nemechek went to drive the car to get ready for his ride in 2003. His final race of the season came at Homestead for Michael Waltrip Racing, driving the No. 00 Bacardi Chevrolet.
In 2004, Skinner returned to the Truck Series to become one of Toyota's main drivers following their entrance of the Tundra in the truck series. Skinner drove the No. 42 Toyota Tundra for Bang! Racing for the first 18 races. He was running ninth in points when conflicts between Toyota and Bang's owners allowed the team to split and run the No. 5 Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing. He won two poles and had two top-tens in his six races for Bill Davis Racing while finishing eleventh in the final points. On the Cup side of things, Skinner returned to Childress to run the 33 Bass Pro Shops Chevy in the Daytona 500. He finished in 22nd, one lap down from winner Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In 2005, Skinner again drove the No. 5 Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing. He collected seven poles and two Truck Series wins and finished fifth in points. He also ran a part-time Nextel Cup schedule, first announcing six races for Davis in the No. 23 car with sponsorship from Argent Mortgage, Bad Boy Mowers, and The History Channel, he qualified in five of the six races, as the other race he failed to qualify due to rain and being too low in Owner-Points. Skinner also raced in four races for R&J Motorsports in the No. 37 car for four races, with a best finish of 37th after some horrendous luck. He also attempted the 00 Aaron's Dream Machine for Michael Waltrip again but was collected in the Big One on lap nineteen. In 2006, Skinner again drove for Bill Davis Racing in the Truck Series. He collected eight poles and won one race while finishing tenth in points. He also ran four Cup races and nine Busch series races during the year. He also failed to qualify for ten races that year as well.