Ricky Craven

Ricky Craven
Craven in 1997
Born	Richard Allen Craven (1966-05-24) May 24, 1966 Newburgh, Maine, U.S.
Achievements	1991 Busch North Series Champion
Awards	1981 Unity Raceway Rookie of the Year 1990 Busch North Series Rookie of the Year 1990, 1991 Busch North Series Most Popular Driver 1992 Busch Series Rookie of the Year 1995 Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Cup Series career
278 races run over 11 years
Best finish	15th (2002)
First race	1991 AC Delco 500 (Rockingham)
Last race	2004 EA Sports 500 (Talladega)
First win	2001 Old Dominion 500 (Martinsville)
Last win	2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers' 400 (Darlington)
Wins Top tens Poles 2 41 6
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
142 races run over 14 years
Best finish	2nd (1993, 1994)
First race	1986 Oxford 250 (Oxford)
Last race	2006 Goody's 250 (Martinsville)
First win	1991 True Value 250 (Oxford)
Last win	1994 Meridian Advantage 200 (Nazareth)
Wins Top tens Poles 4 57 7
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
26 races run over 2 years
Best finish	14th (2005)
First race	2004 Sylvania 200 Presented By Lowe's (Loudon)
Last race	2005 Ford 200 (Homestead)
First win	2005 Kroger 200 (Martinsville)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 9 0
Statistics current as of December 2, 2012.

Richard Allen Craven (born May 24, 1966) is an American stock car racing analyst and former driver. Prior to his broadcasting duties, he was a NASCAR driver who won in four different series—the ARCA Menards Series, and the three national series.

He occasionally served as a pit reporter when NASCAR aired on TBS in the mid-1990s. Craven is perhaps most well known for winning the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, beating Kurt Busch in the closest finish in Cup Series history at the time. A margin of victory, 0.002 seconds, only tied by Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer in April 2011 at Talladega with Jimmie coming out on top. It stood for more than 20 years until Kyle Larson bested Chris Buescher by a margin of 0.001 seconds at Kansas in May of 2024.

Personal

Craven graduated from Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine.

Racing career

Beginnings

Craven began racing at the age of 15 at Unity Raceway, winning twice as well as the Rookie of the Year award. The next year, he won 12 feature events and the track championship. In 1984, Craven raced at Wiscasset Speedway in the Late Model Division; in this year he won the track championship along with the Rookie of the Year title. After that, he began running in the American Canadian Tour, where he had rampant success. In 1986, he made his NASCAR debut at Oxford Plains Speedway in his own No. 12, finishing 25th after suffering an engine failure. Four years later, he began running the Busch North Series, winning the Rookie of the Year award. In 1991, he was named the champion in that series, winning ten times in the No. 25 Chevrolet, with two of those ten wins in "combination" races with the Busch Grand National Series, including the prestigious Oxford 250. In addition, he made his Winston Cup debut at Rockingham, starting and finishing 34th for Dick Moroso. He moved to the Busch Series full-time in 1992 in the No. 99 Chevy for Bill Papke, and once again was named Rookie of the Year. In 1993 and 1994, he finished runner-up to Steve Grissom and David Green, respectively, in the championship standings. On October 9, 1994, Craven would serve as a pit reporter for TBS's broadcast of that year's Mello Yello 500, serving as a precursor to his broadcasting career.

1995–1998

Craven's 1997 race car

In 1995, Craven teamed up with Larry Hedrick Motorsports and Kodiak to run for Winston Cup Rookie of the Year. Craven qualified for all 31 races, finished in the Top 10 four times, and defeated Robert Pressley for the top rookie award. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a partial ownership share in the team. He began 1996 with three consecutive Top 10 finishes and his first career pole. He was fourth in points before the Winston Select 500, during which he was involved in a multi-car wreck. On lap 130, his car was launched into the air and impacted with the catch fence above the wall before being thrown back onto the track and hit by another car. This crash was similar to Jimmy Horton's barrel roll in 1993 where he cleared the track. Craven's flip completely sheared the catchfence off the turn and NASCAR threw a lengthy red flag to make repairs. He walked away, but fell to twentieth in points and only had one Top 5 finish and one pole for the rest of the season

