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02-14-2003
Ford Racing Notes And Quotes
TruckSeries.com Report
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CARL EDWARDS-99-Roush Racing Ford F-150 (Finished 24th)
“I think that’s classic rookie idiocy there. It kept getting looser and looser,
and it’s no big deal to be loose, but I think it was chassis loose and Mike
(Wallace) was coming around me and it just got the air so far off of it. There
was no getting it back. I tried real hard initially, and then I thought, ‘I’m
gonna hit the wall with this thing.’ That’s just frustrating. Roush Racing is
wonderful. Mike Mittler just checked on me. They say I still have a job, so
we’re going to Darlington, hopefully. Everyone who ran for the championship ran
like crud in the Daytona race. The guys have just worked so hard, I feel
terrible for them. That’s just as loose as you could get.” MORE EDWARDS. “It was
going great. Everything was going better than planned and it kept getting looser
and looser. Mike got up there just right, and on a one to 10 scale, it was a
five loose for the last 10 laps before that and it went straight to an 11. There
was no getting it back. It was just inexperience on my part dealing with the
air. It’s so amazing what it does. I’m so frustrated; we were going to win this
thing or at least get a top five. We were waiting. We stayed out to wait for a
yellow, we just didn’t plan on being the yellow.”
RICK CRAWFORD-14-Circle Bar Motel & RV Park Ford F-150 (Finished 1st)
TALK ABOUT THE MOVE YOU MADE ON THE LAST LAP. “I was protecting that yellow
line. My spotter Milt Bishop said, ‘Hey, stay on the yellow line and let them
race for it.’ We did. Then going down the back straightaway I saw the 59 Dodge
on the outside and I knew he was strong. We drafted with him in practice and
that’s why we were 190 (mph). All of sudden, he went by himself and I followed
him and got a little closer to him in 3 and 4 and then off of turn 4 he put a
block on me on the high side and when he did that I dove low and it was all
mine.”
YOU HAVEN’T WON SINCE HOMESTEAD IN 1998. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING IN THE CLOSING
LAPS? “When I saw the 59 go by me n the back straightaway I said, ‘Well, it’s
just a good run here at Daytona.’ I saw what happened the night before and I
said, ‘We are going to win the Daytona 250.’ We’re driving the Ford F-Series
pickup and this happens to be a Dodge race, so now we’re the Mayor of
Truckville.”
“I went on that trip to Bosnia the other day, and all I looked at was that ring
with Mike Wallace had on when he won the 250. I asked him what it was for and he
told me. When we flew into Sicily, there was a truck out there directing planes
and it had ‘follow me’ on the back of it. I said, ‘Boys, when we get to Daytona
I’m driving that truck so follow me here.’ It was a great job by Ray Stonkus and
Tom Mitchell. I can’t say enough about him. I can’t believe it.” HOW DID YOU
MAKE THE MOVE? “We went up into 3 and the 59 truck, we’ve been drafting together
in practice. I got a good tow from him and getting off of the corner he went to
go put on a block and I had the inside line and I knew the Allan Vigil Ford
engine would pull up good on the bottom and we beat him to the tri-oval.”
ANDY HOUSTON-15-Cooper Tools Ford F-150 (Finished 5th) - “It was a good day for
Billy Ballew Motorsports and our sponsors Leftin Pro Series and Spondivits. We
just never got into position to win the thing at the end. We were lined up fifth
on the restart and we wound up fifth. I knew those guys were going to move to
the outside to try to make something happen, but I tried that two or three times
during the course of the race and never was able to make up any ground, matter
of fact, I would lose ground. I decided to stay on the bottom and stick with
Crawford and we wound up fifth. The draft really never got going there on that
last restart. I knew those guys would get good lines on the outside, but we just
fought as hard as we could back to the line. It was a good day for us. We got
good points and we’ll go to Darlington.” THE LATE-LAP CAUTIONS CAUSED FUEL
CONCERNS FOR SOME TEAMS. WERE YOU ONE OF THEM? “I asked them before we went back
to green, ‘How far can we go?’ My crew chief Gary Showalter said we were good
for 10 to 12 more laps and that was reassuring because I saw Brendan get down on
the apron and it looked he was out of fuel. The green-white-checkered restart is
the greatest thing for this when, but when it comes down to fuel mileage it can
hurt. The best of both worlds there.”
