21 NETS 10 FOR CRAWFORD IN NASHVILLE

Apr 2, 2010

21 NETS 10 FOR CRAWFORD IN NASHVILLE

Rick Crawford and his Circle Bar team rolled into the Easter weekend at Nashville Superspeedway trying to hop back into the top 10 of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings. A fast truck with two flat tires in Martinsville left the Circle Bar team with something to prove on the high-banked concrete at Nashville. Over the years the Music City has been good to Crawford making the home of the Grand Ole Opry the perfect place for the Circle Bar team to try and climb the charts to the top 10. Needing a hit, crew chief, Blake Bainbridge, called on Circle Bar’s down force workhorse chassis CB-21, better known as Blackjack. Blackjack has been the mainstay of the Circle Bar stable over the last few years and Crawford was looking forward to being back at the reigns. True to form Blackjack was ill off the trailer but the Ford F-150 quickly responded to Blake’s healing hand. Solidly in the top 10 in practice Crawford set the early pole in qualifying. Cooler track temperatures for the teams going out later moved the Circle Bar team down to 6th and looking forward to the race. The outside lane didn’t go on the original start and Crawford slid back to 13th. By the time the first caution flag flew the Ford F-150 was loose in, loose in the middle and loose off. On pit road, Bainbridge called for 4 tires, fuel and a trac bar adjustment. Back under green, the race took on a green flag look and made almost 100 laps before the next caution. During the long green flag run Crawford had moved back into the top 10 and while making a green flag pit stop the Ford F-150 went a lap down. One spot away from the free pass to get back on the lead lap, Blackjack desperately needed an ace to race with the leaders. With no ace in sight, the race stayed green until the checkered flag and even though Crawford was 7th on the track the team would have to settle for a 10th place finish. The solid effort in Nashville has the Circle Bar team just 1 spot and 10 points out of the top 10.

Crawford on his run at Nashville: “Blake and the boys really gave me a nice Ford F-150 tonight. The long green flag run hurt us, we needed one more adjustment and a caution at the end. I sure would like to have had a chance to race with the leaders at the end. I appreciate the Mitchell’s making it possible for us to continue to go to the racetrack. We keep bringing solid trucks to the track and the breaks will fall our way.”

The Circle Bar Team will be in action again when the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series holds round 5 of the 2010 season in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 2, at 6:00 PM EST. Live coverage of the race provided by Speed, MRN and Sirius Radio. Krista Voda host the Setup on Speed 5:30 PM EST. Picture: Rick Crawford settling in to his Circle Bar Ford F-150. Photo courtesy of Circle Bar PR. More pictures are available at www.RickCrawford.com