In 1969 Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, the first episode of the Brady Bunch aired, Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast and a skinny kid from Mobile, Alabama made his first trip to Talladega Superspeedway. Thirty-seven years and thousands of racing miles later that skinny kid from Mobile returned to Talladega to realize a dream. A dream that was 37 years old, 37 years in the making, 37 years the kid waited and the first part of the kid's dream came true at Talladega Superspeedway in the John Deere 250.

To make a dream come true special things have to happen and making the dream come true for the kid from Mobile would be no different. It took 37 years for Rick Crawford to get his shot at racing on the "Big Track" at Talladega. To realize his dream he asked his Circle Bar Team, led by crew chief Kevin "Cowboy" Starland, to give him a special truck. To be specific, the "baddest" truck he ever had, is what he was looking for at Talladega. Cowboy went to work on primping the team's speedway chassis, CB-4, for Talladega. CB-4 has been in the teams stable for some time and is famous for the flip off of turn 4 in Daytona in 2005. CB-4 landed on all 4 wheels and Crawford put it in gear and kept on going. The Circle Bar Team spent months on CB-4, including a final trip to the wind tunnel the week before the race.

Off the hauler CB-4 lived up to being the "baddest" truck at Talladega, posting a speed of over 192 MPH in practice. The Circle Bar F-150 was fast and more importantly it drafted well, the draft is king at Talladega. With an eye on racing, the team spent little time on qualifying and they posted a 10th place starting spot during the Alabama Beef Producers Qualifying on Friday. During practice, Alabama Gang member and racing mentor, Red Farmer paid a visit to the Talladega rookie and invited Crawford to a match race on Friday night at the dirt track across the street. With a solid qualifying effort in the books the dirt track was the perfect place to tune up for intensity of a 3 wide afternoon ahead in the John Deere 250.

To say that Crawford's experience in a dirt car is limited would be an understatement. In fact he had only been in dirt racecar twice before and both were for a charity race at Ken Schraders I-55 Speedway in Pevely Missouri. Red's idea of a match race, includes super dirt late models and a few other guys who know their way around a dirt track, Ken Schrader, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards and former Nextel Cup Champ Bobby Labonte. Crawford started on the pole but problems developed early on his Jerry Goodwin, USA Motorsports Racing Parts machine when the power steering box failed. Crawford managed a 5th place finish with the ill handling late model and was urged not to give up his day job in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series anytime soon.

Pre-race on Saturday was old home week at the rear of the Circle Bar hauler in the truck series garage. A constant line of friends and racers from South Alabama made their way by the team hauler to wish their hometown boy good luck on the "Big Track". With a ceremonial picture of the first field of truck drivers on the start finish line behind them, the drivers made their way to driver introduction. For Crawford this would be a new experience, an introduction to a home crowd in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. On cue the 80,000 fans gave their hometown boy the reception he had been waiting 37 years to hear. 37 years in the making, now just minutes away from reality.

The F-16 fly over marked the end of the pre-race ceremonies and the beginning of getting down to business. Steve "Night Train" McCain helped Crawford strap into his Circle Bar Ford F-150 and 37 years was down to a few minutes. The command to start engines signaled the beginning of the longest pace laps in racing. Especially long for Crawford, after all it took 37 years to get here.

The drop of the green flag was like changing the sign on a store, the Truck Series was now OPEN FOR BUSINESS at Talladega and business was picking up. The 37-year-old dream was now reality. By the time the field hit the backstretch the trucks were 3 wide. Crawford found himself on the top of the third lane with no drafting helping and dropped back to 18th in the opening laps. Spotter Joel Edmunds took charge on the roof and found Crawford some much needed drafting helping. With a little help from his friends Crawford started climbing back through the field by lap 6 he was 8th, lap 7, 6th and by lap 11 the Circle Bar team was in the top 5.

On lap 22 the caution flag would fly for the first time and Cowboy called the Circle Bar F-150 to pit road for 4 fresh Goodyears and a load of Sunoco fuel. The over the wall gang had a solid stop but with other teams trying different tire strategies the Circle Bar team came in 5th and left 10th. Back under green the Circle Bar Ford F-150 was the ugly kid looking for a date to the high school prom. Nobody wanted to dance and the Ford fell back to the 25th spot. On lap 43 the caution would fly again and Cowboy called for right side tires, fuel and 2 turns in the right rear to help free up the Circle Bar machine.

Back under green on lap 52 the second part of the 37-year dream started to come undone, the right rear tire on Crawford's F-150 was going flat. The team was forced to make a green flag stop and by the time they returned to the track they would be 31st, the second truck one lap down.

The caution would come out just 2 laps later, making Crawford the only truck 1 lap down and in line for the lucky dog pass. The laps would click away from the Circle Bar team and the chances for getting back on the lead lap were getting thin. Finally, with 15 to go, the caution flag would fly and the team would get the break they had been waiting for. The question was did it come too late?

Cowboy estimated there would be only 10 laps to go when the green came out again and something drastic was needed to get the team back in contention. The trucks run a romeo window for stability, especially in the draft (Romeo window is the clear plastic piece that connects the right side cab and roll bar to the bed of the truck). Some trucks had experimented running without the window in Daytona and it was a disaster. However, some had experimented running without it in Talladega and they were getting results, but they were out front in clean air.

Finishing 30th was not acceptable to crew or driver and Cowboy called the Ford to pit road one final time for fuel and to remove the romeo window. If you think the first laps are busy at a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, the last laps are like a blue light special in the K-Mart automotive section. With Joel working traffic Crawford was on the move with the drop of the green flag with 11 to go. The first lap was to gauge the effect of the loss of the romeo window; the second was to get down to business. In the final laps Crawford was able to work his Circle Bar Ford all the way up to 15th. The second part of the dream, winning at Talladega would have to wait another year.

Crew chief Kevin "Cowboy" Starland: "The guys did an awesome job this week it just didn't go our way. We pulled out all the stops trying to get Rick a good finish; the flat tire just killed us. We gambled on the romeo window at the end of the race and it paid off. I think we learned a lot about how to get around this place with the new pavement and we'll have even a better piece next time we come."

Driver Rick Crawford: "It was a neat weekend. Coming up here when you're 11 years old with your parents, grandfather and uncle and wishing you could race here one day, and 37 years later it happens. Kevin Starland and all of the guys worked hard all weekend and we had a fast truck. I think we made it back up through half of the field when we got back going with 11 laps to go. I had a lot of fun out there today, but they just didn't give us enough time to position ourselves up to the front and we weren't strong enough to make a move by ourselves. I've already circled next years date, I can't wait to come back."