Craven partner unlikely Owner still wants second driver

It doesn’t appear as though Newburgh’s Ricky Craven will have a teammate when he makes the move from Ford to Pontiac with the PPI Motorsports team on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit next season.

That was the word from PPI Motorsports owner Cal Wells III Tuesday.

“Right now, it’s way up in the air. We’ll most likely be a single-car team again next year. My preference would be to get a second car but I don’t feel we’re in the right place for that opportunity to happen right now. But we’ll work at it,” said Wells.

Multi-car teams benefit from having more resources at their disposal like additional sponsors, testing time, money, engineers and employees. They also benefit from sharing information between teams.

Wells said he is excited about the opportunity with Pontiac and that they will build the engines themselves. He is in the process of hiring an engineer to head up the engine program.

He has been getting his Ford engines from Robert Yates as several Ford teams do.

They will become one of the primary Pontiac teams in 2003.

“It will move us up the pecking order. We’ll have a lot more factory support,” said Wells. “We should be improved next year with the opportunity Pontiac has provided for us. It will be a challenge but a great opportunity.”

Wells, Craven and the PPI Motorsports team venture to Loudon, N.H. this weekend for Sunday’s New Hampshire 300.

They will be looking for their first top 10 finish since June 2. Craven is 16th in points.

“We’re bringing the car Ricky won with at Martinsville last year,” said Wells. “I think we’ll have a good shot at it.”

He said he has been proud of the team’s performance and said Craven “has done a great job driving. We’ve improved in all aspects. We just need to do a better job on game day.”