Rick Crawford started the Ohio 250 race week by introducing Ford's new Super Charged Harley Davidson F-150 in Detroit. After putting the new truck through it's paces at the Ford test track, the Circle Bar/Power Stroke Diesel by International team rolled into Mansfield Ohio with their favorite short track chassis in the hauler, CB-17. CB-17 better known as Elvis already has 2 victories for the Circle Bar team including the team's last win at O'Reilly Raceway Park in 2006. With Elvis in the hauler Crawford knew he had a truck that would run up front.

Crew chief Kevin "Cowboy" Starland knows that track position comes at a premium at Mansfied Motorsports Park. With that in mind Cowboy put an extra emphasis during practice on a good qualifying effort. Elvis was ready to rock and roll and with a good qualifying draw the Power Stroke Diesel team would start second.

Normally when you qualify second you start outside of the front row but at Mansfield the preferred line is the outside and the pole sitter gets to choose inside or outside. Skinner took the outside putting Crawford on the bottom. With the drop of the green flag Crawford was pinned down and dropped back to 3rd before being able to fall in line. With 18 laps complete mother-nature pelted the racetrack with rain. After a 2 hour rain delay the teams were called back to their trucks and Cowboy Starland called the Power Stroke Diesel F-150 to pit road for a fuel only stop. Little did anyone know that was the one and only sop Cowboy had planned for the day. The stop for fuel would put the Power Stroke Diesel Ford all the way back to 20th.

Crawford did not like the view in the back and Elvis never was one for the back row, when the green flag dropped the Circle Bar driver was on the wheel and headed to the front. Crawford picked up 5 spots in the first 20 laps, by lap 60 he was in the top 10. At the 100 lap mark Crawford was in the top 5 and by the time the field had taken the halfway flag the Power Stroke Diesel by International had the lead. Over the next 100 laps Elvis was styling and profiling, pacing the field and at times extending his lead to over 12 truck lengths over the next closest competitor.

With less than 15 laps to the finish Crawford felt the front of his truck start to slide on corner entry. By the next corner Crawford knew he had a tire going down but was trying desperately to hold onto the lead. Holding onto the lead turned into trying to hold on to the lead lap. Crawford stayed on track, now riding on the right front suspension, the right front tire was completely gone. A caution would allow Crawford to replace the tire but the truck that had led the most laps would settle for a 23rd place finish.

Kevin "Cowboy" Starland: "This is a tough deal to swallow. We had a great truck and Rick drove the wheels off of it. We'll pick ourselves up and go to Dover."

Rick Crawford: "I feel like I just missed the biggest deer, a 14 point buck in Texas. If you are an avid hunter, that means you are sick to your stomach. This truck was built Ford tough today, the Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International got excellent fuel mileage and it was really fun to drive. We had a great pit strategy by Kevin 'Cowboy' Starland and the guys prepared a great truck."

The Circle Bar/Power Stroke Diesel by International Team will be in action when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series holds round 8 of the 2007 season in the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover International Speedway on Friday June 1st.