LOUDON, N.H. – Cal Wells III, the owner of the PPI Motorsports Team, said despite the fact Newburgh’s Ricky Craven and their Tide Pontiac had slipped to 17th in the NASCAR Winstonb Cup points entering Sunday’s New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, he said he feels “pretty good about the whole thing.”

“If we hadn’t won at Darlington [on March 16], I don’t think we’d feel nearly as good about it,” said Wells. “I know we can do it again. We just have to do it.”

For the first time, PPI Motorsports has its own engine program and Wells has been satisfied with it.

“The engine program is good, really good. It could be better. It could be a lot worse,” said Wells.

He outlined the goals for the second half of the season.

“We expect to win another race and get ourselves in the top 10. Maybe not better than 10. But get ourselves in the top 10,” said Wells

The PPI Motorsports team is the points leader among single-car teams, but Wells would like to add a second driver to the team. A second driver would give the team seven more tests as each driver is allowed seven tests per season.

That would give the team more information to share about specific tracks and the setups that could be successful.

It would also give Craven a drafting partner at the super speedways.

“We don’t have anything cooking right now, but I’d say it’s imminent. If God is with us,” said Wells. “We’re working hard on it. Hopefully, it will all come together.”

The Winston Cup schedule for next season has been altered as Rockingham (North Carolina Speedway) has lost one of its two races with that one being awarded to the California Speedway in Fontana, giving the California track its second race.

And the Labor Day weekend race at Darlington (S.C.) has been moved to November.

“It’s going to be a good schedule. NASCAR is doing a good job continuing to expand our marketplace,” said Wells.

Is a 36-race schedule too much?

“I could race more,” said Wells.

Craven is under contract through 2004 and Wells said he is working on a contract extension that would be simultaneous with an extension of the agreement with Tide.

“I certainly hope it happens,” said Wells.

Crew chief born in Bangor

Paul Andrews, the crew chief for Jeff Burton’s No. 99 Citgo Ford, was born in Bangor and spent the first year of his life in Bangor.

“I was there my first 12 to 15 months,” said Andrews. “My father [Richard] is from Maine and my mother was from Louisiana. We were a military family. He was stationed in Louisiana. That’s how he met my mother. Both flew back to Bangor after he got out of the service. Then they split up and we moved to Louisiana.”

Andrews, who is in his 16th season as a crew chief and won a points championship with Alan Kulwicki in 1992, said he has never been to Maine since he moved away when he was an infant.

“This is about as close as I’ve been,” said Andrews.

Sunday’s race was his 491st as a crew chief. Among the other drivers the 46-year-old Andrews has directed have been Geoffrey Bodine, Jeremy Mayfield, Steve Park, and Kenny Wallace. He has 12 career victories.

This is his first full season with Burton after doing 11 races with him a year ago.

“Things have been going real good,” said Andrews, whose driver was 13th in the owner points entering Sunday’s race.

Andrews’ son, Tim, is chasing Scarborough’s Ryan Moore for the rookie points title in the Busch North series.

But the chase may be over.

“Last Monday, they shut his team down. They ran out of sponsorship money. He had a one-race deal here with [Billy] Penfold out of Maine. We’ll see what happens from here,” said Andrews.

His son was involved in an early-race accident in the New England 125 on Saturday but managed to make his way back to a 19th-place finish. He trails Moore by three points in the rookie battle.

Moore makes NHIS debut

Moore made his debut as a racer at NHIS Saturday, and he found it to be a memorable experience. Moore finished fourth after starting second.

“It was a lot of fun. I’ve been here hundreds of times, spotting and working on cars. It’s really exciting getting to walk through that gate or drive my trailer through the first time this weekend. This place is a pretty special place. It’s real clean and you’ve got all the media. I got to chat with them. We also got to hang out with one of our sponsors on the front stretch and we signed autographs. We also got to see all the Winston Cup guys,” said Moore.

He said it was a valuable learning experience.

“I didn’t know what this place was going to do or what this car was going to do,” said Moore, who will have that knowledge when he returns for the Sept. 13 race.