LOUDON, N.H. – Newburgh’s Ricky Craven and his PPI Motorsports team will be busy working on their Tide Pontiac today in preparation for Sunday’s Sylvania 300 Winston Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Craven qualified 21st Friday, which is actually an improvement upon his average starting spot of 26th this season.

“Well, we have a clear understanding of how many spots we need to improve,” rationalized Craven. “The car is off right now. It wasn’t so good. It was fair. We’re just missing it. We have to put in a really good day tomorrow [Saturday] just to fill that gap.”

Ryan Newman broke his own track record while winning the pole Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway. He Newman turned a fast lap of 133.357 mph on the 1.058-mile oval, breaking his year-old mark of 132.241.

Terry Labonte took second place in the 43-car field with a lap of 132.780. Rookies Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle were third and fourth at 132.131 and 131.989, respectively. Michael Waltrip (131.906) qualified fifth.

Craven has had a mini-resurgence after a dismal nine-race stretch in which he failed to post a top-10 finish and had three finishes of 40th or worse. The primary reason was poor qualifying efforts as Craven and the Tide team started 32nd or worse in five of the nine races.

He posted consecutive eighth-place finishes at the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (Tenn.) and the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) before last weekend’s 30th at the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 in Richmond (Va.).

“In those good runs, we qualified well,” pointed out Craven, who started 14th at Bristol and 8th at Darlington before starting 35th at Richmond.

“There is an easy way and a difficult way to do things. The easy way is by starting up front like we did the majority of last year,” said the 37-year-old Craven. “It is critical to have two good practices tomorrow [Saturday].”

Craven, who has fallen from seventh to 21st in the points standings over the past 16 races, has used seven provisionals this season after requiring just three last season when he finished 15th in points.

His average starting spot a year ago was 16.7 so, in essence, he is starting 10 spots lower on the average this year.

NHIS is one of his favorite tracks because it is somewhat of a homecoming for him. His wife, K.K., is from nearby Concord.

But it hasn’t treated him particularly well.

His average finish in 14 previous Winston Cup races here is 24th. But he usually qualifies well (11.7).

“Track position is critical but it’s not everything. A lot of teams and drivers have won from further back. Like I said, there’s an easier and a harder way of doings things and we’re doing it the hard way,” Craven said.

He said the track, which was repaved last April, is even better than it was during the July race in which he finished 21st.

“It has more grip than it had in July,” observed Craven.

The 1995 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year has had a lot on his mind lately.

His business, Ricky Craven Motorsports North in Belfast, burned to the ground a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

“It has been a distraction during the week but not when I get here [to the race site]. In fact, it has been a big relief getting to the track to get away from it,” said Craven.” There’s no sense complaining about it. We’ve just got to work through it.

“My primary concern is for my family. It’s a family business. It’s not my livelihood but it’s important to me because my family is involved with it,” Craven said.

His sister, Lauri Matheson, runs the business with help from her husband, Mark.

“I’m extremely proud of the job my sister and brother-in-law and the rest of the employees have done. They have done an outstanding job.”

However, he said he can tell by the tone of his sister’s voice that it has taken a toll on her.

“She has been a little withdrawn. She has a sense of loss and disappointment in her voice,” said Craven. “Whatever she decides to do, I’ll support her. She’s the catalyst behind the business. I’ve had some involvement and participation but she’s the catalyst. She built a nice business and now she’s got that feeling of starting over, which is difficult.”

Craven would probably like nothing better than to cheer his sister up with a strong performance on Sunday.