Ronda Greer Photo

The City of Mansfield 250 gave the Circle Bar Truck Corral Team a chance to returns to its short track racing roots. This would be the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series 3rd trip to the half mile Mansfield Motorsports Speedway and the first two outings proved the track to be an exciting truck racing venue. NASCAR gave the teams an extra day of testing to work out a new tire compound being used for the first time.

For a tough short track race on a new tire crew chief Kevin "Cowboy" Starland turned to old reliable chassis CB-9. CB-9 carried the Circle Bar team to victory in Martinsville and is a proven short track workhorse. On test day the team worked on getting a solid feel for the race track and their Ford F-150 responded with laps times that put them in the top 10 trucks working on race set ups. On Friday the team worked on qualifying setups that were washed away when qualifying for the race was rained out. Points set the field and the Circle Bar F-150 would line up 14th.

With the drop of the green flag Rick Crawford had his Circle Bar F-150 on the move. By lap 60 Crawford had the Circle Bar machine in the top 5. The new tire compound led to multiple pit strategies. Cowboy would call his Ford F-150 to pit road as soon as the team reached its window to make it all the way on gas. With several trucks on pit road the Circle Bar team performed a quick stop and would put Crawford back on track first of the trucks that stopped. With the different pit strategies playing out, the 14 truck lined up 25th when the green flag flew. The Circle Bar team needed long green flag runs to get back to the top 5 and instead the race would set a record for caution flags. With the checkered flag in the air Crawford had navigated his Ford F-150 back up to 12th position. Another solid finish improves the Circle Bar Team season points standings to 12th and less than 100 points from 4th.

Crew chief Kevin "Cowboy" Starland; "The new tires wreaked havoc with our pit strategy for the race. The tires were so hard we thought we could come in early and run on them to the end. However, we had to make sure we didn't kill our chance to race hard at the end. The way the cautions fell we probably could have been more aggressive with our stop but with the tire issues we've had at Martinsville and St. Louis we couldn't afford to take too big of a risk. The guys had a good stop and we're looking forward to Dover."

Driver Rick Crawford; "We were the best Ford today but we were hoping for more. Anne Stevens (Executive Vice President Ford America's) was at the track and you really want to have a good day in front of the big boss. I wish our top Ford could have given her a checkered flag but it just didn't play out our way today. It's hard to say you're happy with 12th but it's another solid effort from our race team. Adam finished 11th this weekend in his second late model 100 lap race so I guess I need to pick up the pace a little bit."