Tide Team 41st at Kansas Speedway

Ricky Craven

BONNER SPRINGS, KS (Oct. 5) - Engine problems brought an early end to the No. 32 Tide Pontiac team’s run in Sunday’s Banquet 400 NASCAR Winston Cup (NWC) race at Kansas Speedway.

Driver Ricky Craven reported on lap 174 that the motor had broken in his PPI Motorsports (PPIM) entry. Craven coasted to the garage, where a quick inspection revealed that the problem had fatally damaged the engine. Craven was credited with a 41st-place finish, 93 laps down to eventual race winner Ryan Newman.

“The motor just broke, “ Craven told reporters after climbing from his car. “We weren’t having the greatest of days anyway. It wasn’t for a lack of effort on the part of my team, though. They’ve all done an outstanding job of getting me ready to race every weekend. We just had a bad day. We’ll rebound from it next week at Charlotte.”

Starting 32nd in Sunday’s event, Craven found himself trying a number of different driving lines throughout the first half of the race in an attempt to find the fastest path around the 1.5-mile track.

Given the relative newness of the Kansas Speedway facility, the asphalt has not been driven on enough to develop multiple racing “grooves.” Where more seasoned track surfaces will allow competitors to move higher up the banking to gain speed, drivers have to stay near the bottom of the Kansas track.

Craven was but one of a number of drivers whose entries didn’t seem to respond as well to this lower groove, which made for a long day for those teams unable to find an agreeable combination of adjustments.

In the first two laps of the event, Craven charged his way up six spots to 26th position. Craven told his crew that his No. 32 was “loose” getting into the turns, but then became difficult to turn from the middle of the turns onward. These handling conditions combined to allow several competitors to pass Craven’s machine, dropping the Tide entry one lap down to the race leaders by lap 43.

After discussing possible solutions to the handling issue with crew chief Scott Miller, Craven made his first scheduled green flag pit stop on lap 58 of the 267-lap event. The Tide crew made several chassis adjustments in an attempt to help the car’s handling, sending Craven back out in 35th position. It appeared that the changes to Craven’s car helped, as he posted the fastest lap times he had turned to that point of the event.

A few laps later, the first caution flag of the race came out on lap 69 for an incident involving the cars of Michael Waltrip and Matt Kenseth. During the yellow flag period, Craven brought his car back to pit road and the attention of his crew. The team bolted on fresh tires and filled the car’s fuel cell before sending Craven back out in 30th position for the lap 76 restart.

Again, it looked as if the crew’s adjustments were headed in the right direction, with Craven telling his team the handling of his Pontiac had improved somewhat.

When a crash involving Dave Blaney brought out the next caution flag on lap 82, Craven kept his car on the track as other drivers came to pit road for service. This allowed him to restart the event on the tail end of the lead lap, where he remained until race leader Dale Jarrett passed Craven to put the Tide Pontiac one lap down.

Shortly thereafter, Craven radioed his crew and told them the adjustments had made it more difficult for him to get through the corners. This allowed several drivers to bypass Craven and drop him to 33rd position.

Elliott Sadler hit the wall on lap 105, bringing out the next caution flag of the event. During the caution period, the Tide team again went over the pit road wall to service the No. 32 and make chassis adjustments.

In spite of the crew’s best efforts, the changes they made to Craven’s entry didn’t seem to cure the car’s handling problems. Following the lap 110 restart, Craven told his crew he had his hands full, with the car’s handling becoming extremely loose.

By lap 153, the Tide machine was being shown in 36th position, two laps down to race leader Bill Elliott.

On lap 158, a cut tire on Jeff Green’s car caused Green to hit the wall, bringing out yet another yellow flag.

The Tide team again elected to bring Craven to pit road on lap 161, where the crew put on more fresh tires and made another chassis adjustment.

While the crew continued to strive to improve the handling of the Tide Pontiac, their efforts went unrewarded after the engine in the No. 32 entry went sour on lap 174.

“I don’t want the guys to get too disappointed,” Craven said in his post-race interview. “Nobody beats themselves up more than the guys in our engine department. They just need to isolate the problem, and I know they’re working very hard to do that. We just need to go out there and finish the season as strong as we can, and that’s what we plan to do. We hope to put together some good strong runs and some consistent finishes in these last six races, and get ready for 2004.”

With the finish, Craven and team owner Cal Wells take over the 24th position in the NWC drivers’ and owners’ points standings, respectively.

Craven and the PPIM team will now head to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, site of the UAW-GM Quality 500 NWC event. That race will air live on the TNT Television Network and PRN Radio affiliates on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m. EDT.