Craven considering Winston Cup offers

Ricky Craven received two Winston Cup offers on Monday but the Newburgh driver is going to deliberate carefully before agreeing to a deal, according to his close friend and confidant Stan Meserve.

Meserve wouldn’t divulge the names of the teams but said they are established Winston Cup teams on the NASCAR circuit.

Craven was released as the driver for the first-year SBIII Motorsports team earlier this month and was replaced by Loy Allen Jr. Meserve, the shop manager, was also released.

“He has received some very attractive offers from established teams,” said Meserve. “But he doesn’t want to jump into something. He wants to be very careful. My guess is that it won’t be too many weeks before he’s back in a Winston Cup car.”

Meserve said there aren’t any opportunities with the major teams right now but Craven would like to join a team that may be a notch below but has the potential to develop into one of the top teams.

In the meantime, Meserve has gone to work building race cars for Craven’s Busch Grand National team.

“I don’t know if we’re going to run them but we’re going to put them together,” said Meserve.

Craven missed four months of racing last season due to post-concussion syndrome and an inner ear problem and, shortly after his return to the Hendrick Motorsports team, he was released in August.

He signed on with the SBIII Motorsports team but, in 13 races, his average starting position was 31st and his average finish was 32nd.

However, Allen received the last provisional and started 43rd at the Michigan 400 two weeks ago and finished 40th and, this past weekend, he failed to even qualify for the Pocono 500.

Craven successfully qualified the Ford Taurus for 12 of 13 races.

“Ricky carried the team. He was the only reason they qualified,” said Meserve. “He reached down and was able to get that extra out of the car.”

Meserve painted a grim picture of the SBIII team, saying owner Scott Barbour and the other top administrators micromanaged the team.

“They wouldn’t let us do our jobs. They told us how they wanted it done. Rick was supposed to be given a lot of say but that disappeared right off,” said Meserve. “It was poorly organized. I knew we were in trouble a month into it.”

Meserve added that it was like an editor telling a reporter that he wanted a story written out longhand instead of on a computer.

“We were handicapped,” said Meserve, who admitted to being disillusioned by the whole situation.

Meserve said the Fords that Craven was forced to drive were sub-standard.

“To run as badly as we did is unforgiveable,” said Meserve.

Reportedly, Barbour decided to make the change due to a team chemistry problem.

Meserve said the 33-year-old Craven is 100 percent healthy and is more determined than ever.

“He’s got the fire in his belly. He knows how close he came to losing it all. He wants it badly. He is every bit the driver that’s out there,” said Meserve.

He also said Craven, the 1995 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, is in good spirits thanks to the number of offers he has received.

Craven and SBIII Motorsports officials could not be reached for comment.