NASCAR Trucks: Crawford excited about running at Darlington for first time
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
May 9, 2001The Craftsman Truck Series will visit historic Darlington Raceway this weekend for the inaugural Darlington 200, the first time the Series has raced in the Carolinas since the 1996 event at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Veteran Ford driver Rick Crawford, coming off of his best performance of the season last week in St. Louis, spoke about the challenges the egg-shaped raceway pose for the trucks and what expects to see on the track.
RICK CRAWFORD-14-Milwaukee Electric Tools Ford F-150 - YOU STARTED IN 14TH PLACE AT GATEWAY, BUT MOVED UP TO FOURTH BY THE FINISH TO COLLECT YOUR FIRST TOP-FIVE OF THE SEASON. TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE. "It was a good day. The Milwaukee Electric Tools Ford was competitive all day and marched toward the front. I think only one truck passed me during the day and the other two beat me, so I had a good day. It's a good, strong race team that we're running this year, and it finally gets to show itself a bit there. We should have been in the top five or six qualifying, but we had a little bit of problem. But, we knew all along that when we unloaded it off of the hauler, that during practice, Happy Hour and even qualifying, that we had a good race truck and I'm proud to be driving for Tom Mitchell (owner) and Ray Stonkus (crew chief). We're in pretty good shape."
THERE WERE TWO FORDS IN THE TOP FIVE. DID THE RULE CHANGE HELP THE FORDS BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T BEEN AS DOMINANT AS LAST YEAR? "Maybe we can revive that a little bit. If you're looking at the 1 and 2 (trucks), then we need some more, but if you're looking at the rest of the field, I think it put the Fords back to being competitive. I think we can be a little bit more competitive, and I think that my truck sure feels a little different. We tested some during the four-week off period and went to the wind tunnel a couple of times and did some work for NASCAR, so in my position, I think it made my truck a little different, a little faster and got me more competitive."
WHAT'S YOUR OPINION OF TED MUSGRAVE? "Ted Musgrave was a great race car driver in the late '80s when I raced against him in the All Pro Series. And then we raced the American-Canadian Tour at one time, and ASA and All-Pro all merged together to run a few races. I ran second to Ted in the 1988 Snowball Derby in Pensacola and then I turned around and beat him in 1989 Snowball Derby. Me and Ted knew each other from the short-track days, but all in all, Ted Musgrave is a good race car driver. He knows chassis, I've seen him and Mark Martin work together on the Roush team, and Ted knows those cars inside and out. Jimmy (Hensley) also knows that Fred Wanke (crew chief, No. 1 truck) can come on board and do wonders with a pickup also, so when you put those two together, what an outstanding team. I've talked to both of them, I know both of them, and it just makes me work harder. I'm not worried about what they're doing, they've done their homework and so it just makes our race team work harder. We've just got to do more work; things haven't stopped around here."
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DRIVING A RACE CAR AND A RACE TRUCK? "Once you sit in a truck and you're looking out of the windshield, you can simulate that to a car. You really don't know that you don't have back window there until you get to some ill-handling package and you realize that your aerodynamics are different. But as far as sitting in it, the feel and the steering, the first time I jumped into a truck, I was like, 'this is pretty similar to the car I drive.' They're made to do what they do, but you can also feel like they're not necessarily the same as far as performance or sticking, or what I call adhesion to the track. They're a little more difficult than you think they are to drive."
JIMMY HENSLEY SAID EARLIER THAT YOU HAVE TO LIFT A LITTLE EARLIER IN THE CORNERS. ARE THEY DIFFERENT ON THE STRAIGHTAWAYS? "If my measurements are right, the trucks are nine inches taller than a car, so it gives your overall rollness, what we always call balance from front to rear. But, if you go into a corner and that thing rolls over to the right-hand side, you're carrying a lot more mass weight up higher than if you were in a car."
AND THAT'S WHEN YOU HAVE TO CHECK UP? "That's when you start losing your ground effects to the track, when you roll over a bit. It's just a little more top-heavy, and it's not much, but nine inches is a lot, especially when you're pushing a brick with that blunt front end. That's the difference as far as I can see."
BECAUSE THE SERIES STARTED ON THE SHORT TRACKS, IT SEEMS TO HAVE DEVELOPED MORE OF A BUMPING AND BANGING REPUTATION. HOW MUCH OF THAT IS REALITY AND HOW MUCH OF THAT IS MYTH? "They're a little on the edge, they're a little on the loose side to start with because of the cab area on the top. As far as being a little out of control and you're trying to run up under somebody too, the whole side truck might get rubbed on. I'm like Jimmy (Hensley), I don't mind somebody rubbing on me, and I might rub on somebody else, but there's a difference between rubbing and bumping than sticking somebody in the wall or spinning them out or causing them to have a bad finish. There's a way to do that, and I'm sure everybody looks at it the same way, we look at it as hard, aggressive racing. We only have 200 miles to do it, it's not a 500-mile race and it's not a 50-lap race, but we only have a short time to do it here. It makes for an exciting series for the fans and that's what we're out there for, that's how we get paid, that's how we attract sponsors and ESPN talks about us because we get on TV."
