Good karma

Martinsville success has Craven feeling confident

Ricky Craven has two top-10 finishes so far this season. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Dale Jarrett may be the defending champion of Sunday’s Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway, but Ricky Craven may own all the karma.

He was the last person to win at this venerable, half-mile, flat track -- last Oct. 15. And he didn’t just win. He fought off spring victor Jarrett in the final laps of last fall’s race for his first career Winston Cup victory.

"We’d had a good test," said crew chief Mike Beam, remembering what led to the win. "We had a good direction to go in. So we weren’t throwing stuff up against the wall and hoping it’d stick."

No one would have blamed them. Last season was only the second for the Cal Wells-owned team, and the first for the braintrust combination of Beam, Craven and race engineer Roy McCauley. Yet they pulled off the win -- Craven’s first in 172 Cup starts at the time -- and have ridden its momentum ever since.

"I have to go back to '94 when I owned my own Busch team to say that I’ve had this much fun," Craven said.

Why? He’s a one-win wonder only in a statistical sense. Prior to Friday’s qualifying -- he’ll start 18th Sunday -- Craven had posted six consecutive top-10 qualifying efforts, which include two poles. He also stands 13th in the points, compared to 24th at the same time last season.

"The significance is on finding consistency," said Craven, an eight-year Cup veteran. "And I’ve always believed that if you win, regardless of where you are, if you win and you don’t understand how you won, it’s going to be very difficult to win again."

"I’ve very thankful for where we are right now," Beam says. "Ricky is such a good guy to work with, and he’s very understanding on some things, and he knows this is a work in progress, and it’s come a long ways."

During their 15-month history together, the current PPI lineup has adjusted both to Robert Yates Racing engines, and to Wells’ insistence that they build their own chassis. Last season was a typical learning experience: Craven finished 21st in points, with nine DNFs, while communication channels were still being forged. According to Beam, last May’s Coca-Cola 600 marked the team’s first race with an in-house chassis, and thereafter, pieces began falling into place.

"We can pretty much be pretty dang close whenever we get ready to race, that we can make the car adjustable," Beam said. "And 12 months ago we couldn’t do that."

"The first half of 2001, we believed we could win," Craven said. "Now, we know we can win, and that’s a powerful thing. That confidence is worth an awful lot."

Another factor: Wells’ Precision Preparation, Inc., company is a one-horse show this season. Gone is the No. 96 driven by Andy Houston for the past two years. And the concentration of resources has paid dividends. Beam admits he’s a nitpicker when it comes to technical and mechanical matters, and he lauds shop foreman Johnny Roten, and his crew.

"To be honest with you, we were just spreading people way too thin for a two-car team," Beam said. "The 32 car and the 96 car -- it was just trying to do way too much with the people we had. Now once that second deal went away, it made our deal a lot better. Everybody can concentrate on our car."

The tangibles speak for themselves. Craven’s finishes last season heading into Martinsville read like this: 23rd at Daytona, fifth at Rockingham, 41st at Vegas, 13th at Atlanta, 27th at Darlington, 23rd at Bristol, 27th at Texas, and 28th at Martinsville; hardly remarkable. Sunday’s results remains an unknown, but this year’s numbers speak much louder: 17th at Daytona, fifth at Rockingham, 31st at Las Vegas, fifth at Atlanta, 41st at Darlington, 13th at Bristol and 14th at Texas.

"We got a lot of work to do and it’s certainly important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves," Craven said. "But I have a lot of confidence in the fact that everything we do at the race track sort of gets absorbed by PPI and we build off that."

"I think we’re exactly where we need to be right now," Beam said. "If we can get to ninth or 10th and stay there, I think that’s about all we can expect right now. But from the standpoint of single-car team, we’re 13th in points, we’re showing some consistency, that’s all you can ask."

 

Related information
Stories
Gordon earns pole position for Virginia 500
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.