TERRY COOK-29-Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150 (Finished 9th) - IT LOOKED LIKE YOU
WERE IN THE CATBIRD SEAT ON THE LAST RESTART. “I thought I was. We came out here
to win the race and no one wants to run second. Knowing how the draft works here
I thought I could get a push, and when we took the white flag and went down into
Turn 1, I saw the 59 Dodge swing up top and it looked like he had a good run
with some people behind him. I thought if I jumped in front of him that would
give me the push up there, but unfortunately I tried to clear the 14 and I
wasn’t quite clear so I couldn’t come down and had to stay up top and kinda got
caught in the middle there and got shuffled way back.” DID YOU FEEL THAT YOU
LOST YOUR DRAFTING PARTNER ON THE RESTART? “It was more of just not having a
partner. When the 59 had a run, he was trying to drive by me too, so he went way
to the top and was trying to drive by all of us and I was trying to get by the
14. I just about had him cleared, but there wasn’t enough room down there. We
came here to win the race and I guess a ninth-place finish at this point is a
lot better than where we were this time last year, so we’ll take this and go
home.”
JON WOOD-50-U.S. Navy Racing Ford F-150 (Finished 8th) - “We had a little
altercation in the pits on the first pit stop which put me at the tail end of
the field. Somehow I made it back to the front and then we knocked the left side
in, which hurt us a lot. All in all, if I knew I was going to walk out of here
finishing eight, I would have taken that before I even came.” YOU CAME INTO THE
PITS DURING THE LAST CAUTION TO FIX SOME DAMAGE TO THE TRUCK. WERE YOU ALSO LOW
ON FUEL? “I don’t even know what caused the damage. I think I hit some debris
from one of the wrecks. I’m not really sure what happened. I didn’t hit anybody;
it was just something on the track. We were fine on fuel. We just wanted to make
sure we finished the race.”
RANDY BRIGGS PRESS CONFERENCE
THIS MUST BE A GOOD START IN THE TRUCK SERIES FOR YOU. “It sure is. We had high
hopes going in. We didn’t get a chance to get this thing together quick enough
to get the media guides and press guides, so it was important to come in here
and make a good run so people would stop saying, ‘Randy who?’”
DO YOU EVER RECALL SEEING A FINISH LIKE TODAY’S? “No, my truck looks like it
just got back from Bristol. We almost made it to the end, but then we got caught
up in that last deal in 3 and 4. We were able to come in and put some tires on
and finish, but when I got out I didn’t realize how bad it was till we
finished.”
DID YOU SEE THE FINISH? “We were back fighting for position. We had to come in
after we got in that wreck and put on tires on both sides, so I was too far back
to get a good look at it; we were racing for position where we were at, too.”
WHAT DID YOUR FIANCÉ SAY WHEN YOU PROPOSED? “She did say yes. Her name is Mary
Ward. We are both from Kansas City. We’ve been dating for three years. It just
seemed like the right time. It’s Valentine’s Day. Her birthday was yesterday. As
everybody here knows we’ve been down here for almost a week. She did say yes and
she made it official after I got out of the truck. She gave me a hug and said,
‘You bet.’”
YOU HAD TO WAIT UNTIL YOU GOT OUT OF THE TRUCK? “She did say yes, but I had to
make sure I heard her right on the radio. I was double-checking. I think she
wanted to make sure I did say that. We were running around on the pace lap and I
thought what the heck. We’re at Daytona, we’ve been dating for three years and
she loves this as much as I do. I just keyed the radio and she was on the pit
box and I asked her if it would be rude if I asked her to get married at a race
track, especially at a place like Daytona. She absolutely said yes.”
