06-04-2005 | TruckSeries.com Report
RICK CRAWFORD-14-Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford F-150 (Finished 11th) - "Kevin Starland and the Circle Bar team, starting 21st, we missed all of the wrecks we could there. I don't think there are too many scratches on it, expect for a couple of restarts there trying to get a few people out of the way. We were good on short runs, and long runs were hurting us because there was not lot of grip out there for the Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford, but finishing 11th, I think it was a pretty good points day. There were a lot of trucks tore up that were ahead of us in the points. We go to races to win and we didn't have a chance today. All I ask is to give me a chance, and we've had some chances this year and blew it, and I hope next week is another opportunity; I want to win in Texas." YOU WERE ABLE TO GET BACK ON THE LEAD LAP IN THE CLOSING LAPS WITH THE LUCKY DOG RULE. DOES THAT PLAY INTO THE FAVOR OF A DRIVER WHO STRUGGLES A LITTLE BIT EARLY IN THE RACE? "I think NASCAR is doing you a favor by giving you a free pass. Sometimes you don't have to run to get your lap back and you need to beat the guy who is one lap down. NASCAR is trying to do you a favor and that's a pretty good rule that they've got, but sometimes it doesn't favor the fastest truck. It's equal for everybody and it goes to whoever is best at that time." TERRY COOK-10-Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l Ford F-150 (Finished 3rd) - "We had a great race last week in Charlotte and brought the same truck to Dover. I can't say enough about the Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l race crew. They put a great race truck together and we made the right adjustments throughout the whole race to keep it up there. We ran in the top five all day and to come home with a third place finish, we're pretty happy with that." RICKY CRAVEN-99-Superchips Ford F-150 (Finished 7th) - "It was just a great effort this weekend. The team worked hard from the moment we blew the tire on Friday and they never stopped working. We had the same result, though, today in the race with the valance breaking off of the nose. We're just going to have to work on our Ford a little bit because what you see there with the front-end damage isn't going to get it done. That nosepiece busted up like that, it's not that we ran into anybody, we just wore it off. That's our Achilles heel right now." THE YOUNGER DRIVERS MADE A GOOD SHOWING TODAY. "I wasn't surprised by it; it still comes down to handling. The guys that are here are qualified and what it comes down to is how they act when it's not their day. I think that's my argument with anybody. If you're on the lead lap, it's your day, and if you're not on the lead lap, position yourself to get the Lucky Dog, but beyond that, be courteous because it will come back to you." TODD KLUEVER-50-World Financial Group Ford F-150 (Finished 20th) - "We weren't that good from the start and struggled all weekend. Towards the end we weren't bad, we were decent. We were never a top-five truck, but we were a fifth to 10th-place truck. We actually had a right-front wheel coming loose early in the race and had to stop under green and that hurt us. But, my crew has been flawless all year and mistakes are going to happen. I've made of plenty of them this year, so we'll move on from here." BRAD KESELOWSKI-29-Samson Stone Ford F-150 (Finished 15th) - "I knew this place would tighten up, but I was really surprised with how much it tightened up, to be honest. I didn't expect it to get that tight, and we fought tight all day. We got it fixed on that last pit stop and we were making up some ground pretty fast - we ran our fastest lap of the day - and we just ran out of laps. We needed about 100 more laps and we could have gotten into the Lucky Dog spot, or less, but we just kept digging the whole day and kept it in one piece and stayed out of the messes. All in all, it's not a bad day to get 15th out here." TERRY COOK PRESS CONFERENCE "No, actually waiting this long was identical to racing on Friday because we basically had the same amount of rubber buildup on the track. We started the race at almost the same exact time; the weather conditions I think would have been same had it not rained on Friday. Just sitting around and waiting was boredom waiting to get going. I got to watch a good Busch race and I'm glad we got the truck race in; I didn't want to stay till Monday." "The biggest problem we fought all day was that we were chasing the balance a little bit and we were real aero-tight behind other truck. I had to really search and change the line. I basically had to diamond the track to get a run off of them and use our good horsepower under the hood - the Yates-Roush horsepower - and try to get the pass completed. It was tough to pass out there today. You could pass, but I had to work a guy a lot longer than I normally would have earlier in the race. At the end of the race we had to work them harder than we did at the beginning of the race to get by them."
"I think it was a better race by not having a green race track and racing after the rain delay. Fortunately for us, the Busch race was able to run before us and NEXTEL Cup practice, which gave us a real good race track so that we didn't have worry about excessive tire wear. We were able to just race, and the entire Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l race crew gave me a great race truck. It was the same truck we had at Charlotte last week. It ran good there and we brought it here and it was as just as fast here. We just came up a couple of spots short, but we had a good afternoon."