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Craven put himself in hole
By Rupen Fofaria
ESPN.com
Ricky Craven got bit by what most thought to be an outdated practice last weekend and paid for it with his eighth straight finish outside the top 15.
Afterward, he called the move "stupid" and blamed no one but himself.
Craven ran in the top 10 for most of the day last weekend in the Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway, but made the call with little more than 30 lap remaining to take two tires instead of four. Like so many teams over the past couple of years, Craven wanted track position.
But Sunday, the fresh-tire strategy made a come back as Craven fell back through the pack and the race leaders shot out front on four fresh wheels.
Craven tried to make amends by taking four with about 10 laps to go, but it was too late. He restarted toward the back of the field and rode a fast car to muster a 17th-place finish. A hard-fought 17th-place finish.
"It was frustrating because we ran top 10 much of the day, particularly the first half of the race," Craven said. "We went back and made a big adjustment and fell back to 26th or 28th, but we charged back to the top 10 again. Then it just got away from us at the end.
"I wanted to take two tires with 30 to go and that ended up being a very stupid move, but I did it. Then we got four tires, but we didn't have track position with 10 to go."
There were times over the past few years when this finish would have been OK with Craven. There were times, after a series of crashes made some curious about his ability to drive and his nerve behind the wheel, that Craven would walk away at peace, although still not quite happy, with his 17th-place performance.
But not now. Not after last year, when he put the doubters in their place by scoring his first-career Martinsville, Va., win. He would post a second-place finish in the Michigan race last year, too.
Ricky Craven is currently 15th in Cup points.
And this year, Craven had strung together a solid three-race run that had he and his No. 32 Ford team closing in on the top 10 in the points standings. From late May to early June, Craven put together finishes of ninth in Richmond, Va., third in Concord, N.C., and seventh in Dover, Del., to make a move upward in the points race to 12th.
Since then, though, he hasn't finished better than 15th. The disappointment from that was only made worse after his performance at Michigan.
"We came from way back to (finish) 17th, but it's just frustrating," he said. "The car had potential and the day had potential, but I'm just going to go back to the motorhome and watch a movie and get over it."
Craven has fresh prospects for next season to help him get over it, too. Last week, his PPI Motorsports team announced a move from Ford to the new Pontiac Grand Prix unveiled earlier this month. Also, his team owner Cal Wells is working hard to establish a second race team.
"This relationship isn't about money," Wells said about the move to Pontiac. "This relationship is really about working together for the betterment of on-track success, to focus on putting the No. 32, as well as other competitors under the Pontiac umbrella, in the winner's circle week in and week out."
The prospect of a second team is the much more exciting one for Craven, though. Craven has proven that he can be competitive in this series, but he's outmatched as a one-car team in a sport dominated by multi-car stables.
Multi-car teams simply have too great an advantage when it comes to combined track time and resources. NASCAR allows each team a certain amount of test dates a year. Two car teams can split them up and provide notes for the entire program at a greater number of tracks. And the added human resources at the shop -- more heads to put together when a problem arises and more hands to recruit when something needs fixing -- are a valuable commodity.
A commodity Craven sorely wants and one his team owner would like to provide. Wells tried to provide it for Craven last season, fielding the 96 car driven by Andy Houston. But the car wasn't driven a lot. Houston made only 17 starts before Wells released him and disbanded the 96 team.
That's why this time he doesn't want to jump into something for the sake of having a second team.
"We're working pretty diligently on that," Wells said.
Until then, though, Craven's just trying to end this season on as high a note as he can. The 1995 rookie of the year has never finished better than 19th in the points race and is currently 15th.
"I couldn't have imagined this," Craven said recently, discussing his success over the past two seasons compared to points finishes of 44th and 4th in 2000 and 1999, respectively. "It's just been really amazing and I have to thank Cal Wells for standing by me. ... I believed in myself when some people didn't."
Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.
