Circle Bar Racing in need of crew chief, sponsor for driver Rick Crawford
Circle Bar Racing's Rick Crawford finished 10th in the final 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings.
// David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Rick Crawford is looking for a new sponsor and a new crew chief for the 2010 season.
Crawford said on Thursday that his Circle Bar Racing team recently parted ways with crew chief Kevin Starland and needs a sponsor to replace International Truck and Engine Corp., which won’t return in 2010.
Crawford all but ruled out a return to the company’s flagship No. 14 truck he’s raced since his first Truck season of 1997 if he doesn’t sign a sponsor before next season.
“If you don’t have the necessary funding, then you don’t race,” the 51-year-old Crawford said.
Crawford said that Circle Bar’s second team with the No. 10 truck driven this past season by rookie James Buescher is up for sale. Buescher announced late last season that he was leaving the team for a full-time ride in the Nationwide Series with Phoenix Racing.
Crawford indicated Circle Bar is waiting to sign a sponsor before naming a replacement for Starland.
“We just needed a change,” Crawford said. “As far as Rick Crawford and Kevin Starland goes, we’re great friends, and I respect everything he did for Circle Bar Racing. Four out of the five years we were here [together], we were top-10 in the points, but it got to a [point] where Rick Crawford wanted to qualify better, he wanted to run up front, he wanted to lead more laps, even though we led more laps than any other Ford team on the race track.
“And like I tried to express to Kevin, it’s not all [his] fault; it’s not all my fault. It has a lot to do with the truck, with what’s under the hood, your team, your equipment and everything else, so it’s not all [Kevin’s] fault.”
Crawford, a five-time winner in the Truck series, scored just three top-fives and seven top-10s in 25 starts this past season on the way to a 10th-place finish in the standings. Crawford’s last win came in 2006.
“I’ve always said, if you perform on the race track, you can acquire sponsorship, and if you can’t, it’s basically your fault or you didn’t like the deal that was presented to you,” he said.
Depending on how the sponsorship situation unfolds for the No. 14 team, Crawford said he could return to Circle Bar, compete for another team next season or retire.
His preference would be to remain at Circle Bar, where his 18-year tenure predates his entry into the Truck series.
“When’s Daytona? We’ll be ready,” Crawford said. “The team will be ready, but I swear it all depends on factory support and support from corporate America. We’re trying our best, and I’m thinking positive.
“I’d rather have half of something than all or nothing, and we’ll see what we can do. I think the urgency and the seriousness of owners finding funding has hit us.”
