Newburgh’s Ricky Craven figured he was in perfect position to contend for the win in the second leg of The Winston Open last Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (N.C.) in Charlotte, N.C. He would have started outside of pole-sitter Ricky Rudd for the 16-lap No Bull Sprint to earn a spot in The Winston, a prestigious and lucrative non-points race for Winston Cup drivers.

Craven was running third in the first leg, a 30-lapper, when a caution came out . It became clear that the race would end under a yellow and race leader Johnny Benson would win and advance to The Winston.

Second-place Ricky Rudd and Craven passed the pit entrance on lap 29 and both understood that pit lane was closed. Rules distributed at the drivers meeting stated emphatically that pit lane would be closed on lap 29.

But a late green flag was displayed after Rudd and Craven passed the pit-road entrance so the other cars took advantage to get four new tires for the ensuing 16-lapper.

Rudd and Craven had to pit on lap 30 thus costing them valuable track position for the 16-lapper. Craven started 22nd and finished 11th. Rudd wound up sixth.

“We had positioned ourselves exactly the way we needed to. The only guy we had to race was Ricky Rudd. We obviously would have pitted on lap 29 if we had known pit road was open. It was frustrating,” said Craven.

“But, like I told the guys, let’s get over it. Being frustrated isn’t going to help us. The good news is we ran respectably with a brand new car [Ford]. It was a wonderful test for the real race this weekend. I’d like to win it,” said Craven referring to Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.

Craven has slipped to 31st in Winston Cup points after finishing 43rd in the Pontiac Excitement 400 in Richmond on May 5 due to a collision with the wall courtesy of a tap from Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Car trouble had resulted in a 41st place at the NAPA Auto Parts 500 on April 29 in California.

“We have run in the top five or the top 10 in every race except Texas [Harrah’s 500 on April 1],” said Craven. “We’re better than we’re showing in the points.

“We’ve had trouble finishing lately but those things will take care of themselves,” said the optimistic Craven .”This team is capable of winning a race. No question. That’s motivation for all of us.

“We need to work our way back up into the top 25 in points and, ultimately, back up to the top 20. This team is good enough to be in the top 20. It deserves to be. That’s one of my personal goals and one of our team goals,” said Craven, who finished 19th in points the last time he ran a full schedule, 1997.

“We have a better team today than we had two months ago. Our pit stops are very, very good now,” added Craven who turns 35 on Thursday and will run his 156th career Winston Cup race on Sunday.