Rick Crawford drives the No. 14 Circle Bar Racing Ford in the Craftsman Truck Series. In his 12th full season, he’s currently sixth in the standings with six top fives and 11 top-10 finishes to show for his efforts in 2008. Every four weeks, he’ll also write a diary for Frontstretch to show how his on and off-track efforts are going. Here’s his latest entry, as told to Toni Montgomery:
We’ve been to New Hampshire and Las Vegas since the last time I was here, and we had decent runs in both races. We went to Loudon, which is one of my favorite tracks, for the 1-mile flat oval and finished in the top five there. Then, we went to Vegas, which is one of my favorite towns to race in, and one of my favorite towns to enjoy the relaxing part of at the South Point Casino. We finished sixth out there with a pretty solid run. So, we got two solid runs under our belt with our Ford, and now we head to the great state of Alabama for our Talladega race.
Racing at Talladega is pretty neat. This is Rick Crawford’s home state and home racetrack, so a lot of friends and people who have helped you throughout your career will be there to cheer you on and come by to talk and show you some Southern hospitality. Hopefully, we perform well on the racetrack.
I went to see Cher while I was in Vegas. She’s an icon in show business and she put on a great performance. She really pulled it off. I thought maybe she was getting a little up in age and might have slipped a little and slowed down in her performance, but that was not the case. She pulled it off and had a great show.
Last week, we got to go to a golf tournament as well. Navistar, the owners of International and Ford Power Stroke Diesel and the Maxx Force Engine brand, had Brendan [Gaughan] and I go to Alabama last week for the Navistar LPGA classic. I was fortunate enough to play with Se Ri Pak, professional lady golfer, on our team, and we had a really nice time. Brendan went out for the skeet shoot along with some customers and one of our bosses, Bob Carso with International. He had a good time and I had a great time playing golf, so that was a great event for us.
I’m also starting the process to get my certification for my pilot’s license. I was flying this morning, and I’m trying to get my FAA license for a private pilot. Who knows? I might have to use it for a source of transportation one day… flying is something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid. Being in racing, I couldn’t always find the time to do this kind of stuff, but I got it as a birthday present and I’m really going to stick to it.
I’ve joined the school at Fly Carolina, and David Calhoun is my instructor. I’m having fun. I’ve got a couple of hours under my belt already, and I should be soloing here pretty soon. I look forward to it.
You have to have a certain amount of time in the airplane, and you have to have some ground school, too. We’ve covered a lot of ground school because the weather in North Carolina hasn’t been too good for the last two or three weeks, but I was back in the air yesterday and today. Whenever you think you would be comfortable to solo, that’s when we’ll be ready to try it. I’ve been busy doing all of that – but I know I’m certainly not boring!
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The Frontstretch Staff is made up of a group of talented men and women spread out all over the United States and Canada. Residing in 15 states throughout the country, plus Ontario, and widely ranging in age, the staff showcases a wide variety of diverse opinions that will keep you coming back for more week in and week out.
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