Less than a month ago Newburgh’s Ricky Craven said he planned on being behind the wheel for the Midwest Transit Co. team when the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup season begins.

On Friday, Craven changed his mind and resigned as the driver of the team in order to pursue other driving interests, he confirmed on Tuesday.

“It was absolutely a matter of being fair to everyone,” Craven said of his decision to leave the No. 50 team and try to iron out a deal with an undisclosed race team.

“My intention is to compete full time in Winston Cup next year and so it was a decision that was made with that in mind,” Craven said.

“We hadn’t secured sponsorship with the No. 50 team. We regretted, as a team, that not happening because that was obviously an important part of what we do.”

Industry rumors point to Craven as a potential driver of the No. 32 Tide car owned by Cal Wells and the Precision Preparation Inc. Motorsports team.

PPI will field a second car, sponsored by McDonald’s, in the spring. Andy Houston will drive that No. 96 Winston Cup entry.

Craven wouldn’t “speculate on … speculation” on Tuesday, but admitted that he was close to ironing out a deal that would give him the security he seeks.

“There’s a great opportunity available to me and hopefully we can dot our I’s and cross our T’s and complete this real soon,” Craven said.

Craven and his family have plans to travel over the holidays and hopes he can make that trip knowing he’s got a commitment for 2001.

“I am hoping that things can be finalized soon and an announcement made before we leave for Christmas,” Craven said. “Our intention is to come home to Maine for Christmas.”

Scott Pruett drove for the PPI team in 2000. He started 28 races, finished in the top 10 once and finished 37th in the Winston Cup points standings.

Craven, running a limited race slate due to a lack of provisional starting positions and a primary sponsor, started 16 races and finished 44th.

Just a month ago Craven spoke enthusiastically about returning to drive the No. 50 car, and said he felt the team had made strides toward becoming a top-notch outfit.

After finishing in the top 20 just once in his its first 11 races of the year, the Midwest unit collected three top-20s in its final five starts.

But on Tuesday, Craven said there was one problem he and the team just couldn’t overcome.

“It was a very difficult decision to leave the 50 team because they’re just a fine, fine, fine group of people,” Craven said.

“The only thing I thought we were missing was the security of primary sponsorship. I am focused on what I feel will get us into victory lane in Winston Cup and [signing] with a program that has the resources to do that.”

Craven was the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year as the driver for the Kodiak team. Hendrick Motorsports lured him away from that relationship before the 1997 season.

His 1998 season was marred by his slow recovery from post-concussion syndrome brought on by a pair of wild crashes he suffered the year before.

Craven joined the SBIII Motorsports team as the driver of the No. 58 Ford in 1999, then moved on to the Midwest Transit team after that.