After 327 consecutive Truck Series races -- all of them using Ford F-150s -- Tom Mitchell's Circle Bar Racing has reached a critical moment in its history.

Mitchell's driver Rick Crawford, who has also managed the team's daily operations for the last 14 years, didn't enter the No. 14 for Sunday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway when sponsorship couldn't be obtained.

“

I want to race, I'm not finished winning races, I still feel I can get the job done, I feel like I can represent a sponsor very well and I think everybody knows that. I think my reputation on and off the race track speaks for itself.

”

-- RICK CRAWFORD

"Nineteen years with Circle Bar Racing and 14 years in the Truck Series, it's pretty tough not to crawl in the door of that 14 truck," Crawford said from Kansas City on Thursday morning.

Crawford, who's missed only one of the races contended by Mitchell's Truck team -- July 2005 in Kentucky, when Crawford crashed in qualifying and replaced himself with Boris Said for the race -- has picked up a ride in Ray Hackett's No. 76 Ford this weekend that was originally entered for Hackett's son, Ryan Hackett.

And even though Crawford had to lay off all but a couple Circle Bar employees after Nashville on April 2, when the truck they intended to race at Kansas was unscathed and basically ready to roll back into the hauler, the team's still viable.

"We're still together, we just need financial backing to run the 14 truck, that's the bottom line," Crawford said of Circle Bar Racing. "The 14 truck is ready to go, but it doesn't have the financial backing to get it to the race track.

"We're still in business. The trucks are ready to go and can be ready for Dover in a matter of minutes, or hours. It's the same thing for Kansas. When Ryan Hackett walked in the shop the other day he said, 'Where's your Nashville truck?'"

Crawford, who will extend his Truck Series record with a 327th career start this weekend if he makes the race, said he pointed to a complete, loadable No. 14. He said the younger Hackett shook his head in disbelief and Crawford had to set the record straight for the young man from Maryland.

"That's the way we keep things prepared at Circle Bar Racing," Crawford said. "I can line out where these trucks are gonna race, because the competition level in the Truck Series -- you must be prepared, week in and week out. No matter if you have a month break or six, eight or nine races in a row; you must be prepared and Circle Bar Racing's always put a quality product on the race track and it's always been competitive." (Continued)