Rick Crawford

Richard Hoyt Crawford Jr. (born July 26, 1958) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and convicted child sex offender. Crawford competed in the Craftsman Truck Series full-time from 1997 to 2009. He is the former promoter and manager of Mobile International Speedway.

Early career Crawford began his racing career as a short-track racer in the southeastern United States. He won the 1989 running of the prestigious annual short track Snowball Derby race. 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 Slim Jim All Pro Series, where he collected sixty-one top tens, and earned five victories. In 1993 and 1994, he attempted four Winston Cup Series races in the No. 84, but did not qualify for any of them.

Truck Series In 1997, Crawford moved to the Craftsman Truck Series with his Circle Bar team. He qualified for every race, had ten top-tens, a top-five at Texas Motor Speedway and finished twelfth in the points. He was also runner-up to Kenny Irwin Jr. for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. The next season, he picked up his first career win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The team struggled to find consistency, with only five top-ten finishes and he dropped to eighteenth in the standings. Crawford started 1999 with two consecutive top-tens, but only wound up fourteenth in the points, scoring ten top-tens and four top fives.

In 2001, Crawford finished eighth in points, his first top-ten points finish, he would earn sixteen top tens and ten top fives. The 2002 season would prove to be Crawford's most successful, although winless for the season he had seventeen top-ten finishes, a career high twelve top-five finishes, two poles (at Dover and Phoenix), and finished second in the standings only 46 points behind champion Mike Bliss. 2003 saw him grab his second victory, at the Florida Dodge Dealers 250, in a memorable three-wide race to finish line at Daytona International Speedway. He finished the season seventh in points with 16 top tens and ten top-fives.

In 2004, in his first race after a massive crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway, in which Tina Gordon and Hank Parker Jr. were also involved, Crawford picked up a win at Martinsville Speedway. He would finish the season with nine top-tens and four top-fives, and fell to twelfth in points. Despite a win at Loudon in 2005, Crawford finished seventeenth in points, mainly due to missing the first race of his Truck career after suffering injuries, ironically while practicing for the 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. While he wrecked later in the race, he returned to the booth to cover the rest of the race, as the late Neil Bonnett once did at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993 after taking a wild ride into the tri-oval. He did score two poles at Atlanta and Martinsville and had eleven top-tens and three top-fives.

For the 2006 season, Crawford had five top-fives and thirteen top-ten finishes including a win on August 4 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, finishing 9th in the final standings, the win at O’Reilly was his final career victory. Rick had a consistent year in 2007 racking up eleven top-five finishes, eighteen top-tens and a near win at Mansfield Motorsports Park en route to a fifth place standing in the points championship. The eighteen top ten finishes would be a career high to date. In 2008 Crawford put together another solid season with thirteen top tens and seven top fives and a pole at Texas. He would end the season seventh in points. In 2009, now at the age of fifty, Crawford would again finish in the top ten in points at tenth. He scored seven top tens and three top fives and would win the pole at Martinsville for the second time in his career.

Crawford would start the 2010 season with a great deal of uncertainty. Longtime sponsor Circle Bar Motel and RV Park would cut back their sponsorship of the team dramatically and Crawford stated that he was unsure how many races they would be able to run without a new sponsor. He would run the first four races of the season with Circle Bar, scoring two top tens. However, prior to Kansas Crawford announced that he would not race for Circle Bar in the No. 14 truck and would instead race in the Ray Hackett Racing No. 76 truck with sponsorship from SUPERSEAL Construction Products. This would be the first race in his record 327 Camping World Truck Series starts that he would not be in the No. 14 and would not be racing under Circle Bar Racing. Crawford would qualify for that race fifteenth and finish 31st after an accident going for the lead. In August, Crawford would take yet another unfamiliar step in his career as he would join forces with Tagsby Racing to race in the EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway. This would be the first race in his career that he would race in a Chevrolet truck. Crawford would earn his third top-ten finish in six races with an eighth place finish in the race. He ran in two more races with Tagsby to close out the season.

Crawford attempted to race with Tagsby Racing and make his twelfth consecutive start in the season opening race at Daytona in 2011, but failed to qualify. Before 2011, Crawford was one of only three drivers to compete in all Camping World Truck Series races at Daytona.

