Craven set for truck ride Maine driver to miss first Daytona 500 in five years

Newburgh’s Ricky Craven will miss his first Daytona 500 in five years next month.

But on that same weekend at Daytona, he will be making his debut in the No. 99 Superchips Ford F-150 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series for Jack Roush Racing.

The Florida Dodge Dealers 250 will be held Friday night, Feb. 18 and the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20.

“I’ll miss not being at the Daytona 500. But I can’t afford to have any distractions. This is a fabulous opportunity,” said the 38-year-old Craven, who added that it is “important to get off to a good start” since there are only 25 races in the truck series.

“We have to be careful not to underestimate the series. It’s a very competitive series,” said Craven.

One pleasant distraction he could have will be the birth of his third child and second daughter. Craven’s wife, K.K., is due on Feb. 17.

Craven is grateful to have the opportunity to drive for owner Jack Roush, whose race team has produced the last two Nextel Cup champions (Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch).

And Roush has stated that he expects Craven to run for the truck points championship while also tutoring rookie Todd Kluever, who will drive the No. 50 truck.

“Expectations are high, no question. Jack has built an incredible organization,” said Craven, who anticipates being a contender for the title.

Craven said it will be different running a 25-race series instead of the 36-race Nextel Cup schedule he had run for PPI Motorsports and the Tide No. 32 car until he left the team in July.

Craven and the PPI Motorsports team were running 34th in points at the time. He was frustrated by engine problems, poor qualifying efforts and bad finishes.

He had won two races in 31/2 years with owner Cal Wells III and his PPI Motorsports team, the only single-car team to do so during that span.

He finished a career-best 15th in points in 2002 while driving a Ford with Robert Yates engines for Wells. But Wells built his own engine program in 2003 and the team switched to Pontiac and finished 27th in points that year.

“On a personal level, I’d love to race 50 times a year,” said Craven. “But it’s about quality, not quantity. This is a great opportunity and I want to capitalize on it.”

Craven has been reunited with Tide crew chief Mike Beam and said they will have a “young and very enthusiastic” pit crew.

There will be just five truck races between Feb. 18 and April 30, but he feels the time between races will be valuable.

“We’ll focus on things we did well but, more importantly, we’ll be able to correct things we didn’t do well,” said Craven.

He maintained that “I still have some unfinished business in Nextel Cup,” and he is hoping a successful run in the Craftsman Truck Series will lead to his return to Nextel Cup.

In addition to testing, Craven goes to the race shop daily and also is upgrading a large farm house he bought on a 30-acre lot near his North Carolina home.

“We built an office and a workout facility in it. And we’ve started a leasing company,” said Craven.

He will return to Maine for his eighth annual Ricky Craven Charity Snowmobile Ride in Greenville on Jan. 29.

It has raised $820,110 for his five charities, including a record $253,500 last year.