Rick Crawford in the No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150 at Michigan. (Ronda Greer Photo)

A solid top 5 at Texas Motor Speedway put the Circle Bar/Power Stroke Diesel team back on the championship track and looking for more in the Michigan 200 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS).

The day before reporting to MIS, Rick Crawford spent the day with Ford employees at Ford's world headquarters and test driving Ford's new 2008 lineup at Ford's test track. A day with the people that make racing possible for Crawford and his Circle Bar team gave Crawford extra incentive for the Michigan 200.

For Crawford a day at Ford was the extra boost for Michigan for crew chief, Kevin "Cowboy" Starland, Michigan is home, nothing is better than winning at home. With a top 5 in Texas and a solid racing resume under it's belt Cowboy and the team made the fast turn around on Chassis CB-21 better known as "Black Jack" to run at Michigan. Off the trailer Black Jack proved it's worth and was in the top 10 in practice times in both sessions. After such a strong practice the team posted a disappointing 27th place starting position for the race.

While the qualifying effort put Crawford deep in the field for the start of the race, neither the driver or the team were too concerned about getting to the front on the wide multi-grooved speedway. With the drop of the green flag Crawford was on the move gobbling up trucks on his way to the top 10. With a loose truck Crawford was running Michigan like it was Darlington, up against the outside wall.

On lap 12 Crawford picked up a Michigan stripe as his

slapped the outside retaining wall. With a new white stripe on his blue and yellow Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150, Crawford was back on the move and by the time the first caution flag flew on lap 28 Crawford was up to 17th. For the first time since qualifying Cowboy and the over the wall gang would get an opportunity to adjust on a very loose F-150.

The over the wall gang put on 4 fresh Goodyears, a full load of Sunoco, made a trac bar adjustment and worked on the damage from the scrape with the wall and still picked up a spot on pit road. With 4 fresh tires and a round of adjustments Crawford was back on the move picking up a spot every other lap, cracking the top ten for the first time on lap 45.

Another caution on lap 55 would give Cowboy and the team one last shot at adjusting the Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150. On pit road the team serviced their Ford with 4 Goodyears, Sunoco fuel, a trac bar adjustment and another swipe at fixing the damage from the earlier brush with the wall. A little extra time on pit road for adjustments and damage repair cost the team a few spots and the Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150 would start 14th.

On the restart Crawford was loaded up and trucking, from 14th to the top 10 in 2 laps. Within 10 laps the Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150 was up to 8th. A late caution would setup a 25 lap dash for the finish allowing Crawford to pick up 2 more spots finishing 6th.

Kevin "Cowboy" Starland: "We got really aggressive on our qualifying effort and missed it, that put us in a hole at the beginning. Rick and the guys never gave up and kept digging all day. We got it better at the end, we just needed to be better sooner."

Rick Crawford: "We used the whole race track, making bold moves in our Circle Bar/Power Stroke Diesel F-Series pick-up. Our Ford F-150 with Roush-Yates power under the hood was fun to drive today from 27th to sixth. I hated where we started, but we don't give up here. There is no give up in our Circle Bar race team - especially when we're in the hometown of Detroit. I'm really proud of my guys. They worked really hard. They had to work on the truck for three-quarters of the race, and they let me drive the last quarter and try to run up front. I drove some real nice vehicles this week at the Ford Proving Grounds, and all these people in the grandstands need to go buy one. We need to up the sales because we've got some great products. Quality is Job One and they're built Ford tough."

The Circle Bar/Power Stroke Diesel by International Team will be in action when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series holds round 11 of the 2007 season in the Toyota Tundra 200 at The Milwaukee Mile on Friday June 22nd.