Sharpie 500 - Ricky Craven Notes

Sharpie 500 Preview - Ricky Craven- No. 32 Tide Pontiac

2003 Best Finish: 1st- Darlington, S.C. - 3/16/03 2003 Best Start: 6th- North Carolina Speedway- 2/23/03
2003 Stats: 1 Win; 0 Bud Pole Awards; 1 Top-10 Qualifying effort; 3 Top-5 Finishes; 5 Top-10 Finishes
Current Points Standing: 21st Best Career Finish: 1st (Darlington 3/16/03; Martinsville, 10/15/01)
Career Pole Positions: 6 (Martinsville, 1996; New Hampshire, 1996 & 1998; Michigan, 2001; Rockingham & Darlington, 2002)

GFS Marketplace 400 Recap: Ricky Craven drove his Tide Pontiac to a 40th-place finish at Michigan International Speedway. Starting from 39th position, Craven charged his way into the top-10 before a cut right rear tire resulted in contact with the turn two retaining wall on lap 78.

The Chassis: The chassis Ricky Craven will drive at Bristol Motor Speedway is chassis No. 46, the same car he drove to a 15th-place finish here in the March 23 event. Chassis No. 46 was built in-house at PPI Motorsports for the 2003 season, and this weekend will be only the second time it will be raced.

Ricky Craven’s Bristol Motor Speedway starts: Avg. Start: 15.7 Avg. Finish: 24.3

What are your thoughts on Bristol Motor Speedway? - Driver Ricky Craven - “It’s one of the tracks that always produces an exciting race. There’s no doubt that it’s one of the more anticipated events of the year for both the drivers and the fans. It’s kind of cool, because it’s a Saturday night short-track race, which is where a lot of us started. Bristol is the epitome of a ‘bullring.’ Even though there’s a high probability that the Tide Pontiac will end up with some bent sheet metal on it, I love racing here.”

Is it difficult to transition from a road course to a two-mile track to a short track in consecutive weeks? - Driver Ricky Craven- “It’s part of what makes NASCAR so exciting. You have to approach the tracks differently, but I really like the challenge of adapting. I think it’s more of a challenge for the team, because they’re having to work their tails off to get the different types of cars ready to race. I love the fact that we race at a variety of tracks.”

Can you see very far ahead on the track at a place like this? - Driver Ricky Craven- “Well, you obviously have a lot of blind spots at a short track, but you definitely pay attention to more than just the car right in front of you. I think it’s good practice for any driver to always be looking ahead, not just at Bristol. You have to try and see the wrecks before you’re on top of them. It’s probably the most important track for having a great spotter like I have in Nick Harvey.”

Is Bristol the most nerve-wracking track for a spotter? - PPIM Spotter, Nick Harvey - “Well, it’s definitely the busiest track for a spotter. You really can’t afford to look away for even a second. There are tracks where your driver can have no cars very close to him, and you can look ahead to see what else is happening on the track, but that doesn’t happen here. Even when you’re focused on your car, you sometimes see accidents out of the corner of your eye. It helps that I always have the NASCAR Officials’ channel in one earpiece, so you can usually hear when a wreck is happening, or a caution flag is coming out. At a place like Bristol, you can’t always give your driver advice on what line to take to avoid an accident. Sometimes they happen so fast, he’s kind of on his own. It’s usually safer to advise him to take the high line. Since the track is so steep, most cars tend to roll towards the bottom.”

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