Craven fishing for new job Robby Gordon’s spot could be up for grabs

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LOUDON, N.H. – The wait is on.

Newburgh’s Ricky Craven officially ended his affiliation with the No. 32 Tide/PPI-Motorsports race team on Sunday by finishing 17th in NASCAR’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

He is currently on a three-day fly-fishing trip while speculation on racing Web sites predict that Craven could replace Robby Gordon on the Richard Childress Racing team.

Gordon has struggled this season and his status became more tenuous after Sunday’s race when he intentionally caused an accident that involved championship contenders Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield.

Craven, who made his truck debut on Saturday and ran in the top five until wrecking on lap 82 of the Sylvania 200, said everything is up in the air.

He doesn’t expect to race again this season “but I’m not saying that won’t change next week.

“This [Nextel Cup] series with the new points system is going to create a lot of excitement for 10 teams and 10 drivers [who qualified for the points championship chase in the first year of the new format]. And it will create tension for some others,” said Craven.

He said in past years when the points championship was decided over the full 36 races, anyone who finished 25th or lower in the points were in jeopardy of losing their rides.

“Now it’s from 11th on back because you have a new way of measuring yourself week in and week out,” said Craven.

“I just believe there is a seat for me to sit in. But I’ve got to tell you it isn’t there yet,” said Craven.

The consensus among the NASCAR racing community is the 38-year-old former series Rookie of the Year (1995) will land a Cup ride for next year in spite of his struggles over the past two seasons. Craven finished 27th last year and was 34th this season when he and PPI-Motorsports Team owner Cal Wells III decided to part ways.

He was 21st and 15th in points in his first two seasons with Wells in the Tide No. 32 car.

The two-time Cup race winner has said he has some “unfinished business” in the Nextel Cup series and wants to drive for a competitive Cup team.

“There are quite a few people looking at him. I know that for a fact,” said Mike Beam, Craven’s Tide crew chief. “He’s way too good not to get a ride.”

“Obviously, Ricky’s got a ton of talent. He has gotten into kind of a tough situation the past couple of years. But he’s somebody we’d have a lot of interest in if sponsorship presented itself,” said Bill Davis, owner of Bill Davis Racing and the No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge driven by Scott Wimmer.

“We’d certainly like to get the 23 car going again. It hasn’t run all the races this year because of sponsorship and we’d like to get that fixed,” added Davis who doesn’t feel Craven’s age is a deterrent at a time when young drivers are having so much success.

“He can do it. We know he can do it,” said Davis.

Kenny Wallace has run three races in the No. 23 car this season.

Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon’s crew chief, said Craven has “great talent.

“He’s just got to get surrounded with the right people in the right situation again,” Loomis said.

“This sport is based so much on momentum and confidence and once a team loses confidence in the driver or the driver in the team, it’s just hard to get anything rolling. So I definitely think you’ll see Ricky Craven again.”

However, Loomis added that “it’s almost like he’s going to have to step back and re-surge a car. Someone like Petty Enterprises or the Zero car [NetZero HiSpeed Chevy owned by Haas Racing and driven by Ward Burton].

“They’re teams capable of winning if they get in the right situation with the right driver,” said Loomis, who is Craven’s neighbor.

Petty Enterprises drivers Jeff Green and Kyle Petty are 30th and 33rd, respectively.

“I would think he’d get a ride,” said Richard Petty, owner of Petty Enterprises and a seven-time Cup series champ.

“A lot of his problems haven’t been the driver as much as it’s been the equipment he’s been in,” said Petty, winner of a series-high 200 races. “Until he gets in first class equipment, you don’t know whether he’s a first class driver or not.”

However, Petty did say Craven’s age could possibly be a deterrent.

“I don’t know if anyone would want to gamble with it. Right now, it looks like the trend is toward the 20-year-olds. They have never been hurt, they’ve never had any bad accidents so they have no fear,” said Petty.

“Not that Ricky’s scared of anything. He just calculates a little bit better than a guy who’s never been in an accident,” said Petty.

TNT/NBC NASCAR commentator Benny Parsons, the 1973 Cup points champion and a four-time top-three points finisher, is skeptical about Craven’s chances.

“He’s going to have a hard time on the NASCAR Nextel Cup level. He really is,” said Parsons. “Right now, there’s nothing he can point to in the last year that says ‘Hire me. I can get the job done.’ For whatever reason, they’ve really, really struggled and, unfortunately, that all reflects back on the driver.

“All he can do right now is try to find a top line [Craftsman Truck Series] truck or Busch series ride and use that as something to leapfrog him back to the Nextel Cup level,” Parsons added. “These young guys are having success. Carl Edwards jumps from the trucks into a Cup car and he’s doing well [three top-10s in five races]. To get that top-line Nextel Cup ride is going to be difficult. I’d much rather be trying to win races in the Truck series or Busch series than running 25th in the Nextel Cup.”

Augusta native Scott Maxim, director of engine track support for Hendrick Motorsports and a former Busch series crew chief for Craven, agreed with Loomis’ contention that Craven could be a valuable asset to an established team that has potential but has been struggling.

“He’s got a lot to offer. He’s been around the sport a long time and he could especially help a team needing to re-establish itself or regroup,” said Maxim.

The sport is completely dominated by multi-car teams and Craven has rarely found himself with a teammate during his career.

Craven, the only driver in a single car team to win since 2001, has had a teammate for just 55 of his 277 career races.

Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte were his teammates for 38 races with Hendrick Motorsports and rookie Andy Houston ran 17 races with him during Craven’s first year with Tide and Wells III.

“It’s real difficult. Things change so rapidly in our sport that if you aren’t moving forward at a fast pace, you can very quickly get left behind,” said Maxim. “As a single car team, it’s difficult to gauge yourself to know exactly where your weaknesses are to be able to target and pinpoint those areas to work on.”