CRAWFORD: Prepping for New Track Configuration at Vegas
09-18-2008 12:47 am

The Circle Bar/Power Stroke Diesel by International team will utilize chassis CB-21 this weekend at LVMS. Chassis CB-21 was the team's workhorse on the mile-and-half tracks until it was damaged in a last-lap melee at Texas last fall, yet still finished fifth. The truck has since been rebuilt and was raced earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway (21st), Lowe's Motor Speedway (5th) and Kansas Speedway (9th).

Circle Bar Racing is proud to display the South Point logo on the rear quarterpanels of its two trucks this weekend at Las Vegas.

Crawford has completed the most laps of any driver in truck series competition at LVMS (1,393), and has been running at the finish in nine of 10 races at the 1.5-mile oval.

Crawford has completed all but one lap of competition in the 18 races so far this year - 3076 laps out of a possible 3077 laps.

With his fifth-place finish last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Crawford advanced two spots to fourth in the driver point standings, and is 309 points out of the lead.

In 290 career Craftsman Truck Series starts, Crawford has posted 147 top-10 finishes - a mark of 50.7%.
 
In his truck series career, Crawford has been running at the finish of 263 races, the most of any driver in the series and a mark of 90.7%.

Crawford has logged over 49,000 miles in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition, the most of any driver in the series.

Crawford will make his 291st start - extending a Series record - this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Crawford's impressive string of race starts began at the Walt Disney World Speedway on January 19, 1997.

Crawford's Thoughts on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: "I always look forward to going to Vegas and having a great time staying at the South Point and eating at Michael's Restaurant. It's just a great town to go to, number one, but it's also a neat venue because of the crowd that we have and the people that are interested in NASCAR, especially the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. I ran better on the old configuration of the race track, and we just haven't figured out the new one yet. We're taking something different this year, and hopefully this year will be a lot better than it has been in the past."

DOES HAVING BRENDAN GAUGHAN AS A TEAMMATE HELP YOU AT A PLACE LIKE LAS VEGAS? "Well, I've always kept an eye on Brendan when we're there. He's worked for a few driving schools out there and he has many laps at that race track. The first race that we ever competed against each other was also at Las Vegas. You always look at a guy's line or look at a guy that has had numerous laps at a particular track to try to figure out a line as quick as possible. We'll try use him and his team this weekend for added advice and for improvement of the Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International, but we're also there to help him and his MaxxForce Diesel team. Hopefully Brendan can come out of Vegas with a good finish because I think that team deserves that, too."

THIS WILL BE THE FIRST RACE ON A MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACK SINCE THE ENGINE RULE CHANGE. WILL THERE BE MORE PARITY BETWEEN MANUFACTURERS THIS WEEKEND? "I think so. It's brought us a little more equal. Kevin Starland and I were talking about that this week. Our team is good and is running good, but we're probably only running at 90 percent of our 100 percent capacity. We just haven't reached our potential yet. Hopefully we can reach it here pretty quick and use the restricted spacer to our advantage. I think they're figuring it out pretty quick because I haven't seen a big difference, but it's brought us closer."