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was a NASCAR driver who won in four different series—the K&N Pro Series, and the three national series. 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 Raceway 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 #12, finishing 25th after suffering 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 #25 Chevrolet, with two of those ten wins in "combination" races with the Busch (now Xfinity) Grand National Series, including the prestigious Oxford 250. In addition, he made his NASCAR Cup debut at Rockingham, starting and finishing 34th for Dick Moroso. He moved to the Xfinity Series full-time in 1992 in the #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. 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-ten four times, and was able to defeat 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-ten 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-five finish and one pole for

the rest of the season. At the end of the year, Craven left Hedrick to drive the #25 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. Craven finished in the top-five in the first two races of the season. He finished 3rd in the 1997 Daytona 500 behind his teammates Terry Labonte in 2nd and Jeff Gordon in 1st 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. For 1999, Craven signed to drive the No. 58 Hollywood Video 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 #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. In January the next year, it was announced that Craven would replace Scott Pruett in PPI Motorsports's #32 Tide 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 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 #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 NASCAR Cup Series. In that race, he became the last-ever 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 #11 Chevrolet. In 2005, Craven moved to the Craftsman

Truck Series to drive the #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 #6 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 start in NASCAR came at the Goody's 250 in the Xfinity Series for FitzBradshaw Racing. He finished 39th after the brakes on his #14 Dodge failed. Craven spent the next few years looking for a part-time ride, but none came through. He eventually retired and worked for ESPN and Yahoo! Sports as a NASCAR analyst. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

RICHARD ALLEN "RICKY" CRAVEN - 05/24/1966