HICKORY, N.C. – Newburgh’s Ricky Craven, driver of the No. 32 Tide Chevrolet, will makes his 18th appearance at Daytona (Fla.) International Raceway when he competes in the NASCAR Nextel Cup’s Pepsi 400 Saturday night.

Craven finished 23rd in the season opener in the Daytona 500 and is hoping to improve that performance.

Craven’s team owner, PPI Motorsports, issued the following question-and-answer session it held with Craven.

Q: What separates Daytona from all the other tracks on the circuit?

Craven: “History. The 500 is the biggest difference between Daytona and all the other tracks with the exception of maybe Indianapolis. The Daytona 500 at one point in time was the only race we could watch from flag to flag in Newburgh, Maine. I remember watching in 1976 when David Pearson rolled across the start/finish line in front of Richard Petty, which broke my heart. Another great memory was watching Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough wrecking in 1979, in which Richard Petty ended up winning which made up for his loss in 1976. Daytona is unlike any other track due to history alone.”

Q: How is running under the lights at Daytona different than the daytime?

Craven: “It seems faster because of all the lights and you are going fast. It is well lit, but the combination of being on a big, high-speed, banked track and sparks and all that, just creates a different atmosphere than probably anywhere else we go. I think for the fans the sensation of speed is greater as the cars seem like they dance around a lot under the lights.”

Q: Daytona marks the second half of the 2004 season. Are you looking forward to returning to the tracks for a second time around?

Craven: “I’m looking forward to this half of the second season more than any other in my entire career for obvious reasons. We will take what we learned from the first half and hopefully be able to turn them all into positives this time around. We’ve got a strong program at PPI and I know we can take what we’ve got and make a strong showing.”

Craven’s team is taking Chassis No. 27 to Daytona this weekend. It is the same car the team raced in all the 2003 superspeedway events and finished fourth and eighth in both Talladega races.