Crawford Narrowly Missed Victory
Rick Crawford missed making it to Victory Lane by four feet as his last-second dash to the finish line came up just short in Saturday's Mountain Dew 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.
.J. BELL – No. 50 Heathcliff’s Cat Litter Ford F-150 (Finished 31st) – “I’m not really sure what happened. I was going along there talking to my crew chief about the truck. Our F-150 was really, really good. It’s a shame. We were overheating a little bit, but I’d drive to the front and then come to the back and let it cool off. We were just waiting for the next pit stop and, unfortunately, we were the caution that brought it out. I hope Travis can go out there and run good. He’s in the chase for the championship, so I wish him the best.”
ERIK DARNELL – No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 29th) – “We had a really good truck and were running third before the pit stops. Then we were in the back after having a right-front tire come apart. We got a lap down after having to change that under green and we were just fighting to get our lap back. I don’t even know what happened up in the front. I saw Sprague spinning and the next thing I know I got run over from behind and that put us out. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was good this weekend. I was looking forward to a good finish after our qualifying run and practice yesterday, but, unfortunately, we didn’t get it.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 6 K&N Ford F-150 (Finished 26th) – “Our truck was pretty strong. We had a great K&N Ford, but it was just really hard to get track position. We got it at one point and I tried to go for the lead. I probably should have just sat there in third, so we lost a little track position. I was content to just ride there because it was all gonna go crazy in about the last two laps. I don’t know what happened, but I know the 60 had a tire rub for a while and I don’t know what happened. Right there, it was almost like somebody was trying to get to pit road and they all checked up. I kind of think that’s what happened, but I don’t know. I saw them stopping in front of me and somebody came across two trucks in front of me and we just wiped the front end off of it.”
THE 60 DID CUT A RIGHT-FRONT TIRE. “Yeah, I saw it 10 laps ago. I thought he was blowing a motor or something and finally he had to get to pit road and it stacked the whole field up, I guess.” FROM A POINTS STANDPOINT THIS IS A TOUGH BLOW. “It’s a huge hit. I don’t think we were gonna make big gains, but I think we were in a position to gain a few points on these guys. It’s disappointing. Now we’ve got to watch our back and make sure we can save third because I know Bodine and Benson are out there and probably will be running strong, so it’s disappointing. Our Ford was awfully good and it was all about track position for sure. It was hard to get up there and I realized I just needed to bide my time and wait for the last few laps and battle it out then.”
RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by Int’l Ford F-150 (Finished 2nd) – “I needed about four feet for this Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-150 to win today. Congratulations to Todd Bodine. He probably had the fastest truck here last year, so it owed him one. To run second here today, I’m just so happy in my home state for Ford, everybody at International and everybody on our Circle Bar race team.”
IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS FUN. “I was having a ball as long as I was up front, but when I got behind there was a lot of work to it.”
WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN DOWN THE STRETCH? “I didn’t want to make my move too soon and I didn’t. I made it at the perfect time, but we just didn’t have enough. We did all we could and it was a great race, a perfect race with no mistakes. We took the lead for a few laps against this foreign brigade out here and it shows we’re built Ford tough.”
DAVID STARR – No. 10 Int’l MAXX FORCE Diesel Ford F-150 (Finished 11th) – “It was an awesome day for Circle Bar Racing. Our International MAXX FORCE Diesel Ford F-150 was pretty awesome today. I was really just kind of being patient and kind of testing the waters. I knew the low line was the fast line. You could see it and I was watching it, but I was trying to see – once I got up on the outside and moved up towards the front, you could just see that the outside wasn’t gonna be the spot. But you needed the outside to kind of pull you up towards the top and if you got lucky and got a hole down on the bottom, you could take advantage of it. We had a great truck. The team did a heck of a job. Rick Crawford did a great job to finish second. Coming off of turn four, I don’t know what happened. We were running sixth or seventh and I guess the leader’s right-front tire blew out. He almost spun and I guess he overcorrected and came back into the race track and the next thing you know it was him headed right for my left-front fender and the left front of the truck. I did everything to miss him, but he got us. That says a lot for the Circle Bar team. All the guys that go over the wall, to come back and finish 11th with a tore up truck and tore up nose like it was, it actually drove pretty good to be as tore up as it was. We were looking for a top five or a win today, but it wasn’t meant to be. When we walk out of the gate tonight we’re not gonna hang our heads down because we gave it all we had and it was a great effort by the whole team.”
DID YOU KNOW YOUR TRUCK WHEN YOU HAD TO WORK YOUR WAY FROM THE BACK AFTER THE START? “I was mad at myself. That was a stupid move on my part. I didn’t think I had passed the guy until we got to the start-finish line, but sometimes you’re just so excited that you’re ready to go. I actually forgot the start-finish line was way down there (in turn one), so I was hoping the caution would come out so we could get back in the race and it did. We were fortunate to get back up there. We knew we had a good truck. We knew in practice we had a good truck. We kept going from the back to the front and worked with Rick and it was awesome. We knew we both had good trucks, but this wasn’t the finish we were looking for. Then again, compared with all the circumstances we went through, it’s not a bad day for Circle Bar Racing.”