At the end of the year, Craven left Hedrick to drive the No. 25 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. Craven finished in the Top 5 in the first two races of the season. He finished third in the 1997 Daytona 500 behind his teammates Terry Labonte in second and Jeff Gordon in first giving Hendrick Motorsports a 1-2-3 sweep of the Daytona 500. While practicing for the inaugural Interstate Batteries 500, Craven crashed hard into the wall. He missed two races due to a concussion suffered from the wreck. Upon his return, he won the Winston Open and finished a then-career-best 19th in points and a total of $1,139,860 in winnings for 1997. After the 1998 season started, the side effects of the concussion began to appear, and Craven was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, and was forced to miss several races until he recovered. He returned at his home track at New Hampshire International Speedway later that year won the pole. After four races, he was released permanently from Hendrick, and did not return until the final three races of the season, filling in for Ernie Irvan at MB2 Motorsports.

1999–2006

For 1999, Craven signed on to drive the No. 58 Ford Taurus for Scott Barbour's SBIII Motorsports, a brand new team in NASCAR. He did not finish any better than 19th while driving the car and after he failed to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600, he was replaced by Loy Allen Jr. Several weeks later, he signed up with another new team Midwest Transit Racing, replacing rookie Dan Pardus in the No. 50 and finished the season with them. Craven returned to the team in 2000 but after failing to qualify for four of the first nine races of the season, the team switched to a part-time schedule. Following this decision, Craven had four Top 20 finishes but finished 44th in points.

In January the next year, it was announced that Craven would replace Scott Pruett in PPI Motorsports's No. 32 Ford. He won the pole in the summer race at Michigan International Speedway and in the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville Speedway, he held off Dale Jarrett in the closing laps for his first career Winston Cup win. In 2002, he won two poles, scored nine Top 10 finishes, and finished a career-best 15th in points. In 2003, his team switched from Ford to Pontiac, providing the No. 32 car with a factory-backed engine program. In the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway, he battled Kurt Busch for the win, defeating him by .002 seconds in what was voted in December 2009 as the "Finish of the 2000s" in the Sprint Cup Series. In that race, he became the last person to win in a Pontiac. Craven failed to win races again that season and dropped 12 spots in the points standings. After he did not post a single Top 10 finish three-quarters of the way through 2004, he was replaced by Bobby Hamilton Jr., and only returned to run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his home track. His last Cup start was the 2004 EA Sports 500 at Talladega, where he drove in a development car for Joe Gibbs Racing, the No. 11 Chevrolet.

In 2005, Craven moved to the Craftsman Truck Series to drive the No. 99 Ford for Roush Racing. Craven was second in points after 9 races, and there was talk about him being promoted to Mark Martin's No. 6 Nextel Cup ride for 2006. However, a brutal stretch of finishes led to a free fall in the point standings, and it was announced that he would be gone from Roush at the end of the year. Craven did win at Martinsville Speedway late in the year, and finished fourteenth in points.

His final NASCAR start came at the Goody's 250 at Martinsville in the Busch Series for FitzBradshaw Racing in 2006. He finished 39th after the brakes failed on his No. 14 Dodge.

