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LOUDON, N.H. – Scott Miller already has a win in his first full season as a crew chief.
Now Miller is hoping to help the PPI Motorsports team and Newburgh driver Ricky Craven reverse a recent trend and make a run at the top 10 in the points standings.
The Tide Pontiac-PPI Motorsports team is 17th in the points and will start 17th in Sunday’s New England 300 after Friday qualifying was rained out.
“We’ve definitely had some inconsistencies we’d like to resolve. We’ve run well at times and struggled at times. We need to put our finger on the reasons [we struggle],” said Miller.
He said the team has all the pieces in place for a strong second half.
“If we can refine our product and Ricky and I can build on our relationship, all the elements are here for more wins. Our pit stops have been great. We’ve just got to put what we’ve got to good use,” said Miller. “There are so many opportunites on the race weekend to make a mistake. We have to eliminate as many of those problems as we can, the ones that are within our control.”
Qualifying has been one problem as Craven’s average start has been 25.6.
“We’re really concentrating hard on that to try to get it rectified. It’s probably more of a by-product of the adjustment to the aerodynamics of the Pontiac compared to the Ford he drove last year. Our engine department has done a very good job as has our car-building shop. We just haven’t found the right combination yet. We’ve got guys at the shop with an awful lot experience building stuff so we’ve avoided some of the pitfalls you would normally have [with a first-year engine program].”
Miller has taken a “long road” to the PPI Motorsports team.
He was born in Kentucky and raised in Anaheim, Calif.
“My parents are from the south so I’ve got some of the southern values along with the California stuff,” said Miller.
He began his racing career as a motocross [motorcyle] rider “but I kept getting injured.”
He took a couple of years off from racing in his early 20s before “getting into a car deal” as a Formula One [open cockpit] racer.
“I actually had some success but, you’ve heard the story before, then the money ran out,” said the 45-year-old Miller, who actually ran some Winston Cup races at Riverside International Raceway (Calif.).
Miller said he had always been involved in the “lugs and bolts” in addition to the driving and he soon caught on as a team member with the Tri-State Motorsports with Phil Parsons as the driver. He was a crew member for Robert Pressley and Elliot Sadler and the Diamond Ridge team before he joined Richard Childress Racing.
He was the manager of the shock absorber program for Childress Racing before hooking up with PPI Motorsports Team owner Cal Wells III and the McDonald’s team of Andy Houston.
McDonald’s pulled out as a sponsor after a limited deal in 2001 and he went back to Childress.
When Wells and crew chief Mike Beam parted ways at the end of last season, Miller got the job.
“He’s getting there. He’s doing a good job. The second half of the season will really show that,” said Wells.
Craven concurred.
“He has been excellent,” said Craven. “He’s very intelligent. He and I are still working through the whole process. He’s got a strong level of commitment to the team and the same passion to win as the rest of us.”
Miller has high praise for Craven and said they are progressing very well together.
“He’s a great guy and he is obviously a very talented driver. I really enjoy working with him. he’s very intense. He just wants to run well and win races. It’s the same with this team so it’s a pretty good blend.”
Although he is in his first full season as a crew chief, he said his extensive experience in racing has enabled him to see how decisions are made.
He said there are pros and cons to being a single-car team. He said it would be nice to have a teammate so they could compare notes and work on different set-ups during practice sessions before sharing information and deciding which set-up will work.
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