LOUDON, N.H. – The weekend began in dramatic fashion when Newburgh’s Ricky Craven announced Thursday night that he would leave owner Cal Wells III and the PPI-Motorsports/Tide No. 32 Chevy team after this NASCAR season with two years remaining on his contract.

But his best qualifying effort in 30 races, a 10th-place starting spot, gave Craven a reason for optimism as he returned to his native New England for the Siemens 300 Sunday afternoon at New Hampshire International Speedway.

It wasn’t to be.

Craven was about to pass points leader Jimmie Johnson for 10th place on lap 60 when he swapped paint with Johnson on the backstretch. Craven checked up and Elliott Sadler got into the back of him, sending Craven’s Chevy into the wall.

That forced the first caution and, after a couple of trips to pit road, Craven had to take the Tide Chevy to the garage for lengthy repairs. He returned 40 laps later and ran until lap 256 when his car engine exploded. That ended his day with a 38th-place finish, 87 laps back.

Despite Craven’s struggles this season, he has attracted some interest to drive for a new team in 2005.

One owner who could be interested is Jack Roush, whose five-car team includes Siemens 300 winner Kurt Busch, defending Nextel Cup points champ Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and Greg Biffle.

“Ricky Craven is on my short list of people that I think can do a nice job in these cars,” said Roush.

Roush runs Fords and Craven’s best year came in 2002 when he was driving a Ford for PPI-Motorsports. Craven finished 15th in points with nine top-10 finishes, including three top-fives, and two poles.

On Sunday, it was Craven’s third straight 38th-place finish and second straight race in which his engine blew.

“We made contact [with Johnson] but it really wasn’t a big deal. It’s the car behind us [Sadler]. We got lifted in the right rear. We just got picked up and turned into the wall. And it killed the car. It took 50 laps to repair it so we went out, just logging laps, and it just blew apart. I haven’t had an engine blow apart like that in a long time,” said Craven, who has fallen to 32nd in points.

“I don’t know why [it did]. I don’t know. Honestly, I just don’t know what to say. I’m really, really frustrated. It’s not like you can say ‘Well, I’m frustrated about this or that.’ I’m just frustrated.”

Craven felt he had a top-10 car, saying, “It was definitely one of the best cars we’ve had for a while here.” .

Although he considers it his favorite track, NHIS hasn’t been kind to Craven.

He has now finished 36th or worse five times in the last eight races including four 38th-place finishes.

His average finish in 16 NHIS Nextel Cup races is 26th.

“I really hate to think that but I don’t know if I can win that argument,” said Craven.

The race put a damper on an otherwise enjoyable weekend for Craven.

“The weekend was good. I enjoyed every bit of it. Every part of the week was great,” said Craven. “It was actually a relief to be able to talk to you guys, to be able to talk to the media and explain to the fans and everybody that had an interest exactly what we were doing. That was good.”

He said he’s “very comfortable with where we’re at.

“I’ve said it a number of times. I’ve enjoyed it [the relationship with PPI-Motorsports and Tide]. But you know my tour with Cal is up. My four years with Cal have been good. It’s been productive. We can shake hands and go our separate ways and then reflect on it later in life,” said Craven.

“We had two good years, we and we’ve had two really good wins, maybe more, and three poles,” Craven said. “I’m at a point in my life where I want to run among the leaders and be productive. I want to challenge for wins. I don’t want to race the way we’ve been the last six months,” said Craven, who has now gone 26 races without a top-10 finish and 47 without a top five.

“It’s been a tough week. This doesn’t help,” said Wells who added that the sponsors weren’t involved in the decision to part ways and it was a mutual decision between him and Craven.

“Both of us need to get an opportunity. Certainly, I haven’t been able to provide him with much good stuff lately as we just proved again,” said Wells.

“Cal and I communicate well but the fact is it will have an affect on our relationship if we continue to run the way we’ve been running. It’s just a fact. Things have not gone as well as we would have liked. We both agreed it was time to do something different. There is a right way and wrong way to do things and [parting] at the end of the year is the right way to do it,” said Craven. “Cal needs to build his company and become a bigger team, a two-car team, and he knows that. He’s worked hard on it. He can do whatever he needs to do to improve his chances or build his program and I need to do the same.

“If I get what I consider an opportunity that I can enjoy and be competitive or productive for 2005, then great. I’ll look forward to that. But I won’t just race part time. I’m not interested in just being here. The bottom line is I want to have a good ride.”

“I definitely would like to race a couple more years,” said the 38-year-old Craven. “I’m still relatively young. When I came back to Cal [in 2001], I ran in the top 10 [at various stages of races] every week. For two and a half years, we were very, very competitive. I felt like I had earned that. I earned that through my years of Busch North and Busch Grand National. and even my frustrations in Winston Cup led me to the win at Martinsville and the win at Darlington. That’s the way I want to end my career.”