Mainer still seeks win on Sunday

LOUDON, N.H. – Newburgh’s Ricky Craven didn’t qualify as well as he usually does at his “home” track: New Hampshire International Speedway.

But Friday’s qualifying time of 130.220 miles an hour, which will put his Tide Ford Taurus No. 32 car in the 20th spot on the starting grid for Sunday afternoon’s New England 300 NASCAR Winston Cup race, wasn’t bad considering his ordeal earlier in the day.

“We weren’t very good in practice. We lost our engine. So we had to put our race engine in. We gave away something there and just scrambled our way in,” said Craven whose average starting spot in his previous nine Winston Cup races at NHIS has been 10th.

“It could have been worse. This isn’t what we were hoping for. But, under the circumstances, it wasn’t bad. We battled our way into the top 20,” he added. “We have a brand new race car and you’ve always got to be worried about that. We had our hands full. The crew did a good job [putting the race engine in]. The race engine is still a very good piece but it wasn’t quite what the qualifier would have been.”

He said his crew did a “good job” putting the race engine in the car.

“The good news is you can still win the race from 20th. I’m not sure you can win it from 40th,” added Craven, who also received good news earlier in the day when he had his contract extended for another year by PPI-Motorsports.

He said it will be a “little difficult” to win from the 20th position but “it isn’t all bad.”

“It puts us in a position where we’re going to know early what our car is going to be like because we’re going to be around a lot of traffic,” Craven said. “So if we’re able to muscle our way to the front, we’re going to have a good shot [at winning].”

Craven had been scheduled to be the 30th driver to qualify but he was able to move his run back to 43rd while his crew replaced the engine.

Cal Wells, owner of the PPI-Motorsports team, shouldered the blame for the engine failure.

“We didn’t come with what we should have. It was a brand new car and we only did a little testing at Hickory [N.C.] Speedway. It was our own fault. Ricky was able to get it going when he needed to and he had a good qualifying run. It certainly puts us in the hunt. Hopefully, we’ll have a good happy hour practice tomorrow and we’ll run up front on Sunday.”

Craven said it will be “critical” to have a good practice on Saturday.

“First of all, it’s a short practice. But, most importantly, the track has been sealed. Right now, nobody really has a handle on it. We need to make a good long run and settle in on something. If we can do that, it’s going to pay off big,” said Craven.

He expects the track to be totally different on Sunday so anything learned from Friday’s qualifying will probably be irrelevant.

“They’re going to have a modified race, a truck race, a Busch North race and our practice between now and Sunday’s,” said Craven. “That’s a lot of racing. That will take the sealer off. So you’ll see something different Sunday. A lot will depend on how dirty the track is.”

The dirtier the track, the more slippery it will be, according to Craven, whose average finish at an NHIS Winston Cup event has been 27th.

He said the track will change textures three or four times during the course of a race so it is “inevitable” that his crew will have to make adjustments.

“That’s what’s so challenging about this racetrack. Last year was a pretty good example. We were absolutely the fastest car for the first 70 laps, we struggled a little during the middle part of the race but we came on at the end,” said Craven who finished 17th after starting fifth in the Thatlook.com300 on July 9. “You have to attack the track.”

Craven said he is optimistic.

“I like my chances because I believe I have a good team. We’ve been fast several times this year and that’s the most difficult part of our business. I expect us to be fast on Sunday and if we can correct some of the things we haven’t done so well earlier in the year, we’ve got a shot. If you have a chance, that’s all you can ask for.”