Craven returns home, seeks first Winston Cup win
By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
July 19, 2001
4:43 PM EDT (2043 GMT)
CONCORD, N.C. -- Imagine being a professional athlete -- the pride of your hometown -- only to falter when success seems immenent.
How great it would be for the hometown boy to triumph in front of the very people who supported him through it all.
If Ricky Craven could pick one Winston Cup race which would be his first to win, it would be this Sunday's New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.
As a native of nearby Newburgh, Maine, the 35-year-old has already experienced some success at NHIS.
While driving in the Busch North Series, he won twice on the 1.058-mile oval. In 1991, he won a Busch Series race here. In 1996 and 1998, he won the Bud Pole Award in a Winston Cup event at the track.
The one in 1998 was even more special, because it came after being forced to sit out 13 races with Post Concussion Syndrome.
Craven, in his first season driving the No. 32 Ford for Cal Wells, has struggled in 2001. He finished fourth in the MBNA 400 at Dover last month, but he hasn't been in the top-15 since. He sits 29th in Winston Cup standings.
But New Hampshire tends to make Craven pick it up a notch.
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Ricky Craven has two top-five finishes in 2001.
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"If I do have an advantage, it's a psychological one," Craven said. "If there is such a thing as a home court advantage in NASCAR, it exists for me at NHIS.
"When I race here, I have a tremendous amount of support and a lot of confidence. Historically, I've been able to enjoy some wonderful things here."
Craven's Winston Cup career was built around this track. Before its opening in 1990, Craven had moved from his home in Maine to Concord, N.H. and took part in the very first race -- a Busch North event.
"As a Busch North driver, I certainly wouldn't have gotten the attention and exposure from winning unless it was at NHIS," Craven said. "When I won my first race here, I still remember trying to hit every mark and make all 150 laps of that race. I led 125 laps of that event and wanted to win there so badly."
Craven is winless in 162 Winston Cup starts, but he has Bud Poles and nine top-five finishes. What would it mean for him to complete the cycle by winning his first Winston Cup event here?
"It would be unbelievable and quite the celebration," Craven said. "I bet even Bob Bahre (track owner) and his son, Gary, would take part in it. When I won the Bud Pole Award in 1998, Gary told me that he and his dad were talking about what would happen if I won here.
"He said the likelihood of the grandstands being torn out were pretty good. We then talked about how happy they would be for me and everything.
"But, he then added how I would have to pay for them if it did happen."
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