Rick Crawford driver of the #14 Circle Bar Motel & RV Park Ford and the remaining F-150 teams in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series had plans of leading one of their blue oval brigade into victory lane Saturday night during the running of the Built Ford Tough 225 at the Kentucky Speedway.  However, things didn’t go as planned as most of the Ford teams struggled to make it to the front.

Crawford, who started from the fourth position after qualifying was rained out Friday afternoon, established himself among the top-ten for much of the evening.  Late in the event the #10 of Terry Cook scraped the wall causing a late race caution.  Crawford, unable to avoid the accident’s debris, cut a right rear tire sending him to pit road and the back of a long line of lead lap trucks.

“We ran over some debris off of the Terry Cook crash,” said Crawford.  “He was probably the best running Ford out there and I don’t know what happened.  We ran over a piece of pipe and flattened both right-side tires and had to make a pit stop with 12 laps to go and there was no way to get the Circle Bar Ford back up to the front.”

After passing several trucks, Crawford continued to battle for a position among the top-ten.  While racing with the #50 of Jon Wood, Crawford’s truck broke loose sending him on a wild slide through the Kentucky Speedway’s muddy infield.

With only a handful of laps remaining, Crawford could only climb to the 16th position, putting a dreary end to the rainy weekend.

“It was just a hard truck to drive all day,” explained Crawford.  “You were facing a scenario with the way it was driving and you pitted and that set of tires was different from the previous set of tires.  Then you were immediately in traffic so you were trying to save the truck and losing time on the people ahead of you, and by the time you got your truck straightened out or it came to you then they were long gone.  We should have had a good, solid top-five finish, but instead we’re 16th.”

After 11 events, Crawford remains fourth in the chase for the 2004 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship, 152-points behind current leader Dennis Setzer.

Crawford and crew look to race their way back to the front this weekend when the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series makes it annual assault on the Gateway International Raceway for the running of the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200.  Green flag coverage begins Saturday night at 8:00 pm with a live radio broadcast on MRN affiliates starting at 7:30.