Crowder Returns as Defending Champion in DieselPower! Sled Pulling Series Modified Class

Tuesday, 6 June 2006; DHRA Staff

Don't tell the folks at the DHRA, but Kent Crowder would probably pull for nothing.
No title. No prize money. No fame.
He'd pull, Crowder will tell you, for love of it. And if you don't believe Crowder - widely considered the Diesel Hot Rod Association's top competitor in the DieselPower! Sled Pulling Series - would put himself through the grueling nature of a long pulling season for next to nothing, consider:  He's done it before. Pretty close to it anyway.

But consider this, too:
It is testament to the growing nature of the DHRA that Crowder and his competitors in the organization's premiere sled-pulling category needn't pull for nothing anymore.  Those days, Crowder said, seem to be over. "You can definitely feel it," Crowder said as he prepared for the 2006 DieselPower! Sled Pulling Series season, which will open this weekend with the Wisconsin event at the Racine County Fairgrounds in Union Grove, Wis. "The sport is getting bigger. You can see it at the events, I'd say.  "This thing is ready to take off."

How big is the DHRA's modified series getting? How fast is it growing?
Until last year, Crowder - one of the nation's top sled pullers - said the sport basically was a loosely linked series of exhibitions.  "Last year was the first time we ran with any kind of a sanctioning body," Crowder said.  That was when Crowder won the seven-pull series, finishing ahead of Van Haisley and Terry Martin becoming the sport's first DHRA-sanctioned World Champion.  This year, a seven-race Modified series has become 10, which Crowder said is a clear sign that the sport's days as a fledgling entity are over. Big things are coming soon, Crowder said. Very big things.

The DHRA, not only with its Modified class in the DieselPower! Sled Pulling series, but with its two drag racing series and two other pulling series, has tapped into a niche of ravenous fans, Crowder said. Diesel vehicles are growing in popularity.  And Crowder said that can only help the series, and the teams and drivers.  "A lot of that is up to the promoter," Crowder said. "But I think it's got excellent potential. You look at how many diesel pickups are out there on the road and imagine that a quarter of those people are involved in high performance enough that they're willing to look at something and say, 'That could be my truck.'

"There are a lot of people out there into these trucks. There's an enormous market." One thing Crowder said that's needed:  Drivers, and therefore increased competition, to satisfy the market.

Crowder, 27, drives for Scheid Diesel Motorsports in Attica, Ind., and the team's recent history has been one of dominance. A glance at www.scheiddieselmotorsports.com shows that last season, in the first season of the DHRA Modified Class, Crowder won the title. He won 14 of 19 overall pulls in 2005, and before that - competing in variously-sanctioned pulls - he won 18 of 23 events in 2004 and seven of eight in 2003.  "He's the dominant force in his class," Eric McBride of the DHRA said. "If Modified has a superstar, he's definitely it."  Last season, Crowder won four of seven DHRA-sanctioned events, winning the championship against a field that typically consisted of two-to-10 other competitors.  Crowder said he doubts the field will remain so open for long, and he said that's not only fine with him, but good for the sport, too.  "One thing we do need, especially for our class, is more competitors," he said. "I think this coming year is going to be better for that. Or at least there are going to be a lot of guys spicing up what they've got. You're going to see a lot neater-looking stuff."  That's something Crowder said he welcomes for a sport in which he has competed for much of the last decade. His interest in sled pulling began in high school, when he worked with current National Tractor Pullers Association driver Kent Payne, who drives the "Rooster Cruiser" in the NTPA series.  "That's where I got the introduction to pulling and high-power diesel stuff," Crowder said. "I never really imagined doing it on my own - for the expense."  But soon thereafter, Dan Scheid approached him about driving for Scheid Diesel Motorsports, and since then, he has been at the forefront of one of the fastest growing forms of motorsports.

He and Scheid started with their current truck - the 1996 Dodge Powered Scheid Diesel Rebuilt 5.9L Cummins Engine - in 2001. In 2003, Crowder won the seven-out-of-eight races despite minor driveline problems.   "We've had a lot of embarrassing moments," Crowder said, laughing. "Trial and error can make you look pretty silly. There is a lot of stuff that just comes down to being able to be competitive on the track." It is the evolving nature of the Modified Series that Crowder said despite winning the championship last season, much of his job as driver/crew chief boils down to an adage he repeats often.  "I call it, 'Finding the Next Weak Link,''' Crowder said.  Crowder said it means that life as a successful puller/crew chief is typically about constantly testing to get the most of the truck. Sometimes, that means success. Other times, that means huge problems that must be solved. Then, it's onto the next issue.   "That's a lot of what this is," he said. "As you try to develop more power and to develop better chassis and stuff. You're going to have rough stretches or you're probably not getting better."  Mostly, though, the successful stretches have outweighed the rough ones, and through the years, Crowder said he has gained experience to go along with the horsepower Scheid provides. Experience and driver skill, he said, has been a factor in the team's success lately.  "However, in our case, a lot of times we were far enough ahead horsepower wise to overcome any problem by the driver," he said, laughing.  Now, he said, that's not the case, because now the sport is growing so fast - and is so competitive - that every amount of experience is needed, and every edge is critical. That's the sign, he said, of a sport that's growing so much that there's not much worry about pulling for nothing anymore.  "You look at all of the competitors in this right now - basically, we've been pushing for this all along, the level the sport is," Crowder said. "Probably about 80 percent of us have pulled for nothing. We were nothing but the expenses. But for us, the money wasn't necessarily the goal. We were advertising the company and doing it because we loved it.

"We've all gone through whatever we had to do to pull together exhibition runs wherever we could. The sport is moving to another level now, and that's obviously exciting to see."

October 2005
--Pulling team was first place in points in the DHRA Modified class

April 2005
--Truck has a new paint done by Todd's Autobody

August 19, 2004
-- The 300” rear engine dragster will be on display during the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza this August 27-29 in Terre Haute, IN at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds 

May 21, 2004
-- Due to uncontrollable delays, the dragster will not be constructed in time for Thunder in Muncie. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause for our sponsors and fans. 

April 15, 2004
-- As all good projects go, the dragster construction has been delayed due to some re-adjusting on the frame. Spitzer doesn't take any chances on his cars and his quest for perfection is seen with this move. The cars completion date is unknown at this time, we hope to have it at Thunder in Muncie for an unveiling.  

April 3, 2004
-- Finally, pictures of the dragster under construction  

February 21, 2004
-- Construction on the diesel rail dragster underway at Spitzer Race Cars
-- Photos showing the dragster's construction available soon