BELFAST – There was a lengthy line of people in and around the Ricky Craven Motorsports North building Wednesday, waiting to get an autograph from the man who is currently sixth in the NASCAR Winston Cup points standings.

Newburgh’s Ricky Craven already has three top-five finishes in eight races, including his second career win, and he is 12 places higher than he was at the same time last season.

His improvement is sixth best among Winston Cup drivers. That has occurred despite the fact Craven has a new crew chief in Scott Miller, a new race engineer in Kent Day, a Pontiac instead of a Ford and a first-year PPI-Motorsports engine program.

“I like statistics. I love statistics. There are times when you have to read between the lines because statistics really don’t tell the whole story,” said Craven.

“But in this case, the numbers don’t lie. We’ve matched last year’s top fives already and we’re not even a quarter of the way into the season,” continued Craven. “We’ve had several good finishes, including the win. But, more importantly, mechanically we just haven’t failed. The Tide team, over the last two seasons, 2002 and the first part of 2003, has been so solid mechanically.

“The points standings reward consistency. Of course you’ve got to finish well and you’ve got to run well and you’ve got to get your wins and your top-fives and your top-10s. But what really contributes to the overall picture is when you aren’t dropping out of races. When you can finish in the top 15 on a bad day, it’s going to be a good season. And that’s what the Tide team has accomplished this year and we need to continue to do it,” said Craven.

He said he is very proud of what they have done over the first eight races, “but I think we’re all more focused on the next eight and backing it up and continuing a trend that we have. The idea of being sixth at the end of the season is motivating. It’s great to be sixth right now but there’s a lot of racing left and it’s not going to be easy.”

Craven and the Tide Pontiac and PPI Motorsports team are easily the top single-car team in the points. Dave Blaney, who is in 20th place, is the next highest single-car team.

“In my opinion, we’re doing more with less than anybody in NASCAR racing. I believe we’ve got the best racing team in the business but we can’t match those other [multi-car] teams in terms of resources,” said Craven. “What we’re looking to do in 2003 is continue the trend when I first began driving the Tide car. We were 21st two years ago and 15th last year. This year, we need to continue to move forward. We need to continue to improve to catch the attention of the media and corporate America. If we’re able to do that, we should be able to attract a second team and a second sponsor [for next season].”

The 36-year-old Craven, who said his team has great camaraderie, is just 46 points out of third place and 233 points behind leader Matt Kenseth. He said contending for the points title this season isn’t out of the question.

“This is why we do this. The idea of having a chance is what it’s all about,” said Craven. “We’re doing very well at this point but there are still five teams ahead of us. To fend off the teams behind us and still move forward five spots is a monumental task.

“We’re contending now and I think it’s legitimate. In fact, I know it is. The [good] finishes we’ve had have come at very difficult racetracks. We’ve earned each of our top fives,” said Craven, who sandwiched fourths in the Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway and at the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway around his win at Darlington in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400.

His average start this season has been 23.5 but his average finish has been 14.8.

The Virginia 500 is up next Sunday at Martinsville, where he won his first race, the Old Dominion 500, two years ago.