Craven put himself in hole
By Rupen Fofaria
ESPN.com
Ricky Craven got bit by what most thought to be an outdated practice last weekend and paid for it with his eighth straight finish outside the top 15.
Afterward, he called the move "stupid" and blamed no one but himself.
Craven ran in the top 10 for most of the day last weekend in the Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway, but made the call with little more than 30 lap remaining to take two tires instead of four. Like so many teams over the past couple of years, Craven wanted track position.
But Sunday, the fresh-tire strategy made a come back as Craven fell back through the pack and the race leaders shot out front on four fresh wheels.
Craven tried to make amends by taking four with about 10 laps to go, but it was too late. He restarted toward the back of the field and rode a fast car to muster a 17th-place finish. A hard-fought 17th-place finish.
"It was frustrating because we ran top 10 much of the day, particularly the first half of the race," Craven said. "We went back and made a big adjustment and fell back to 26th or 28th, but we charged back to the top 10 again. Then it just got away from us at the end.
"I wanted to take two tires with 30 to go and that ended up being a very stupid move, but I did it. Then we got four tires, but we didn't have track position with 10 to go."
There were times over the past few years when this finish would have been OK with Craven. There were times, after a series of crashes made some curious about his ability to drive and his nerve behind the wheel, that Craven would walk away at peace, although still not quite happy, with his 17th-place performance.
But not now. Not after last year, when he put the doubters in their place by scoring his first-career Martinsville, Va., win. He would post a second-place finish in the Michigan race last year, too.
Ricky Craven is currently 15th in Cup points.
And this year, Craven had strung together a solid three-race run that had he and his No. 32 Ford team closing in on the top 10 in the points standings. From late May to early June, Craven put together finishes of ninth in Richmond, Va., third in Concord, N.C., and seventh in Dover, Del., to make a move upward in the points race to 12th.
Since then, though, he hasn't finished better than 15th. The disappointment from that was only made worse after his performance at Michigan.
"We came from way back to (finish) 17th, but it's just frustrating," he said. "The car had potential and the day had potential, but I'm just going to go back to the motorhome and watch a movie and get over it."
Craven has fresh prospects for next season to help him get over it, too. Last week, his PPI Motorsports team announced a move from Ford to the new Pontiac Grand Prix unveiled earlier this month. Also, his team owner Cal Wells is working hard to establish a second race team.
"This relationship isn't about money," Wells said about the move to Pontiac. "This relationship is really about working together for the betterment of on-track success, to focus on putting the No. 32, as well as other competitors under the Pontiac umbrella, in the winner's circle week in and week out."
The prospect of a second team is the much more exciting one for Craven, though. Craven has proven that he can be competitive in this series, but he's outmatched as a one-car team in a sport dominated by multi-car stables.
Multi-car teams simply have too great an advantage when it comes to combined track time and resources. NASCAR allows each team a certain amount of test dates a year. Two car teams can split them up and provide notes for the entire program at a greater number of tracks. And the added human resources at the shop -- more heads to put together when a problem arises and more hands to recruit when something needs fixing -- are a valuable commodity.
A commodity Craven sorely wants and one his team owner would like to provide. Wells tried to provide it for Craven last season, fielding the 96 car driven by Andy Houston. But the car wasn't driven a lot. Houston made only 17 starts before Wells released him and disbanded the 96 team.
That's why this time he doesn't want to jump into something for the sake of having a second team.
"We're working pretty diligently on that," Wells said.
Until then, though, Craven's just trying to end this season on as high a note as he can. The 1995 rookie of the year has never finished better than 19th in the points race and is currently 15th.
"I couldn't have imagined this," Craven said recently, discussing his success over the past two seasons compared to points finishes of 44th and 4th in 2000 and 1999, respectively. "It's just been really amazing and I have to thank Cal Wells for standing by me. ... I believed in myself when some people didn't."
Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.
). Maybe another door for Atwood to look in to. 