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Subway 500 - Ricky Craven Notes
Subway 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
UAW/GM Quality 500 Recap: Ricky Craven drove his No. 32 Tide Pontiac to a 19th-place finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Starting 13th, Craven stayed in and around the top-15 for most of the event, until an engine problem late in the race dropped Craven back several spots in the final laps.
The Chassis: The chassis Ricky Craven will drive at Martinsville Speedway is chassis No. 49. New to the PPI Motorsports stable for 2003, the chassis was driven to a 21st-place finish in the July event at New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS). Craven qualified the chassis in 21st position for the Sept. 21 NHIS race, but a crash in Saturday’s first practice damaged the car, forcing the team to go to a backup.
Last Race at Martinsville: Ricky Craven and the No. 32 Tide Pontiac team finished 27th in the April 13 event at Martinsville. Craven started 17th in the event and had a strong run going, until a pit stop error cost the team a shot at a top-10 finish.
Tide at Martinsville: In its 17 years as a primary sponsor in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Tide has visited Victory Lane at Martinsville five times. Tide's first win as a sponsor in NASCAR came at the half-mile track with driver Darrell Waltrip in Sept., 1987. The Tide/Waltrip combination teamed up to win the Sept. event at Martinsville in both of the following years (1988-89). Ricky Rudd carried the Tide brand to a win in Sept., 1998, and Ricky Craven held off Dale Jarrett to win the Oct., 2001, Old Dominion 500 at the Speedway, marking Craven's and PPI Motorsports' first Winston Cup victory.
Ricky Craven, on Martinsville Speedway - “I always say, when I finally retire, I want to have ‘X’ number of wins, and I want to have won at certain tracks. I’m lucky, in that my two Winston Cup wins have come at tracks I hold in very high regard (Martinsville and Darlington). I mean, I want to win at every track, but before I started in Winston Cup, if I were to have singled out some tracks where I most wanted to win, those two would be at the top of the list. Both tracks have meant so much to the sport, and so many legends have won at those places. Even though I’ve checked off Martinsville on my ‘Places Where I Want to Win’ list, I’d love to add more check marks, starting this weekend.”
Ricky Craven, remembering his Martinsville win - “The thing that really sticks out in my mind about that win is the acknowledgement I received from my peers. As I drove around the track on the cool down lap, it was awesome to see how many guys from other teams came out on pit road to congratulate my crew and myself. You always want to have the respect of your peers, and the reaction I saw from the other teams let me know that I do seem to have earned the respect of a lot of people in the sport. That means the world to me.”
Ricky Craven, on extending his contract with PPI Motorsports through 2006 - “With this being my third year in the Tide car, I’ve already raced for PPI longer than any other team in my Winston Cup career. I wish I had met Cal (Wells, owner of PPI Motorsports) back in 1995, when I started. I love the idea of being a ‘Franchise Player.’ I’ve always admired guys who stayed with one team throughout their careers, like Larry Byrd did with the Celtics, or Ted Williams with the Red Sox. It’s great to have that stability, and it’s wonderful to work for someone with the dedication and love of auto racing that Cal has. I’m focused on making these next three years the most productive of my career.”
Ricky Craven, on what it means to have Tide extend its contract with PPI through 2006 - “First of all, it’s a tremendous feeling to know that Tide believes in Cal and myself and what we can accomplish. What this extension allows us to do is to look beyond next week, next month, or even next year, and make decisions that are in the best interest of this team in the long term. We can look at things in a broader perspective now. The focus for us is on the team becoming stronger and more consistent, instead of worrying about showing immediate returns, which is the unenviable situation a lot of teams find themselves in right now. This extension has me very excited about the future.”
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