Ricky Craven's journey to NASCAR's elite series began in 1982 at Unity Raceway in Unity, Maine. Craven won rookie of the year honors that season and the track championship one year later after posting 12 victories.
In 1984, Craven won rookie of the year honors at Wiscassett Speedway and finished fourth on the ACT tour in 1988.
Craven's path to Cup racing came through the Busch North Series, where he ran the full season for the first time in 1990. He won two races that year, grabbed the Busch Pole Award for winning seven poles and claimed both the rookie of the year title and the series' most popular driver award. In 1991, he swept it all, including the championship, with 10 victories, six poles, the pole award and the most popular driver trophy.
He moved to the Busch Series in 1992, won the rookie title and finished second in the 1993 and 1994 Busch Series season standings. His first two wins in Busch Series competition came in 1994, when he scored at Hickory and Nazareth.
Hendrick Motorsports had recognized Craven's potential and lured the young driver away from a shared ownership deal with team boss Larry Hedrick for the 1997 season. He opened with a stunning third-place finish in the Daytona 500 and ended up 19th in the point standings.
Craven spent much of 1998 recovering from post-concussion syndrome, resulting from injuries he actually suffered in 1997. He won the Bud Pole in his first race back, the Jiffy Lube 300 at New Hampshire.
Craven started 1999 racing for Scott Barbour, then signed with Scott Hicks after 12 starts. He stayed with Hicks through 2000, but garnered no top-10 finishes in either season.
He came back in 2001 with a solid sponsor, Tide, on the technically proficient PPI Motorsports Fords. He scored an extremely popular first victory at Martinsville Speedway in October 2001, swapping paint with 1999 NASCAR champion Dale Jarrett on the last lap.
Craven came out on top of one of the closest finish in Cup Series history in 2003 when he beat Kurt Busch by .002 seconds, which officials tagged the closest finish in NASCAR since electronic scoring came into use in 1993. It might have been the closest ever.
"There was a lot of hollering (on the in-car radio)," Craven said. "My crew chief (Scott Miller) said, 'That was incredible.'
"Everyone was (talking) on the radio and I was actually a little bit frustrated because I thought, 'Great, great. Glad that we entertained you, but did we win the race?'
"I came off of Turn 2 and I looked up and it showed us first on the scoreboard (and) that was the confirmation."
