Newburgh’s Ricky Craven was three gears shy of a full gearbox when he crossed the finish line in 18th place at the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway Sunday.

Winston Cup cars have four or five gears but Craven was without first, second or third gear by the end of the race.

Craven, who qualified seventh, lost first gear as he exited the pit after his Tide Ford team’s second pit stop. That occurred on lap 78 of the 367-lap race, according to Craven’s PPI-Racing Web site. That cost him track position as he stumbled from ninth to 21st.

His car was still fast, however, and he maneuvered his way up to 11th place by lap 138 when the race’s third caution flag was displayed.

He held the car in second gear as the crew gave him four new tires and fuel and they had to push the car out of the pit stall to prevent the car from stalling. That cost him several positions.

By lap 182, the Tide Ford had lost second gear which made it even more difficult to exit pit lane and get back up to speed.

He fell to the back of the lead lap but stayed on it.

An out-of-sequence pit stop for the Tide crew enabled Craven to cross the start-finish line with the lead on lap 311, thus earning him five bonus points. It was the sixth race among the 25 in which he has led this season.

After a wreck with seven laps to go forced a red flag and a four-lap dash to the finish, Craven was sitting in 10th place. However, a multi-car accident with two laps remaining forced Craven to brake to avoid it and that enabled several cars to pass him.

His 18th-place finish represented his ninth top-20 finish so far this season, including his fourth over the last six races. The other three have been top-10s.

He is currently in 25th place in the points standings but he trails 24th-place Dave Blaney by just 27 points and 23rd-place Terry Labonte by 29 points.

His average starting position is 23rd and his average finish has been 25th. He has run 6,182 laps and his winnings total $1,333,970.

The 35-year-old Craven will next run on Saturday night in the Chevy Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Qualifying will be on Friday.

The New Hampshire 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon will take place the following Sunday afternoon (Sept. 16).

Dale Earnhardt honored

The late Dale Earnhardt was inducted into the Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame this weekend under an exemption to the traditional five-year waiting period.

Earnhardt was the first person voted in under a rule adopted in January allowing “extraordinary candidates” to become eligible immediately. He joins his father, Ralph, as members of the hall.

His sister, Kathy Earnhardt Watkins, accepted on his behalf at the Saturday night ceremony.

“A few years ago, our family attended this same gathering in honor of our father,” Watkins said. “Dale was then a champion in his own career and very well known in his style of driving and personality traits. But that night he attended as a son and a brother.

“We knew the day would come that we would honor our brother because of the contributions and sacrifices he was making to this sport. I wish it had not come this soon, but that doesn’t change the honor and pride we feel as a family.”

Fighting time

NASCAR is considering penalizing Kevin Harvick and Chad Little for an altercation between the drivers after the Busch race.

Apparently angry with Little for something that happened during Saturday’s race, Harvick confronted him in the garage.

Little responded by throwing a drink all over Harvick, which led to a scuffle that resulted in Harvick getting knocked to the ground.