Solid finish at Loudon no solace for Craven Newburgh driver winds up 11th in Sylvania 200

LOUDON, N.H. – Since Ricky Craven hadn’t finished better than 13th in his previous 10 races with an average finish of 22nd, some might think the Newburgh driver would have been at least a little upbeat following Saturday’s 11th-place showing in the Sylvania 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Think again.

“It’s ridiculous. I’m not proud of it. I’m disappointed,” said Craven, who began the year with seven top-10s and three top-fives in his first eight races. “There is just nothing to be happy about. There is some progress being made. The truck ran all day. The only problem is that this isn’t the third or fourth race, it’s late in the game. I’m frustrated.

“I’ll tell you this. It’s part of why I’m not coming back,” added Craven, who announced his intention to leave Roush Racing after this season with one year remaining on his contract. “I had a strategy [when I joined Roush Racing]. I had an objective [to run for the points championship] and we aren’t going to meet that objective.”

Craven qualified 12th but was never a factor in Saturday’s race, running between 13th and 20th the majority of the time.

Rick Crawford took the checkered flag with Dennis Setzer, Ted Musgrave, Clay Rogers, and Ron Hornaday Jr. rounding out the top five. Craven’s teammate, Todd Kluever, wound up 28th.

Craven was running 10th with eight laps to go when Brandon Whitt spun out, causing the ninth caution.

On the restart three laps later, Craven tried to slip past Chad Chaffin for ninth on the inside groove but said, “We couldn’t get any grip and we made contact a little bit. When we checked up, the other trucks got on us and, all of a sudden, you’re racing defensively. A lap later, it got sorted out and we got back after it.”

Craven had slipped back to 14th but wound up 11th.

He said the truck was “miserable tight” from the start.

“It wasn’t good. I couldn’t get any front grip. At some point, we’ve just got to improve our product. Our truck wasn’t going to run any faster than it did. It was frustrating,” said the 39-year-old Craven.

“We showed up a little behind the [eight] ball,” said John Quinn, Craven’s crew chief for the last four races. “It was kind of everybody’s fault. We showed up with [a setup] we thought was going to work really well for us based on a previous test and it didn’t pan out. It blew up in our faces.”

“We knew what we needed to do to fix it, but with the truck series as competitive as it is, if you don’t show up really close [to the right setup] off the trailer, you wind up a little bit behind. Ricky did an awesome job wheeling that thing to get us where we got,” Quinn added.

Craven did say the truck was better at the end of the race.

“We did improve it. If we had started the day where we ended it and adjusted from there, we would have been in the game,” said Craven, who also praised Quinn and the crew for their performance.

“It was a great effort. John is doing an excellent job. He has a bright future in the sport. And the crew is coming together,” said Craven. “If there was a positive, nobody gave up when we were running 16th, 17th, 18th. We kept battling and we battled our way back into the top 10 and we finished 11th.

“But, boy, I’m disappointed,” said Craven, who spun on lap 136 but didn’t hit anything and was able to continue.

It hasn’t been a good year for Ford trucks as Crawford’s triumph was the first for a Ford driver since Carl Edwards’ win in the Superchips No. 99 13 months ago. The Superchips No. 99 is the truck Craven drives now.

Craven is the leading Ford driver in the points as he moved up one notch to 12th. There are five Chevy teams, three Dodges, and three Toyotas ahead of Craven’s Ford.

Quinn said the Ford teams have made improvements pertaining to the recent aerodynamic rules packages “but the rest of the guys made more improvements.”

“The rules will play back into our favor next year, but this year we’re struggling. All the Ford teams are,” said Quinn, noting that Ford trucks had seven wins by this time last season.

Quinn and Craven would like to get at least one win and to finish in the top 10 in points.

“There’s no reason we can’t get this thing back going again. I want to finish in the top 10 and I know Ricky wants to be even better than that,” said Quinn. “We want to finish every race in the top 10. We want to qualify better every week, which we did this week, and build on that. These guys [ahead in the points] have a tendency to race real hard and self-destruct at the end of the year. I know we’ll get back in the top 10. I’m positive of that.”

The Las Vegas 350 is next up for the Craftsman Truck series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Although Craven is 12th, he is only 84 points out of eighth.