CHARLOTTE - Alabama racers check in for the 2004 NASCAR season with a mix of new looks, new colors and new key personnel.
Championship contender Rick Crawford has a new million-dollar race shop and a redesigned Ford truck ready for that NASCAR series. Tina Gordon also returns to the truck series, this time primed for a full run with an established team.
Steve Grissom, a former Busch champion, is back in that series. Mike Harmon brings a new car number and a new crew chief to his Busch effort.
"I'm going to drive harder this year," Crawford said. "We're in debt."
The Circle Bar Racing team moved into its new headquarters over the winter, but testing already was under way for this season only two days after last year's final race. The team stayed at Homestead-Miami Speedway to shake down the 2004 version of its Ford F-150 racing truck.
The Mobile racer heads to Daytona next week, where Crawford won last season's opening race with a dramatic three-wide pass to the flag.
"I'm still telling that story," Crawford said during the first day of testing his No.14 truck last month at Daytona. "We'll make a prediction and go ahead and write it down now. I'm going to do two in a row.
"One thing about winning," Crawford added, "at least you know how, and so we'll take that out of the equation. You know drama follows me, so if it takes the dramatic, we can do it again."
Crawford ranked seventh in the truck standings last year after finishing runner-up for the championship the season before. This season's title fight has a new entry with Toyota bringing its Tundra trucks to the series, plus former champs Jack Sprague and Mike Skinner return.
"We have a promising piece to race with this year," said Crawford, whose team led research and development of the new Ford truck. Gordon is back for her second season in the NASCAR trucks, aiming for a full, 25-race run after running an abbreviated schedule in 2003. Last year, the Cedar Bluff driver tested at Daytona with one team, began the season with another and ran on a race-to-race basis while seeking a sponsorship that didn't materialize. This year, she has the seat for the No.13 Chevrolet fielded by ThorSport Racing.
"We're going to make it the lucky 13," Gordon said. "I'm running the full season, for sure. This is the best shot yet."
Gadsden driver Grissom, NASCAR's Busch champ in 1993, ran only five races last year as part of a test program for a start-up team. This year, DCT Motorsports has committed to 29 of 34 races with Grissom behind the wheel and Ricky Pearson serving as crew chief.
Sponsorship is set for part of the season for the team based in Spartanburg, S.C., with the co-owners promising to foot the bill for the remaining races. "We have every intention of running at least 29 races, regardless of what happens," said co-owner John McGill.
Harmon will carry car No.24 for his Busch run this year, and GIC Motorsports has named Dan Glauz, Jimmy Spencer's Busch crew chief two years ago, as the new crew chief.