Newburgh’s Ricky Craven denied a rumor Wednesday that he has been fired from his NASCAR Nextel Cup team.

Craven said that he has not lost his ride in the Tide Chevrolet for the PPI Motorsports Team as rumored on the Jayski.com Web site.

Jayski.com reported that Craven and PPI Motorsports had parted ways and speculated that Bobby Hamilton Jr., currently eighth in the Busch Grand National points, was going to replace Craven.

Hamilton is the son of former Nextel Cup driver Bobby Hamilton Sr., who ranks second in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series points.

“There’s no truth to it at all. I have no idea where it [the rumor of being fired] came from and how it got started,” said Craven, who is spending time with his family in their vacation home on Moosehead Lake in Greenville during a rare off-week in the Nextel Cup schedule.

Team owner Cal Wells III could not be reached for comment.

It has been a dismal year for Craven and the PPI Motorsports team as they adjust to their third make of car in three years as well as new crew chief Dave Charpentier. Craven is driving a Chevy Monte Carlo after running a Pontiac last year and a Ford Taurus in 2002.

Craven is 31st in points and is one of just four drivers without a top 10 finish this season.

His average starting position (29.7) is the worst of his 10-year Cup career. His best finish has been 16th, which he has done three times through the first 18 races. His average finish is 27.1.

He has two of those 16th-place finishes over his last six races, but the other finishes during that stretch were back-to-back 38ths, 29th and 34th.

He was involved in a wreck two weeks ago and his engine blew last weekend, resulting in the 38th-place finishes.

The 1995 Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) Rookie of the Year was a career-best 15th in points two years ago and was seventh after 10 races last year before struggling over the last 26 races and finishing 27th in points.

He will try to break a string of 25 races without a top-10 finish in the Siemens 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway on July 25.

The 38-year-old Craven has two career victories, both with PPI Motorsports. He has 24 top-10s in 126 races for PPI Motorsports spanning 31/2 years.

Craven is under contract to PPI Motorsports through the 2006 season.