Circle Bar Racing Press Release

It has been 14 years since Hueytown, Alabama native, Davey Allison, rolled his 28 Havoline Ford to victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway. On Thursday, the Circle Bar Truck Corral Team started their quest to put another Alabama native, Rick Crawford into victory lane in the John Deere 250.

Having cut his racing teeth on the short racks of Alabama, Talladega is hallowed ground for Crawford. “As a kid I could only dream about racing at the big track,” said Crawford. “The guys that raced at Talladega were larger than life, the Allison’s, Neil Bonnet and Red Farmer. They were called the Alabama Gang and they were all hero’s. Red gave me my first big time shot in racing. I was racing local stocks in Mobile and I would help Red when he would come to town.

Red called me one day to say he was coming to the Snowball Derby; he was bringing 2 cars, one for him and one for me. Driving for Red was instant validation for me. After the Snowball other people started to ask me to drive for them. There are a lot of people that helped me get to Talladega and Red was a big part.” Appropriately, one of the first visitors to the Circle Bar hauler at Talladega was Red Farmer. Red Farmer not only played a significant role in Rick Crawford’s racing career but he also played a significant role with the last Alabama winner at Talladega, Davey Allison.

Day one of on track activity has the Circle Bar team in the top 10 on the speed charts at over 192 MPH. Crawford reported the new racing surface to be smooth and racey. The Circle Bar Ford F-150 performed well in the draft and the team is looking to add one more similarity to Crawford and Allison’s racing careers, winner at Talladega.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will hold round 20 of the 2006 season at Talladega Super Speedway on Saturday October 7th in the John Deere 250 at 2:30 PM EST. For live trackside reports of practice and qualifying go to truckseries.com. Live coverage of the race provided by Speed Channel, MRN and XM Radio.