Craven battled for 1st; Johnson pulls out win Decision not to pit on caution proves costly

LOUDON, N.H. – Newburgh’s Ricky Craven was running second behind Jeff Gordon with 66 laps remaining in the New England 300 Winston Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway Sunday.

But there was a problem: Gordon and Craven had elected to stay out on the track during a lap 207 caution while most of the other contenders pitted for fuel. Some also took on some tires.

So when Michael Waltrip got into the back of Christian Fittipaldi on lap 234 and put him into the wall and the 12th and final caution came out, Craven and Gordon both had to pit to get enough fuel to finish the race.

That was the end of their afternoons as contenders.

Craven came out of the pits in 23rd position on lap 239 and wound up crossing the finish line 21st.

“We ran top 10 most of the day but we just didn’t get the fuel mileage other guys got and it bit us,” said Craven, who started 17th. “We weren’t getting the same fuel mileage as the guys who came down pit road [on lap 207]. They all felt they could make it [without another fuel stop]. Scott [crew chief Scott Miller] said we couldn’t so there was no sense pitting. We would have had to pit again.

“I would have liked to have stayed out [on lap 234] but it’s not my call. That’s why it’s a team. We were running second and we drove away from third place Ryan Newman.

“If Jeff and I had a cup of gas, I probably would have finished second and Jeff would have won the race. If Jeff had had any problems, we would be talking about a different story,” Craven added.

“I’ve said it over and over: You need to have a perfect day and we didn’t. For whatever reason, we didn’t get the same fuel mileage as the guys who finished up front and, ultimately, that was the only thing that separated us from a top- five finish and where we wound up.”

He said he couldn’t make up any more ground over the final 30 laps “because I broke a throttle spring. That put us over the edge. I couldn’t maneuver the throttle like I needed to. I had to use the top and bottom of my foot in order to get in and off the corner. It was very uncomfortable.”

Craven said his Tide Pontiac was “good all day” and that he was “very frustrated” by the turn of events.

“There were a half-dozen cars that were better than we were. But we certainly deserved to finish somewhere between sixth and 10th,” he said. “The way it worked out, we gave ourselves a great shot to finish in the top three. But we didn’t have enough fuel.”

He said when he was running by himself in second place behind Gordon, the car was particularly good.

“There was an amazing difference between running in clean air out front and running in traffic,” Craven said.

He said although his car wasn’t the fastest, race winner Jimmie Johnson proved “you didn’t have to have the fastest car to win the race. By all rights, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon had the fastest cars but each of them had their own set of problems.”

Kenseth finished third; Stewart wound up 22nd and Gordon finished 24th.

Craven praised his pit crew for enabling him to get track position.

“They did a great job. They’ve done it all year. I’m really proud of the guys. They’ve been together a while and it’s really paying of. They’ve got a lot of enthusiasm. They’re fun to race with,” said Craven who consistently came out of the pits at least a few places higher than he entered them.

On one stop, he was 10th entering the pits and came out fifth.

“It was incredible how important track position was. We had it all day until the end. The team did a really good job,” said Craven.

Craven’s 21st means he has gone four races without a top 20. He will try to rectify that next Sunday at the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway (Pa.).

It was his ninth finish out of the top 20 in 14 Winston Cup races at NHIS.

His average NHIS finish entering the race was 24.54.

He will get another shot in Loudon for the New Hampshire 300 on Sept. 14.

“We’ll learn from today and come back with a better plan in September,” said Craven, who remained 17th in the Winston Cup points standings.