| abstract | - Richard Crawford (born July 26, 1958 in Mobile, Alabama) is a race car driver who drives the 14 Circle Bar/Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-150 for Circle Bar Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Crawford began his racing career as a short-track racer in the southeastern United States. During this time, he was a three-time winner of the annual Snowball Derby, in 1983, 1984, and 1989. He also won the track championship at Five Flags Speedway in 1981 and 1984, and won the championship at Mobile International Speedway in 1981, 1982, and 1984. After that, he moved to the All Pro Series, where he made eleven starts, and collected sixty-one top tens, and earned five victories. In 1997, Crawford moved to the Craftsman Truck Series with his Circle Bar team. He qualified for every race, had ten top-tens and finished 12th in the points, runner-up to Kenny Irwin, Jr. for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. The next season, he picked up his first career win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Unfortunately, the team struggled to find consistency and he dropped to eighteenth in the standings. He started 1999 with two consecutive top-tens, but only wound up fourteenth in the points. In 2001, Crawford finished 8th in points, his first top-ten points finish. The next season, he had 17 top-nine finishes, two poles, and finished second in the standings. 2003 saw him grab his second victory, at the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona, and finished seventh in points. He picked up a win at Martinsville Speedway in 2004, but dropped to twelfth in points. Despite a win at Loudon in 2005, he finished seventeenth in points, mainly due to missing the first race of his Truck career after suffering injuries, ironically while practicing for the 2005 Built Ford Tough 225. Boris Said, who was scheduled to be a guest on the SPEED Channel's race coverage, was hired to drive the truck. In 2006, Crawford had four top-fives and ten top-ten finishes including a win on August 4 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, finishing 9th in the final standings. Rick had a consistent year in 2007 racking up 11 top 5 finishes, 18 top 10's and a near win at Mansfield Motorsports Park in route to a 5th place standing in the points championship.
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