Retirement from racing

He eventually retired and worked for ESPN and Yahoo! Sports as a NASCAR analyst. In January 2019, he departed ESPN after 12 full years with the network to work for Fox. Craven later left Fox at the conclusion of the 2020 season to pursue a new Ricky Craven Motorsports venture. He previously owned a motorsports dealership by that name in Belfast, Maine.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Nextel Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NNCC	Pts	Ref
1991	Moroso Racing	20	Olds	DAY	RCH	CAR	ATL	DAR	BRI	NWS	MAR	TAL	CLT	DOV	SON	POC	MCH	DAY	POC	TAL	GLN	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	NWS	CLT	CAR 34	PHO	ATL								82nd	61
1995	Larry Hedrick Motorsports	41	Chevy	DAY 16	CAR 16	RCH 38	ATL 12	DAR 42	BRI 29	NWS 33	MAR 18	TAL 17	SON 25	CLT 10	DOV 22	POC 26	MCH 33	DAY 22	NHA 31	POC 25	TAL 26	IND 31	GLN 10	MCH 7	BRI 32	DAR 18	RCH 29	DOV 22	MAR 35	NWS 21	CLT 25	CAR 8	PHO 24	ATL 30						24th	2883
1996				DAY 13	CAR 3	RCH 17	ATL 12	DAR 3	BRI 9	NWS 7	MAR 12	TAL 36	SON 31	CLT 37	DOV 14	POC 17	MCH 29	DAY 22	NHA 26	POC 20	TAL 19	IND 34	GLN 36	MCH 18	BRI 21	DAR 42	RCH 28	DOV 35	MAR 26	NWS 22	CLT 5	CAR 22	PHO 34	ATL 35						20th	3078
1997	Hendrick Motorsports	25	Chevy	DAY 3	CAR 5	RCH 14	ATL 35	DAR 40	TEX	BRI	MAR 22	SON 39	TAL 27	CLT 37	DOV 13	POC 16	MCH 18	CAL 9	DAY 37	NHA 16	POC 18	IND 16	GLN 17	MCH 12	BRI 13	DAR 31	RCH 18	NHA 5	DOV 41	MAR 8	CLT 25	TAL 6	CAR 3*	PHO 43	ATL 39					19th	3108
1998		50		DAY 14	CAR 10	LVS 27	ATL 34	DAR	BRI	TEX	MAR	TAL	CAL	CLT	DOV	RCH	MCH	POC	SON	NHA 29	POC 41	IND 17	GLN 35	MCH	BRI	NHA	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	CLT	TAL								46th	907
	MB2 Motorsports	36	Pontiac																														DAY QL†	PHO 30	CAR 37	ATL 25
1999	SBIII Motorsports	58	Ford	DAY 26	CAR 22	LVS 39	ATL 42	DAR 37	TEX 27	BRI 41	MAR 43	TAL 27	CAL 34	RCH 19	CLT DNQ	DOV 31	MCH	POC	SON																					41st	1513
	Midwest Transit Racing	50	Chevy																	DAY 43	NHA 13	POC	IND 34	GLN	MCH 30	BRI 42	DAR	RCH	NHA 43	DOV 40	MAR 24	CLT 43	TAL	CAR 41	PHO 30	HOM 32	ATL DNQ
2000				DAY DNQ	CAR DNQ	LVS 40	ATL	DAR DNQ	BRI DNQ	TEX	MAR 31	TAL 29	CAL	RCH 40	CLT 42	DOV	MCH DNQ	POC	SON	DAY 29	NHA 17	POC	IND 41	GLN	MCH 37	BRI DNQ	DAR	RCH 26	NHA 36	DOV	MAR 20	CLT DNQ	TAL 30	CAR 15	PHO 18	HOM DNQ	ATL 30			44th	1175
2001	PPI Motorsports	32	Ford	DAY 23	CAR 5	LVS 41	ATL 13	DAR 27	BRI 23	TEX 27	MAR 28	TAL 15	CAL 41	RCH 43	CLT 31	DOV 4	MCH 35	POC 43	SON 16	DAY 33	CHI 21	NHA 38	POC 10	IND 9	GLN 35	MCH 2	BRI 38	DAR 18	RCH 11	DOV 26	KAN 21	CLT 35	MAR 1*	TAL 24	PHO 8	CAR 12	HOM 30	ATL 38	NHA 38	21st	3379
2002				DAY 17	CAR 5	LVS 31	ATL 5	DAR 41	BRI 13	TEX 14	MAR 30	TAL 18	CAL 37	RCH 9	CLT 3	DOV 7	POC 14	MCH 15	SON 19	DAY 23	CHI 20	NHA 21	POC 17	IND 33	GLN 34	MCH 17	BRI 16	DAR 14	RCH 21	NHA 6	DOV 9	KAN 38	TAL 15	CLT 36	MAR 7	ATL 21	CAR 9	PHO 34	HOM 24	15th	3888
2003			Pontiac	DAY 26	CAR 4	LVS 36	ATL 12	DAR 1	BRI 15	TEX 21	TAL 4	MAR 27	CAL 15	RCH 38	CLT 38	DOV 8	POC 10	MCH 15	SON 21	DAY 43	CHI 25	NHA 21	POC 40	IND 17	GLN 28	MCH 40	BRI 8	DAR 8	RCH 30	NHA 38	DOV 40	TAL 8	KAN 41	CLT 19	MAR 32	ATL 35	PHO 38	CAR 39	HOM 29	27th	3334
2004			Chevy	DAY 23	CAR 35	LVS 25	ATL 22	DAR 36	BRI 22	TEX 28	MAR 16	TAL 43	CAL 18	RCH 26	CLT 24	DOV 16	POC 34	MCH 29	SON 16	DAY 38	CHI 38	NHA 38	POC 20	IND 24	GLN 32	MCH 35	BRI 34	CAL	RCH	NHA 17	DOV									34th	2086
	Joe Gibbs Racing	11	Chevy																													TAL 30	KAN	CLT	MAR	ATL	PHO	DAR	HOM
† - Qualified for Ernie Irvan