RICK CRAWFORD PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK ABOUT THE FINISH. “It was. I enjoy being a part of the NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series. When they said the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event was going
to be run at Daytona for the first time, you feel like Elvis when you come
through the tunnel - your hands are shaking and your knees are weak. Now I get
to race at Daytona where all my heroes raced at. I’m from Alabama. The Alabama
Gang did really well here with Donnie and Bobby Allison, Red Farmer and Neil
Bonnet. They paved the road for me to be able to race and here we are. This
weekend, Ford didn’t get what they were looking for after qualifying, and I
really don’t care. Being in Victory Lane at Daytona is a really special feeling.
I don’t like the word awesome, it’s special. I think when I get through and can
change clothes, I think I’m going back to Victory Lane to sit there for a moment
and let it soak in. The race, starting 19th, got the green flag, the first
caution we were 11th or 12th, had a good truck. Ray Stonkus, Allan Vigil Ford
engines, the pit crew, Phil Horton has been teaching these guys pit stops since
last June, that’s how come we were second in the points. We bring him here to
Daytona with no changes over the winter and a great job in the pits. So we get
back to going green again and I find myself running third with Mike Wallace and
Bobby Hamilton and I’m content with that. We had another caution, come in and
we’re back out and I happen to be leading. Every time somebody would go to the
outside to make a move on you, they couldn’t do it. My spotter Milt Bishop told
me to keep it on the yellow line. I did. I had a great handling truck and ran
around the bottom of this two-and-a-half-mile race track and never let it get
off the yellow line. I said green-white-checkered, my old buddy always told me
that when you’re coming in for a green-white-checkered and you’re leading the
race, he said, ‘Don’t bring them in there the same way you’ve been doing it.’ I
got a good restart and led to the white flag and going down the back
straightaway I noticed Robert Pressley getting a run on the outside, which he
could and he did by himself, and Terry Cook followed me and got to racing back
there with Mike Wallace and I got a little pull off of Robert Pressley. He
completed the pass. I got a little pull off of Robert Pressley going into 3 and
coming off of 4 I had a head of steam. He put a block on me; he thought I was
going high. I was going for a win anyway. He put a block on me to go high and I
went low and had some room and went back to that yellow line again and beat him
to the line.”
WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN THE FINISHES FOR THE TRUCK? IS IT AERODYNAMICS? “I
don’t know. NASCAR has put two-inch hoses on our trucks for this weekend’s race.
We qualified at 182. They draft really well. If you looked at our practice times
yesterday morning, we practiced at 190 miles an hour. The truck I have is what
we called ‘Old Hound Dog.’ When it gets a sniff of air it just picks up a head
of steam and that’s what it did. I’m proud to be driving it. Ray Stonkus is the
crew chief. Tom Mitchell is the owner; we have a winning team.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY WORRIES ABOUT RUNNING OUT OF GAS? “NO, when we pitted under the
green on our last pit stop, we took on two tires and completely filled it up. I
think that was at lap 73 and we had gone 33 laps the time before we fueled, so I
had time to spare.”
YOU SAID THE FORDS DIDN’T HAVE A CHANCE EARLIER IN THE WEEK, BUT YOU POSTED THE
FASTEST TIME IN PRACTICE YESTERDAY. DID THAT CHANGE YOUR OUTLOOK? “Not
necessarily. I knew we could draft well and I did that following one of those
barbed wire trucks. It was a little misbelieving as far as I was concerned.
Yeah, you saw a Ford on the top of the speed chart, but I was doing it following
another truck. Coming into the race, I noticed the way the wind was and the way
the turbulence was that the outside line wasn’t doing what it was supposed to
do. On the last lap, yeah, Robert got a run on me and completed the pass, but
nobody was able to do that all race long. When we had three trucks, Mike
Wallace, Brendan Gaughan and myself and Terry Cook on that yellow line, nobody
could pass us on the outside. Knowing that all day, I think that helped the last
lap.”
