Newburgh’s Ricky Craven entered the Winston Cup season with seven top-five finishes in 144 career races. However, he hadn’t had any since 1997, the last time he ran an entire schedule and finished 19th in points.

His fourth-place finish Sunday in the MBNA Platinum 400 at Dover Downs International Speedway (Del.) was his second top-five and fourth top-15 finish in just 13 races this season.

But Craven said the next goal for him and his Tide Ford team is to become consistent contenders in the quest for his first trip to Victory Lane.

“That’s the next challenge for us,” said Craven Wednesday. “We need to put together a string of four or five strong performances. We need to finish the job.”

Craven’s Ford was the fastest on the track at the end of the MBNA Platinum 400 as it was running in excess of 145 mph.

“That was very encouraging. I could have run 800 miles at Dover. I really could have. The car drove so well,” said Craven.

He stated that he feels he is making “a lot of progress, personally.”

He drove a Midwest Transit Chevy a year ago but the team was under-funded and undermanned and couldn’t enter every race. Craven ran only 16 of the 34 races.

“In reflecting back to a year ago, my frame of mind has changed. I’m a contender now. Every week, I have a chance to win. It’s a powerful thing. As a competitor, that’s all you can ask for. I can race with authority now,” said Craven, who explained the Midwest Transit team had to exhaust its resources and personnel just to qualify the car.

“So we had nothing to work with during the race,” added Craven, who still managed to churn out three top-20 finishes over their last five starts.

However, he remains grateful to Midwest Transit owner Hal Hicks for giving him the opportunity to drive.

“They did the best they could with what they had and they still are,” said Craven.

Craven said he has stepped up his conditioning program and pointed out that he works out every day.

“Racing every weekend from July until Thanksgiving takes its toll on drivers and teams and I’m not going to allow that to happen to me. I know the team is the same way,” said Craven.

Craven feels the Tide race team “may be the best team I’ve ever been with” and he rewarded them by buying 542 Maine lobsters as part of his birthday celebration last month.

He said watching them try to get the lobster meat out of the shell was “priceless.

“The bottom line is this is a fun group. These guys are behind me 100 percent and I haven’t felt that for a long time. They know I support them 100 percent. We work hard, we race hard and, when we find the time, we play hard,” said Craven, who has climbed to 26th in the points standings. “I wanted to give a little back to the team.”

He remains deeply appreciative of the opportunity given to him by PPI Motorsports Team owner Cal Wells III and firmly believes the best is yet to come.

“The first 10 races for a new team and a new driver involve evaluating your inventory. Now we’re at the point where we’ve settled in on our favorite cars and which ones are going to be the workhorses,” said Craven. “Cal gave me a chance and I feel like things are working out.

“I just turned 35 and the next five to six years should be my best,” added Craven, whose next race will be the Kmart 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

“I like it there. I’ve done well there in the past. It’s a two-mile track and horsepower really shows up on the straightaways. Your entry speed going into the corners is 205, 210 miles an hour,” said Craven, who added that expectations for the team have risen.

“And we have to be prepared for that. We need to follow-up the good run we had last weekend,” said Craven.