Daytona 500

Year	Team	Manufacturer	Start	Finish
1995	Larry Hedrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	14	16
1996			36	13
1997	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	40	3
1998			32	14
1999	SBIII Motorsports	Ford	28	26
2000	Midwest Transit Racing	Chevrolet	DNQ
2001	PPI Motorsports	Ford	18	23
2002			43	17
2003		Pontiac	25	26
2004		Chevrolet	28	23

Busch Series

NASCAR Busch Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	NBSC	Pts	Ref
1986	Craven Racing	12	Chevy	DAY	CAR	HCY	MAR	BRI	DAR	SBO	LGY	JFC	DOV	CLT	SBO	HCY	ROU	IRP	SBO	RAL	OXF 25	SBO	HCY	LGY	ROU	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	ROU	CLT	CAR	MAR					122nd	0
1987		09	Buick	DAY	HCY	MAR	DAR	BRI	LGY	SBO	CLT	DOV	IRP	ROU	JFC	OXF 17	SBO	HCY	RAL	LGY	ROU	BRI	JFC	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	CLT	CAR	MAR									95th	-
1990	Craven Racing	25	Pontiac	DAY	RCH	CAR	MAR	HCY	DAR	BRI	LAN	SBO	NZH	HCY	CLT	DOV	ROU	VOL	MYB	OXF 34												NHA 4	CAR	MAR					65th	258
		28																			NHA 42	SBO	DUB	IRP	ROU	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	CLT
1991		2	Chevy	DAY	RCH 14	CAR								NZH 19	CLT	DOV	ROU	HCY	MYB	GLN																			40th	782
		85					MAR 26	VOL	HCY	DAR	BRI	LAN	SBO								NHA 40
		28																				OXF 1*	SBO	DUB	IRP	ROU	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT
		25																														NHA 1*	CAR
		20																																MAR 32
1992	J&J Racing	99	Chevy	DAY 13	CAR 8	RCH 15	ATL 30	MAR 15	DAR 19	BRI 22	HCY 18	LAN 11	DUB 24	NZH 10	CLT 16	DOV 14	ROU 23	MYB 10	GLN 24	VOL 12	NHA 12	TAL 21	IRP 18	ROU 7	MCH 13	NHA 9	BRI 21	DAR 25	RCH 18	DOV 19	CLT 15	MAR 20	CAR 25	HCY 29					14th	3456
1993				DAY 22	CAR 14	RCH 6	DAR 27	BRI 19	HCY 2	ROU 28	MAR 3	NZH 8	CLT 25	DOV 8	MYB 13	GLN 37	MLW 10	TAL 10	IRP 7	MCH 6	NHA 8	BRI 6	DAR 9	RCH 28	DOV 2	ROU 2	CLT 26	MAR 3	CAR 10	HCY 4	ATL 15								2nd	3593
1994	RC Racing	2	Chevy	DAY 35	CAR 24	RCH 7	ATL 17	MAR 12	DAR 14	HCY 1*	BRI 15	ROU 5	NHA 22	NZH 1*	CLT 11	DOV 5	MYB 3	GLN 7	MLW 10	SBO 21	TAL 32	HCY 7	IRP 6	MCH 23	BRI 4	DAR 8	RCH 24	DOV 3	CLT 8	MAR 8	CAR 3								2nd	3679
1995				DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	NSV	DAR 26	BRI	HCY	NHA DNQ	NZH	CLT	DOV 3	MYB	GLN 3	MLW	TAL	SBO	IRP	MCH 4	BRI	DAR 34	RCH	DOV 28*	CLT 39	CAR	HOM DNQ										43rd	761
1996				DAY	CAR 4	RCH	ATL	NSV	DAR 4	BRI	HCY	NZH	CLT	DOV 2	SBO	MYB	GLN 16	MLW	NHA	TAL	IRP	MCH 5	BRI 31	DAR 6	RCH	DOV 5*	CLT 20	CAR 3	HOM 21										29th	1503
1997				DAY	CAR 6	RCH	ATL	LVS	DAR 15	HCY	TEX	BRI	NSV	TAL	NHA	NZH	CLT 39	DOV 16	SBO	GLN	MLW 37	MYB	GTY 32	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR 10	RCH	DOV 28	CLT 41	CAL	CAR 3	HOM						43rd	1063
1998				DAY	CAR	LVS	NSV	DAR	BRI	TEX	HCY	TAL	NHA	NZH	CLT	DOV	RCH	PPR	GLN 9	MLW	MYB	CAL	SBO	IRP	MCH 25	BRI 22	DAR	RCH	DOV 9	CLT 37	GTY	CAR 43	ATL	HOM					57th	547
1999	Innovative Motorsports	47	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	TEX	NSV	BRI	TAL	CAL	NHA	RCH	NZH	CLT	DOV	SBO	GLN	MLW	MYB	PPR	GTY	IRP	MCH DNQ	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	CAR	MEM	PHO	HOM				NA	-
2000	RC Racing	32	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI 7	TEX	NSV	TAL	CAL	RCH																									63rd	490
		23													NHA 34	CLT	DOV	SBO	MYB	GLN	MLW	NZH	PPR	GTY	IRP		BRI 18	DAR	RCH	DOV
	Team Rensi Motorsports	25	Chevy																							MCH 24
	Emerald Performance Group	19	Chevy																												CLT DNQ	CAR 42	MEM	PHO DNQ	HOM 39
2004	Richard Childress Racing	29	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	DAR	BRI	TEX	NSH	TAL	CAL	GTY	RCH	NZH	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN	MLW	DAY	CHI 11	NHA	PPR	IRP	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM	ATL	PHO	DAR	HOM		106th	130
2006	Fitz Motorsports	14	Dodge	DAY	CAL	MXC	LVS	ATL	BRI	TEX	NSH	PHO	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN	MLW	DAY	CHI	NHA	MAR 39	GTY	IRP	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM	TEX	PHO	HOM	139th	46