“Me and Lisa were looking at the press guide that Owen Kearns and I noticed that
thing reached out and bit me that I hadn’t won a race in 120-something starts. I
knew that had to be over. When last year ended, I told Tom Mitchell, I made a
suggestion to him, I don’t tell him anything. I made the suggestion to him that
if we were going to win the championship that we had to win races. That was
important for us. Last year we almost won the championship but we didn’t win any
races. This year we started off pretty quick in Victory Lane and ended that
drought. If we would have won the championship last year it would have been
different for us, but we didn’t. If we would have won six races or 10 races last
year, it wouldn’t have made the difference of winning here at Daytona. You all
don’t understand how special that is to me.”
“I was hanging on to the yellow line and I saw this red truck pass me on the
outside and went on by. Until I came off of 4, I realized that I sniffed some
wind and caught a little draft and went up the banking with him and had a head
of steam. All the spotter said was, ‘Clear.’ And when he said clear, I noticed
Robert pulled up the hill in front coming off of 4 when we got on the flat and
tried to put the block on and left me the bottom lane. The steam I had was a
little more than his to get to the stripe.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RAY STONKUS. “I might get a little emotional
here. Before we came to Daytona, we had a celebration at our shop. Ray thought
he had cancer and he was cleared. They’re going to clear it up with some
medication. That was our first victory. For me to come to Victory Lane at
Daytona with Ray, when he retires I’ll retire because we’re that close. My boss
just told me that I can’t retire after I won Daytona, so we’re going to race a
little while longer.”
“I didn’t see a third truck out there. When Robert went by me and completed the
pass, I got the tow back off of him and then I was doing my job of trying to
beat that one truck. I felt like we were second then. I looked in my mirror
again and I realized that I didn’t think anybody was behind me. Now I know we
got a really tow off of Robert, so I thought it was a two-truck race. I might
have to watch the film, I guess, and see how drastic it was. I didn’t notice
anybody else.”
“I did a little small burnout out there. I knew Mr. France would get made if I
went across his grass. It probably would have been well worth it. I might have
done that coming for the checkered flag, too, go across the grass. He let me
have it down to the yellow line and I don’t think I went below it and had enough
to beat him.”
TALK ABOUT YOU OUTLOOK ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP. “Really good. We’re going to
Darlington next. We finished fourth there two years in a row. I know the Cup
guys invade up there too, plus we have three, four, five Cup guys racing
full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series anyway to make this exciting, so
the Cup guys will invade us at Darlington. Last year, a 24th-pllace finish here
at Daytona was my worst throughout the whole year. In fact, the first six races
we were insurance racing. We couldn’t put ourselves in position to win because
we had to have good finishes in order to get back in the points. Now I feel like
we can run hard all year long and just do it. We won at Daytona. The Circle Bar
Team won at Daytona. How proud could that be? No matter what happens the rest of
the year, we’re going for a championship, but no matter what happens Rick
Crawford has won Daytona.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT REVVING THE ALABAMA GANG AND YOU BEING THE LEADER? “I’ll
never be the leader of the Alabama Gang. Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Red
Farmer, Neil Bonnet, they are the Alabama Gang. I’m just racing along from South
Alabama on roads that they paved for me to race on. In fact, Donnie Allison was
in my trailer a coupe of days ago. It made me feel honored that he came by and
gave me some advice about running at Daytona. I kept that in mind all day, but I
guess looking at Ken Squier, who called the Daytona 500 for many, many years,
how David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and those guys used to do it sorta gave me
insight on what to do coming off of 4 on the last lap. That was in the back of
my mind, but seeing the checkered flag was the main thing.”
IF ROBERT HAD NOT MOVED UP, DO YOU THINK YOU STILL COULD HAVE GOT AROUND HIM?
“No, Robert would have probably put me in the wall. Robert Pressley is a tough
race car driver. He deserves to still be in Winston Cup like Ted Musgrave and
Bobby Hamilton and Jason Leffler. We have a great bunch of race car drivers
running in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. I hope one day Rick Crawford gets
to climb the fence and race Winston Cup, but right now the Circle Bar race team
is focused on the 2003 championship. I was expecting Robert Pressley to do what
he did coming off of 4. I would have done the same thing. I just appreciate him
leaving me enough room to pass him coming down to the line.”
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