JOEY CLANTON – No. 09 Zaxby’s Ford F-150 (Finished 19th) – “We were hoping for a better finish than that, but we just got caught up with some slower trucks on a restart. I don’t know what they did. They let a gap get in there and then they ran into each other and stopped and you can’t pass them, so then when they took off there was nobody behind me. The truck just wasn’t quite what it was in Daytona and I need to be in the main draft to keep up and get going, but we got a lap down and couldn’t get that lucky dog. I thought we had it a couple of times, but it just didn’t work out for us.”
JON WOOD – No. 21 Bush’s/Winn Dixie Ford F-150 (Finished 10th) – “I wanted to make sure I was capable of being there at the end. On one of the restarts, everybody was bunched up and I was at the tail end of the pack doing OK and someone hit Brendan Gaughan. He made a miraculous save, but in the process I saw that happen and I just backed off for a split-second and that was all it took. That caused me to lose the draft and, in turn, caused me to go a lap down. We got it back and then came in the pits, but after that it seemed like we had a lugnut loose. I’m not sure if we did or not, but the smart thing to do was to check it, so we did that as NASCAR gave one to go, so I restarted more or less a half-lap behind. I was banking on the caution then, and then I just ran out of laps to get anywhere. I didn’t really have a whole lot of cooperation. You kind of depend on your manufacturer to work together, but there weren’t any Fords in my vicinity. A lot of them wrecked out and Starr was tore out, Crawford was up front, but I do owe a decent finish to Joey Clanton. He was a lap down and he came along and pushed me all the way to where I ended up, so that was very nice.”
ARE YOU HAPPY? “To get out of Talladega with a respectable finish, yeah. There’s so much that can happen here. A tenth place finish on a normal day, you could maybe say it’s disappointing, but it’s still a top 10 and my truck is in one piece.”
RICK CRAWFORD PRESS CONFERENCE – “I would have loved to have been in Victory Lane today. I thought I made the right move. If I second-guessed myself or looked in the rearview mirror, I would have done it the same way. The Ford F-150 and Powerstroke Diesel by International was home alone in the top five today with that foreign brand Johnny drives and Todd drivers and those other guys in the top five that they drive, but what bold moves today – bold move there at the end to try to make it exciting for the fans here in my home state of Alabama. I’m from LA – Lower Alabama. One other thing is I watched Red Farmer last night still kick ass at the Talladega short track and I was very proud of Red Farmer last night. He won his heat race to get in the show and anytime you win over there it’s a win. Red has over 1,000 feature wins, but 75 years old and can still get the job done – the head of the Alabama Gang – my hat’s off to him. Somebody asked me, ‘When you get to 75 are you gonna be racing like Red?’ I said, ‘Nope.’ There ain’t but one Red Farmer and I watched him last night and my hat’s off to him. He’s a great gentlemen. In the late seventies Red Farmer gave a kid from Mobile a chance, so thanks. It was a fun day. We gave the fans an exciting race the last 600 feet.”
IS THERE ANY WAY TO DESCRIBE WHAT WINNING AT TALLADEGA WOULD HAVE MEANT TO YOU? WOULD THIS HAVE TOPPED YOUR DAYTONA WIN? “No. There’s not but one Daytona. Talladega would have been great for Rick Crawford as far as being from Alabama and this being my home state and the fans. They sell a ticket and they sell the whole seat, but I know at the end they were standing up and they weren’t using their ticket. The back straightaway grandstands were nearly full today and just being at this showplace in my home state, but to win – hell, I finished second so I’m gonna party anyway. Todd is a great racer. We met by accident the last month or so and he deserved to win today and I just came up a little short. I wish I was in Victory Lane and it would be one party and Sweet Home Alabama, but there’s gonna be a party anyway.”
HOW DID YOU GET UP TO SECOND FOR THE FINAL RESTART? “The restart before last didn’t turn out the way I planned it because I made a move 25 laps earlier that took the lead and got to lead some laps here at Talladega. The move on the next-to-last restart didn’t work out that way, so we found ourselves 10th, 11th or 12th – somewhere along in there – but on the last restart before the green-white-checkered, you just have to watch. You’ve got to have high concentration with what’s going on around you. You follow the faster trucks. There are some trucks out there trying to make moves right now and I knew which groove was working for me and which trucks were the fastest all day, so that put us in position to win. That’s something we’ve been talking about at Daytona and Talladega – that you have to be in position to win in order to win.”
WAS THERE ANY THOUGHT OF PULLING OUT SOONER AT THE END? “I thought about it and I was getting a really good run off of four, but say Johnny is gonna try to win the race or help his teammate – if I would have pulled out coming off of four, I would have finished fifth through tenth or 15th, so I had to take the draft. I had to use it as much as I could – not that I was trying to help Todd. I had to use the draft as much as I could. I got the side draft off of him, but I was just four feet short.”
