Crocker hopes things are brighter for second time

Erin Crocker returns to action this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, where she finished 25th in April. She spent the final off-week of the season visiting with her best friend from Boston, attending the team picnic, speaking to a group of women in the automotive industry and completing a test session in Chicago.

Q: What's your favorite season of the year, other than racing season?

	Erin Crocker drives the No. 98 Dodge in the Truck Series. Credit: Autostock
	Erin Crocker Year-to-date statistics Race Start Finish Daytona 24 27 California 33 27 Atlanta 30 26 Martinsville 34 25 Gateway 30 22 Charlotte 2 18 Mansfield 25 28 Dover 25 24 Texas 12 33 Michigan 11 24 Milwaukee 33 25 Kansas 12 16 Kentucky 34 27 Memphis 34 30 IRP 33 27 Nashville 27 29 Bristol 31 35 New Hampshire 28 32 Las Vegas 12 24 Talladega 21 20 Average 24.5 25.9

Crocker: I like all seasons, really. I like having change. I think I like the fall the best, but part of me doesn't because it means the end of the racing season. There's something great about the leaves changing. I think I like winter the least, although it was OK when I was ski racing.

Q: What's fall like in your hometown?

Crocker: You get more of a dramatic change. It's more colorful, the leaves are brighter, the temperature seems to drop a little quicker, the holidays are coming. I liked when we used to burn leaves at my house. There's something about the smell of burning leaves.

Q: What's your favorite memory of fall?

Crocker: I always played soccer in the fall growing up. I like Halloween. In fact, I like all holidays. I'm a festive kind of person.

Q: You recently spoke to a group of young women at Lowe's Motor Speedway about the automotive aftermarket and how it relates to the racing industry. Does public speaking come naturally to you?

Crocker: I think I do really well with interviews. That's something I feel comfortable with because I can put some humor into it.

I'm not as comfortable getting up in front of a big crowd and giving a speech, although I want to get better at it. It's harder for me to stand up in front of a crowd and tell your life story. It doesn't come naturally to me.

I used to get really uncomfortable and my heart used to beat about 100 mph and I'd start to talk about 100 mph, too. Since then, I've learned to slow myself down and not try to tell my stories in five minutes.

Every crowd is definitely different. Speaking to women in the automotive industry, I don't have to go into long explanations of things, because they're aware of what it's like to be a woman in this industry, like I'm a woman in a man's sport.

I enjoyed speaking to them the other day, because they're either in the automotive aftermarket industry or trying to get into the industry. It's kind of neat because I can see myself as being a little bit of an inspiration to them.

Q: Evernham Motorsports recently held its annual family picnic. What was it like?

	Erin Crocker Credit: Autostock
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Crocker: We had great weather. It was a little chilly but nice in the sun. We're so busy that we rarely have time to just sit down and talk, so it was kind of neat to have our team together and meet their families. It was a neat thing to do.

Q: You just came back from a test at Chicago. How did things go?

Crocker: Unfortunately, they didn't go that great. First, we had rain off and on. And we were working on some new front end stuff. Unfortunately, we blew a tire and hit the wall. That's why we were testing it. I'm a little sore but we're fine.

Q: You're starting a stretch of races at tracks you've been at before. Does that add to your comfort level?

Crocker: It definitely does. I think of the remaining five races, this weekend at Martinsville will be the most challenging. I've never raced a Late Model on these types of tracks.

All season, we've had more success on the 1.5-mile tracks -- and even the miles. It's been anything under a mile where I've struggled.

I'm looking forward to it. It's our second time there, so I've got that "new track" worry out of the way. We've learned a lot, setup-wise, from the last time, so I think we'll do better. I'm really looking forward to it.

Erin Crocker is stepping up a program that she hopes will land her in a full-time Nextel Cup ride by driving in the Busch, Truck and ARCA Series for Evernham Motorsports. The youngest of five children, Crocker has been sharing weekly with NASCAR.COM readers the ups and downs of her life on and off the track through staff writer David Newton.