Crawford is a former manager and promoter of Mobile International Raceway, and attempted the 2012 season-opening race at Daytona with Tagsby Racing. He would race with Mike Harmon Racing's No. 74 truck at Martinsville, finishing last. He would race two more races with Tagsby Racing in 2012 at Texas and Chicagoland, finishing 29th and eleventh respectively. At Talladega later that year, he raced for BRG Motorsports. This was the first time he would race in a Toyota truck. In 2013, he attempted Daytona with MAKE Motorsports, but failed to qualify. After that, Crawford would stop racing for good.

Crawford raced in 210 consecutive races before missing the 2005 Built Ford Tough 225 race at Kentucky due to injuries sustained from a hard crash in practice. He had not missed a race since that date until failing to qualify at Daytona in February 2011. Prior to 2011, Crawford was one of the few drivers in the history of the sport with more than fifty starts who has never raced in any major series in NASCAR other than the Truck Series. However, that statistic was ended in 2011, when Crawford made his Nationwide Series debut driving for Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing at Chicagoland Speedway. He would then race his second and last Nationwide Series race with Mike Harmon Racing at Bristol in 2012.

Post-racing career In March 2011 Crawford entered a multi-year contract to be the promoter and manager at Mobile International Speedway, his home track, in Irvington (Mobile), Alabama.

In March 2014 it was announced that Crawford would serve as crew chief for Team Stange Racing and driver Maryeve Dufault in the ARCA Racing Series.

2018 arrest On March 1, 2018, Crawford was arrested in Florida; he was charged for "attempted enticement of a minor", after being caught in an online undercover sting operation involving a Seminole County, Florida Sheriff's deputy working for an FBI sex crimes task force posing as a father offering commercial sexual exploitation of his nonexistent 12 year old daughter in exchange for cash. Crawford later pled not guilty to the charge and was released into the custody of his family until his trial. Crawford was convicted by a jury on August 30, 2018. On November 26, 2018, Crawford was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison, a sentence that was later upheld on appeal in 2020.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series NASCAR Winston Cup Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pts Ref 1993 Circle Bar Racing 84 Ford DAY CAR RCH ATLDNQ DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLTDNQ DOV POC MCH DAY NHA POC TAL GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHOATLDNQ NA - 1994 DAYWth CAR RCH ATL DAR BRI NWS MAR TAL SON CLT DOV POC MCH DAY NHA POC TAL IND GLN MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR PHO ATL NA -

Daytona 500 Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish 1994 Circle Bar Racing Ford Wth

Nationwide Series NASCAR Nationwide Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Pts Ref 2011 JJC Racing 13 Ford DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL TEX TAL NSH RCH DAR DOV IOW CLT CHI36 MCH ROA DAY KEN NHA NSH IRP IOW GLN CGV BRI ATL RCH CHI DOV KAN CLT TEX PHO HOM 134th 01 2012 Mike Harmon Racing 74 Chevy DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL TEX RCH TAL DAR IOW CLT DOV MCH ROA KEN DAY NHA CHI IND IOW GLN CGV BRI36 ATL RCH CHI KEN DOV CLT KAN TEX PHO HOM 139th 01

