Justin Crider and the Little Team That Could

In a series stacked with talented drivers with considerable financial backing, Justin Crider is making his mark in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) as the proverbial David fighting several proverbial Goliaths.

Justin Crider has two top-three finishes in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour this season, with those finishes being a second at Orange County Speedway (Rougemont, North Carolina) and a third at Hickory Motor Speedway (Newton, North Carolina).  Friday night’s race at Tri-County Motor Speedway is at a track that possesses some similarities to the other two North Carolina bullrings he’s excelled at and he feels he stands a good chance of scoring his first career Late Model Stock Car victory.

“I think we have a real good shot.  At Kenly, that place owes us one.  We had a tire go bad from the factory.  We can’t get any luck there.  We got a real good car for Friday.  We learned stuff at Orange County and Hickory that we’re applying here.  I’m really looking forward to it.”

What has been most impressive is that Crider has done this on a minimal budget up against names such as Brayton Haws, Deac McCaskill, Todd Gilliland, Myatt Snider and Tommy Lemons, Jr.  Crider, who literally won his car at a raffle, relishes in his underdog role.

“We take pride in being the underdog and showing people and surprising people,” Crider explained.  “That’s what we like to do.  We got at least 75 percent of our expenses out of pocket.  My parents give up a bunch of nice things to give me the opportunity to come out here and do what I love.  They’ve made sacrifices all their life to make sure I have what I need to do what I need.  We don’t have a lot of money but what’s in this car, everything is the best we can get.  It’s tough when you’re racing against these guys but it makes it that much more enjoyable when you beat them.”

Crider has no ego about the success he has had this season up against elite drivers and elite race teams.  He credits it all to his crew chief, Bob McVay, and his volunteer team that shows the same dedication he shows.

“I got to give it all to my team and my crew chief, Bob McVay,” Crider remarked.  “We don’t have a single paid employee on this team but we have some of the best help out there.  They stick with me and I stick with them.  We have our moments but we get along well and we’re chasing the same goal.”

On the surface, given his performance this season, it would not seem to be a monumental upset if Crider won on Friday night.  It just seems that way.  Crider knows, deep down, that it would be.  He says he does not even know how he would react if he does win a race.

“I don’t even know how I’ll feel if we can pull it off.  Even if we don’t, I’ll be happy if we get a good run but I think we have a good shot.”

One thing that has helped Crider is the money and, more importantly, the exposure he has received from the Kulwicki Driver Development Program.  Along with that, Crider also has of the best appearing cars in the CARS Tour, something he says he gets comments about a lot.

“I get more comments on how good the car looks than how it runs half the time so hopefully we can make it run as good as it looks.”

The CARS Tour LeftTurnsAndSunburns.com 200 at Tri-County Motor Speedway will be held on Friday night, June 13^th at 7pm. RACE22.com will have live, up to the minute coverage on Twitter as well as complete postrace coverage.  RACEFEEDX.com will have live, pay-per-view streaming video coverage online.