Craven leaving team, but not racing behind

[Elwood]

Craven leaving team, but not racing behind

By KEVIN PROVENCHER

Staff Sports Writer

 

 

 

LOUDON — An hour before the most difficult announcement of his career, Ricky Craven stood before hundreds of his fans in front of the State Capitol on Main Street in Concord last night.

 

Swarmed by autograph seekers, Craven offered no hint that he is only 31st in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series points standings, a light year out of contention and no top-10 finishes to his credit. In fact, it took two of Concord’s finest to usher him through the crowd, presidential-style, into the restaurant across the street.

 

Craven sat at a long table with his wife, K.K.

 

 

Ricky Craven, driving the Tide Chevrolet No. 32 car, prepares to head out onto the track at NHIS yesterday for a test run prior to qualifying. Craven confirmed yesterday that he will leave the Cal Wells racing team at the end of the season. (DICK MORIN/UNION LEADER)

Relaxed, smiling and chatty, he was filled with questions and armed with pointed, thoughtful answers. Alongside were many old media friends who had chronicled his career, from his start as a 17-year-old, eager Maine country kid from the American-Canadian Tour, on through his climb up the NASCAR ladder.

 

The feeling that Craven might be saying goodbye to auto racing was unavoidable. His status as a regional celebrity goes without challenge, but his viability as a Nextel Cup driver with a future now is in question, so he was careful to leave doors open in his answers.

 

“In all major sports, the athlete needs to be a very selfish person,” he said. “That’s not that difficult if you’re single or if you’re married and you don’t have children. When you’re married, 38 and you have two children, 12 and 8, and you’re not running that well, being selfish and sacrificing is not that easy.”

 

Craven plans to resign from car owner Cal Wells’ team after running the remainder of the Cup season in his familiar Tide No. 32 Pontiac.

 

Fired or forced resignation?

 

“Believe it or not, it never came to that,” Craven said. “Cal and I spend more time together — or have over the last three years — than any other driver and owner.

 

“We talked about it, and at the end of these six years, I’d be 40 years old. At that point I have a debt to pay to (K.K.), whether it’s digging for bones or whatever. I’ve got to tell you, we didn’t just start talking about running poorly. There have been a lot of heated discussions about how are we going to run better from his standpoint and my standpoint going all the way back to March or April. Eventually that does arrive to the point where you say, ‘What’re you going to do?’ It’s mutual. I can tell you, he and I agreed to finish this year.”

 

The timing of his “mutual” parting with Wells in Nextel Cup racing does give owner and driver ample time to make other moves in preparation for the 2004-05 season. It certainly indicates both plan to forge ahead in this sport.

 

“It’s not like we woke up and said, ‘You know what? We need to change?,’” Craven said.

 

“It’s about living with these guys each day. When you win at a race track, you think you can conquer the world. The flip side of that is to have a string where we’ve run this poorly. There’s plenty of room for finger pointing and plenty of room for opinion. . . . We’ve sort of been stagnant, really. Hell, if we were running well, I would have absolutely filled my contract.”

 

Craven had two years left on the deal with Wells, which would have taken the driver to age 40. Age is a major factor in landing a winning ride in the Cup series these days. Craven is 38 and may encounter a tough sell. Among the top 15 in points right now, only three drivers — Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin — are older than Craven. Labonte and Jarrett are past Cup champs.

 

“Running as poorly as we have the first half of this year has taken its toll on everyone,” said Craven. “Some of it just doesn’t make sense. You just scratch your head and say, ‘How long will this last?’ For a single-car team, we overachieved. We won two out of the last three years. We’ve had three poles, double-digit top fives, top 10s. But the last six months have been miserable.

 

“I have a passion to compete, and still think I can. Hell, it was just a little over a year ago we won on one of the most difficult places in the series.”

 

That victory was at Darlington, and it will stand among the closest in Cup history. And now despite the lame duck label, he must ride hard and proud to the season’s finish if he is to prove he still has the fight that will prevent that Darlington ‘W’ etched in stone as the last of his career.

 

“I’m still very competitive, very determined,” Craven said. “This not the first time I’ve been through it. I think there’ll be a good opportunity for me, and that will be a product of running well the rest of the season.”