Crawford Rolls With It and Looks to Next Race

When the Craftsman truck series kicks off NASCAR’s California Speedway weekend tonight with the American Racing Wheels 200, Rick Crawford will be making his series-record 200th consecutive start.

Anyone who saw Crawford’s spectacular back flip in his Ford F-150 a week ago at Daytona may find it difficult to believe that the 46-year-old from Mobile, Ala., would even be here. Early in the race, Crawford’s truck suddenly looked like an airplane taking off, soaring skyward before plopping down on its roof and then flipping back on its wheels.

Crawford shocked the stunned crowd when he fired up the engine and drove to the pits.

“I didn’t have any idea it was fixing to flip,” Crawford said. “I thought it was just going to spin. Luckily, God was riding with us and flipped me back over and put me back on my wheels. I wasn’t hurt and the truck wasn’t hurt that bad, so we’re out here looking to make our 200th start in California.”

All of Crawford’s 199 starts, in nine years of Craftsman truck racing, have been in a Ford for owner Tom Mitchell. Most truck drivers harbor ambitions to move up to the Nextel Cup, but Crawford and Mitchell are keeping their focus on winning the Craftsman championship.

“I know my career is coming to an end, but I’m still focused and I still have the determination to win and the veteran ability to win a championship, so that’s what I want to do and I want to do it with Tom Mitchell,” Crawford said.

In 2002, he finished only 54 points behind Mike Bliss for the championship.

One of the strongest fields in the series’ history will line up for qualifying today at 10 a.m. with the 100-lap race at 6:15 p.m.

Four former champions, Bobby Hamilton, Mike Skinner, Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague, are entered, plus Nextel Cup drivers Jimmy Spencer, Brendan Gaughan, Ricky Craven and Todd Bodine.

Hamilton opened defense of his 2004 championship by winning in Daytona but not without controversy. Spencer took the checkered flag and was sitting in the winner’s circle when NASCAR officials announced that Hamilton had won. On the last lap, Hamilton had passed Spencer before the caution lights came on for an eight-truck pileup and NASCAR had mistakenly called Spencer the winner before checking the scoring tapes.

It was the only lap Hamilton led all night.

Thirty-six trucks will start tonight’s race, but 30 of them have already been seeded into the starting lineup from last year’s owners’ point standings.

Bodine won last year at California Speedway in a Toyota Tundra, the first year the Japanese manufacturer had an entry in a major NASCAR series. He is with another team this season, newly formed Fiddle Back Racing, but still is driving a Tundra.

Nextel Cup and Busch series cars will practice today, then qualify Saturday. The Busch race will be a 150-lap twilight event Saturday, starting at 3. Sunday’s Auto Club 500 is scheduled to start at 12:10 p.m.

Speedway officials said that tickets remained for all three days. Details: (800) 944-7223.