MIKE SKINNER, RON HORNADAY, GREG BIFFLE AND KURT BUSCH ALL GRADUATED FROM THE TRUCK SERIES AND THEY ALL SEEM TO HAVE GOTTEN TO WHERE THEY ARE BECAUSE OF DEMONSTRATING THEIR ABILITY TO BE AGGRESSIVE. "And, they drove real fast trucks."
THERE ARE A LOT OF YOUNG DRIVERS IN THE TRUCK SERIES WITH THE AVERAGE AGE OF 28. WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS OF HOW THESE DRIVERS ARE PROGRESSING? "They are proving themselves every week. It's not a reputation of not learning anything. I tried to make this statement at Daytona when I was asked about the heavy rookie crop. And it was like, I was one of those drivers also, five years ago. They made room for me to come in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and I'm very proud to be part of it, and I enjoy racing every race on the schedule, but those guys were champions some where, they were in the spotlight somewhere. You can look at those drivers, and I don't think money got not one of them in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series or didn't deserve to drive a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series truck. I think they are very deservingly there, and I think they're a prime spot in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series following."
WE HAD AN OPEN TEST IN DARLINGTON IN NOVEMBER. WE DIDN'T HAVE THE 12:1 COMPRESSION MOTORS AND THE TIRES WILL PROBABLY BE DIFFERENT, BUT GIVE YOUR IMPRESSION OF THAT TEST. "I went to Darlington eight or nine years ago, and I went through the museum there and looked over Turn 1 because it wasn't during a race week. I just walked up to the edge of Turn 1, which is now Turn 3, and just said that if I were to ever run a Winston Cup race that this would be the first race that I want to come to. They say this is the toughest, so this is the one I want to be at. When I rode around it in a van before we even had a chance to test it, I could understand why it's too tough to tame. It's like running a jet airplane through a ditch. It's an amazing place and I can see now why it was built in the 1950s and probably never improved. You can see a lot of facial improvements to it, but the old track is probably the same, and I don't have any idea how they run 180 and 190 miles around there at top speed, on that one lane race track. But they do it and they do it for 500 miles, and my hat's off to them. I'm looking forward to going back there. I tested there in November and I tested real well, and we've tested the truck that we're going to take back there and I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to very exciting, and Jimmy's right, I used to race at some short tracks around the nation that are similar to that, so you better race the race track and not the next-door competitor."
WHY HAVE THE DODGES BEEN SO DOMINANT, AND CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE CHANGES THAT WERE RECENTLY MADE. "Well, first of all, let me start out by saying that I've been on both sides of the fence. I've been on the fence that's had things taken away to make the Series more competitive, and now I'm on the side of the fence where something has been given to us to make the Series more competitive. We have to face it, we have a little problem here. I'm stuck driving a Ford. I feel that a Ford product is the best on the market, but the Dodge happens to be the quickest on the race track right this minute. We do need to realize that we have a little problem. NASCAR came in and made a little adjustment, and it's put us back to being competitive, but we still can't relax with our work back at the shop, and I think that might change in the near future to get even more competitive. Dodge did some politics in the winter, knew what they had to do, going into Winston Cup to give them more information. If it weren't for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, I doubt if you would see Dodge in Winston Cup, but the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series did all the R & D for Dodge and they were bound and determined to be tough in 2001. Chevy got their new motor, the SB2, and they're strong. Ford winning the championship last year and being 1 and 2 (in the overall standings) didn't get much. We needed a little after the first four races. The evidence was there in the results and now I think we're a little more competitive."
DID YOU SEE ANYTHING LAST WEEK WITH THE RULE CHANGE THAT MIGHT GIVE YOU A GUESS AS TO HOW THAT'S GOING TO PLAY OUT AT DARLINGTON? "I think our corner speeds were a little better than they had been on a flat race track such as Homestead or Phoenix. Gateway is a mile-and-a-quarter track, and as far as a comfort zone of a Ford as compared to what you were used to, it was little bit better. The balance on the truck between front to rear was a lot better, and naturally, that plays into effect with your downforce. I also think that a track like Darlington, and let me say this, a lot of our calls are coming from the Columbia, South Carolina, phone system with the media. I really appreciate the media jumping on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and you are all as excited for us to come to Darlington, as we are to be there. I do think the rule change was to help the Fords, and also help the Chevys, get more equal ground with the Dodges, and maybe bring the Dodges back to the middle of the table."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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