Rick Crawford arrived in the Truck Series for the 1997 opener with one truck, one engine and the crew from his late-model car. “A wing and a prayer,” he described it. He finished 11th at Walt Disney World Speedway that day, the prayer answered. His Circle Bar Racing team kept on going. Hasn’t stopped yet, in fact. Crawford, now a Truck Series institution and one of its nicest guys, will make a record 300th start Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Some things have changed since that 1997 opener (there’s a backup truck now), but a lot hasn’t: the team, owner Tom Mitchell, the Ford trucks. There aren’t many relationships more enduring in any form of motorsports. “I think I’m proudest of [that] fact,” said Crawford, 50, a five-time race winner and series runner-up in 2002. The Mobile, Ala., native has never made a start in Nationwide or Cup racing, a true Truck guy through and through.(ESPN.com)(3-4-2009)
