Born in Roswell, New Mexico, Crawford served as a U.S. Army Air Corps fighter pilot, flying the P-38 Lightning in combat over North Africa in 1943. He was tied as the top-ranking fighter ace of the 97th Fighter Squadron. After returning home, he became an early jet pilot, evaluating the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star at Burbank, California, at the end of the war. He was scheduled to fly the aircraft in which fighter ace Richard Bong was later killed. Crawford was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with fourteen Oak Leaf Clusters before separating from active duty as a Captain in February 1946. He remained in the Air Force Reserves until April 1953.
Crawford was introduced to racing by Sam Hanks, a former high school classmate. He competed in unlimited hydroplanes and automobiles, driving in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series from 1954 to 1959, with nine starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in 1955, 1956, and 1959. In 1954, he won the stock-car class of the Carrera Panamericana, a nine-stage, five-day race across Mexico, in a Lincoln. He also finished 7th and 4th in the "Race of Two Worlds" events at Monza Autodrome, Italy, in 1957 and 1958, respectively.
In 1955, Crawford drove a Lincoln-Kurtis sports car at the 12 Hours of Sebring, finishing thirteenth without a co-driver. He is noted as the only driver to have completed the entire race without relief. Crawford's family owned a supermarket chain in El Monte, California, which earned him the nickname "The Flying Grocer." He was one of the first owner-drivers of the post-war era at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, racing his own privately funded cars throughout his career. An exception was in 1956, when he raced the 12 Hours of Sebring for Chevrolet's inaugural Corvette team and drove Corvette's experimental SR-2 at the Bahamas Speedweeks event that December. Cars owned by Crawford also qualified for the Indianapolis 500 with other drivers in 1953, 1954, and 1962.
Crawford's driving career was curtailed by serious injuries sustained in a crash at the 1959 Indianapolis 500. Speed legend Mickey Thompson cites Crawford as an early influence in his autobiography, Challenger, noting that Crawford provided him with his first exposure to the Indianapolis 500 as a member of his pit crew.
Crawford died in Los Angeles, California, on February 1, 1996, after battling Alzheimer's disease. He is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California. He is the subject of a 2015 biography by Andrew Layton titled Ray Crawford - Speed Merchant, to which Dick Wallen, an auto racing photographer and publisher, also contributed.
Crawford's ribbons as they appeared upon separation from the armed forces in 1953.
From top, and from left to right:
Row 1: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, with 14 oak leaf clusters Row 2: Air Medal, continued, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal Row 3: European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal
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