Camping World Truck Series NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Pts Ref 1997 Circle Bar Racing 14 Ford WDW11 TUS12 HOM18 PHO21 POR8 EVG23 I7015 NHA6 TEX3 BRI6 NZH18 MLW34 LVL16 CNS6 HPT8 IRP13 FLM15 NSV8 GLN14 RCH34 MAR24 SON25 MMR6 CAL10 PHO13 LVS10 12th 3149 1998 WDW29 HOM1 PHO5 POR27 EVG21 I7018 GLN14 TEX26 BRI38 MLW26 NZH29 CAL15 PPR11 IRP34 NHA22 FLM15 NSV3 HPT15 LVL25 RCH11 MEM5 GTY7 MAR15 SON29 MMR27 PHO16 LVS14 18th 2956 1999 HOM8 PHO6 EVG12 MMR22 MAR33 MEM22 PPR8 I7027 BRI21 TEX12 PIR16 GLN10 MLW3 NSV14 NZH17 MCH29 NHA5 IRP12 GTY9 HPT4 RCH12 LVS8 LVL7 TEX23 CAL35 14th 3018 2000 DAY34 HOM7 PHO10 MMR9 MAR15 PIR5 GTY12 MEM6 PPR13 EVG14 TEX8 KEN10 GLN9 MLW14 NHA13 NZH13 MCH7 IRP31 NSV10 CIC28 RCH16 DOV3 TEX6 CAL12 11th 3053 2001 DAY10 HOM8 MMR19 MAR7 GTY4 DAR4 PPR9 DOV14* TEX20 MEM16 MLW25 KAN8 KEN27 NHA27 IRP6 NSH3 CIC5* NZH4 RCH5 SBO24 TEX2 LVS5 PHO3 CAL2* 8th 3320 2002 DAY24 DAR5 MAR3 GTY4 PPR6 DOV3 TEX4 MEM9 MLW14 KAN12* KEN4 NHA17 MCH9 IRP11 NSH2 RCH4 TEX4* SBO3 LVS6 CAL5 PHO3 HOM7 2nd 3313 2003 DAY1* DAR7 MMR6 MAR6 CLT3 DOV8* TEX14 MEM11 MLW3 KAN23 KEN11 GTW5 MCH12 IRP14 NSH3 BRI3 RCH6 NHA18 CAL4 LVS36 SBO5 TEX9 MAR4 PHO11 HOM2 7th 3578 2004 DAY4 ATL34 MAR1 MFD7 CLT7 DOV2 TEX15 MEM19 MLW9 KAN3 KEN16 GTW25 MCH32 IRP8 NSH24 BRI17 RCH24 NHA25 LVS11 CAL12 TEX7 MAR16 PHO11 DAR18 HOM28 12th 3030 2005 DAY36 CAL14 ATL29* MAR21 GTY5 MFD6 CLT25 DOV11 TEX19 MCH6 MLW8 KAN10 KENINQ† MEM11 IRP6 NSH10 BRI21 RCH28 NHA1 LVS7 MAR16 ATL32 TEX8 PHO4 HOM27 16th 2917 2006 DAY8 CAL8 ATL10 MAR26 GTY24 CLT11 MFD12 DOV8 TEX3 MCH6 MLW9 KAN2 KEN2 MEM13 IRP1* NSH28 BRI13 NHA7 LVS14 TAL15 MAR9 ATL5 TEX33 PHO33 HOM15 9th 3252 2007 DAY10 CAL9 ATL4 MAR3 KAN2 CLT10 MFD23* DOV23 TEX3 MCH6 MLW5 MEM28 KEN30 IRP4 NSH6 BRI5 GTW11 NHA6 LVS9 TAL2 MAR5 ATL12 TEX5 PHO12 HOM3 5th 3523 2008 DAY5 CAL14 ATL11 MAR3 KAN9 CLT5 MFD13 DOV9 TEX21 MCH11 MLW8 MEM4 KEN14 IRP12 NSH23 BRI5 GTW8 NHA5 LVS6 TAL28 MAR3 ATL12 TEX11 PHO9 HOM33 7th 3315 2009 DAY21 CAL14 ATL16 MAR5 KAN14 CLT11 DOV19 TEX5 MCH12 MLW12 MEM11 KEN17 IRP11 NSH7 BRI19 CHI4 IOW17 GTW10 NHA10 LVS11 MAR15 TAL21 TEX10 PHO14 HOM17 10th 3161 2010 DAY28 ATL9 MAR19 NSH10 32nd 848 Ray Hackett Racing 76 Ford KAN31 DOV CLT TEX MCH IOW GTY IRP POC NSH DAR BRI Tagsby Racing 73 Chevy CHI8 KEN NHA LVS32 MAR TAL TEX17 PHO HOM 2011 DAYDNQ PHODNQ DAR MAR NSH DOV CLT KAN TEX KEN IOW NSH IRP POC MCH BRI ATL CHI NHA KEN LVS TAL MAR TEX24 HOM 66th 20 2012 DAY25 TEX29 KEN IOW CHI11 POC MCH BRI ATL IOW KEN LVS 41st 96 Mike Harmon Racing 74 Chevy MAR36 CAR KAN CLT DOV BRG Motorsports 20 Toyota TAL23 MAR TEX PHO HOM 2013 MAKE Motorsports 50 Chevy DAYDNQ MAR CAR KAN CLT DOV TEX KEN IOW ELD POC MCH BRI MSP IOW CHI LVS TAL MAR TEX PHO HOM NA - † - Qualified but replaced by Boris Said

Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series - Elite 1 results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pts Ref 2013 Scorpus Racing 19 Chevy NOG NOG DIJ DIJ BRH BRH TOU TOU MNZ MNZ BUG BUG 33rd -