LOUDON, N.H. – Ricky Craven’s forgettable weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway began during practice on Saturday when he hit the wall with the No. 32 Tide Pontiac that he qualified 21st on Friday.

He and his PPI Motorsports team had to go to the backup car for Sunday’s Sylvania 300, meaning he had to start in the back. Then a problem with the carburetor surfaced on lap 75 and that resulted in a 38th-place finish. The carburetor had to be replaced.

He was nine laps down at the end of the race, which was won by Jimmie Johnson.

It is his fifth finish of 36th or worse over the last nine Winston Cup races at NHIS.

When could he tell it was going to be a long afternoon?

“As soon as they threw the green flag,” said a disgruntled Craven. “It’s really, really, really disappointing. I don’t understand it, to be honest with you. There’s nothing to say. I’m really frustrated.”

Newburgh’s Craven started 42nd – Dave Blaney also wrecked in practice and started 43rd – and the 1995 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year appeared to run well early, climbing as high as 32nd on lap 37.

“It doesn’t matter. We shot ourselves in the foot today,” said Craven while downplaying his 10-place improvement in the early going.

“The car wouldn’t run. It wouldn’t run. It literally wouldn’t run in the middle of the corner,” said Craven. “It would only run on the straightaway.”

Car and PPI Motorsports team owner Cal Wells III said, “It wouldn’t run from he start, but I think it was self-induced. I think we made some mistakes and it shot us in the hand.

“After we changed the carburetor, the car ran good,” added Wells. “But we burned the brakes off of it by then trying to make up for the bad carburetor. It was unfortunate stupidity.”

He said having to use the backup car rather than the primary car wouldn’t have made a difference.

“That had nothing to do with it. We would have had the same problems with the primary car. We just made some mistakes. It was dumb,” Wells added.

There were no cautions early – the first caution didn’t occur until lap 126 – so Craven eventually fell a lap down when leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed him on lap 66.

Nine laps later, Craven slowed way down and crept into his pit stall.

He took on fuel and tires, but he couldn’t fire his car. His crew pushed his Pontiac, but it took more than a minute to fire it up.

He returned to the pit and his crew eventually changed the carburetor.

By that time, he was eight laps down and he spent the rest of the race trying to salvage some points.

The fact his misfortune occurred at what he considers his home track magnifies the hurt.

“You know the expectations when I come home. We woke up this morning feeling we had a very real chance and we never made a lap. Never made a lap. That’s frustrating. Right at the start of the race, the carburetor didn’t run. We would have had to change it any way,” said the 37-year-old Craven, who dropped one spot to 22nd in the Winston Cup points standings. He has seven finishes of 36th or worse this season to go with seven top 10s, three top fives, and a victory.

He and his PPI Motorsports team now have only two finishes better than 15th over their last 13 races.