Newburgh’s Ricky Craven, encouraged by his Midwest Transit Co. team’s strong finish, will return to the Winston Cup team next season and intends to run the full 36-race schedule.

After just one top 20 finish in their first 11 races, they collected three top-20s in their final five.

The team didn’t have a primary sponsor this season so Craven was only able to run in 16 of the 34 races. And since they were limited, they couldn’t qualify for provisional starting positions.

So there were a handful of races in which they failed to qualify in addition to the races they didn’t enter because they didn’t have a suitable race car.

“This is the finest group of people I’ve ever worked with. They work so well together and have made so much progress over the last month and a half,” said Craven. “I don’t want to give up on that and I want to expand on what we’ve done here.

“I’m enthusiastic about next year. I really am. We had a top 20 race team over the last month and a half. It would have been hard for me to leave this team. I’ve invested over a year in this team and I feel like it is starting to pay off,” added the 34-year-old Craven.

Craven’s name had been mentioned as a possible replacement for Bobby Hamilton in the Kodak Chevy No. 4 ride for Morgan-McClure Motorsports. But that ride went to Robby Gordon.

“That didn’t disappoint me. Four teams interested me at one point but, at the same time, this fruits of our labor for this team were starting to pay off,” said Craven who finished 44th in the points standings and made $636,522.

Craven said longevity is a key to success in the business and he expects the entire team to return next season including crew chief Greg Conner.

“If Greg and I and these team members are together three years from now, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with,” said Craven. “But we do have to add some people. There are some voids that we have to address.”

Craven talked to team owner Hal Hicks on Tuesday and he said, without elaborating, that “there are some very interesting things cooking, some very legitimate things.”

Craven, the 1995 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, would love to have a primary sponsor in place for next season. Midwest Transit is an associate sponsor.

But, even if they don’t, he feels Hicks has made a firm commitment to the team and will do his best to make further improvements.

The improvements have already begun, according to Craven, who pointed out that they are in the process of lining up testing at the four tracks that host the first four races in 2000-2001: Daytona International Speedway, North Carolina Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“A good strong start next year is critical. We need to expand on what we did at the end of this season and get out of the gate fast,” said Craven, a 144-race Winston Cup veteran who will be gunning for his first trip to Victory Lane.

The points standings after the first four races help determine provisional status.

As for his status on the Busch Grand National circuit, Craven said he hasn’t thought about it.

Craven ran six Busch Grand National races this past season but he hasn’t decided to what extent he will be involved next season.

“I’m trying to avoid that right now. I just want to focus on the Winston Cup thing,” said Craven.