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	NCTC	Pts	Ref
2004	Morgan-Dollar Motorsports	47	Chevy	DAY	ATL	MAR	MFD	CLT	DOV	TEX	MEM	MLW	KAN	KEN	GTW	MCH	IRP	NSH	BRI	RCH	NHA 31	LVS	CAL	TEX	MAR	PHO	DAR	HOM	105th	70
2005	Roush Racing	99	Ford	DAY 4	CAL 3	ATL 18	MAR 2	GTY 10	MFD 8	CLT 10	DOV 7	TEX 13	MCH 33	MLW 21	KAN 13	KEN 13	MEM 27	IRP 25	NSH 24	BRI 32	RCH 20	NHA 11	LVS 23	MAR 1*	ATL 9	TEX 21	PHO 32	HOM 21	14th	2976

Winston West Series

NASCAR Winston West Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	NWWSC	Pts	Ref
1999	SBIII Motorsports	58	Ford	TUS	LVS 23	PHO	CAL 1	PPR	MMR	IRW	EVG	POR	IRW	RMR	LVS	MMR	MOT	44th	279

References

• Ricky Craven Biography
• Homestead-Miami 2003 Trackside Report
• Family, the outdoors bigger now for Craven
• End to Ricky and yahoo sports.

External links

• Official Website
• Ricky Craven driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Ricky Craven Fan Club Archive Website
• Ricky Craven ESPN Bio
• Ricky Craven on the Muck Rack journalist listing site