Racer Profile: Ricky Craven

January 10, 2008

By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

Richard Alan Craven was born May 24, 1966 in Newburg, Maine. He began racing in 1982 at the age of 15 at Unity Raceway in Unity, Maine. By the end of the year, he had two feature wins and won the Rookie of the Year title. In 1983, he scored 12 wins and the won the track championship. Over the next few years, Craven began competing on various tracks around New England and then competed in the American-Canadian Tour.

In 1989, Craven made his first NASCAR start by competing in a NASCAR Busch Grand National North event. In 1990, Craven won two events, seven poles, the NASCAR Busch Grand National North Rookie of the Year title and was named the series Most Popular Driver. In 1991, he won ten races, six poles, the NASCAR Busch Grand National North Championship, and was once again named the series Most Popular Driver. Craven also made two starts in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series (south) and won one pole.

In 1992, Craven headed south and won the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Rookie of the Year title posting five top-tens. In 1993, Craven won his first Busch Series pole and finished second in the points standings with 5 top-fives and 17 top-tens. In 1994, Craven had won the Busch Series events at Hickory and Nazareth. For the year he had 2 wins, 16 top 10's, and 8 top 5's in the Busch Series, and once again finished second in the points standings. He clearly was becoming known in the NASCAR circles and his name was on the lips of several car owners. Larry Hedrick called Craven and asked him to drive his NASCAR Winston Cup car for 1995.

In 1995, driving for Hedrick, Craven won the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors Craven started the 1996 season extremely strong, in the first six races of the year he had two top-five finishes and four top-tens. He won his first Winston Cup Series pole at Martinsville in April and his second at New Hampshire in July.

In 1997, Craven signed with Hendrick Motorsports. He started the season out by finishing 3rd in the Daytona 500. A practice crash at Texas Motor Speedway caused him to sit out two events, but he still amassed four top-five and seven top-tens. Four races into the 1998 season, Craven was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and was forced to sit out 12 weeks. He returned to win the pole at New Hampshire, but midway thru the season, he was fired from Hendrick Motosports.

In 1999 and 2000, Craven raced limited schedules. Craven signed on to drive the No.32 Tide car for Cal Wells owned PPI Motorsports in 2001. On October 15, 2001 at Martinsville Craven held off a last lap charge by Dale Jarrett and won the Old Dominion 500. Craven and PPI won again at Darlington on March 16, 2003 as Craven won a tire smoking, fender rubbing last lap duel with Kurt Busch. The margin at the finish line was a mere .002 seconds. In July of 2004, Wells announced he was releasing Craven at the end of 2004 although his contract was thru 2006. By August, Wells changed his mind and replaced Craven with Bobby Hamilton, Jr. at the California race and allowed Craven to return to the No.32 Tide car for September event at New Hampshire. Craven announced that he was looking at other possibilities and whether or not he should continue in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Craven made his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start in the Sylvania 200 at New Hampshire driving the No. 47 ACXIOM Chevrolet Silverado Celebrity All-Star Team owned by Morgan-Dollar Motorsports.

In 1998, Craven established the Ricky Craven Snowmobile Ride for Charity benefiting the Children's Miracle Network, Give Kids The World Village, The National Marrow Donor Program, Make-A-Wish, and the Travis Roy Foundation. The initial year, the ride raised $41, 900 for the group of charities. In its seventh year, the ride raised $253, 500 for the group of charities.

In 2005, Craven signed with Roush Racing to drive the No.99 Superchips Ford in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Out of the box Craven scored a fourth place finish in the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona. A third place finish followed the next week at Fontana, California in the American Racing Wheels 200. Craven then scored a second place finish in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville. When the Truck Series visited Martinsville again for the Kroger 200, Craven won the event – his first Truck Series career win. Craven concluded the 2005 Truck Series with one win, four top-fives, and nine top-tens.

In 2006, Craven competed in only one NASCAR event. He drove Armando Fitz’s No. 14 Family Dollar Dodge in the NASCAR Busch Series Goody’s 250 at Martinsville but lost the brakes on lap 55.

Racing Career Summary:

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – 26 starts, one win, four top-fives, nine top-tens

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You can contact Allen Madding at .. Insider Racing News

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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