Ricky Craven NASCAR Auto Racing Driver

The NASCAR Driving Career of Ricky Craven

Rated as one of NASCAR’s ‘comeback drivers’ Ricky Craven started racing at the tender age of fifteen. Young Craven grew up in the state of New England and he began his racing career at the Unity Raceway where he won two races in his first year and also garnered the Rookie of the Year award. At this young age his career skyrocketed. In his second year of racing he won as many as twelve feature events and the track championship. After this Ricky Craven made the decision to spread his wings and he made the decision to run the Canadian-American tour where he enjoyed even more success.

Shortly after this brilliant start, Ricky Craven suffered a number of failures. His bad luck lasted roughly four years but he was soon able to enjoy more successes such as winning the Rookie of the Year Award at the Busch North Series. In 1991 he became the Busch North Series Champion, won two Busch Series races and debut at the Winston Cup. He decided to race the Busch Series full-time in 1992 and went on to win the Rookie of the Year award yet again. In subsequent years he finished as a runner up in the championship standings and soon had several Winston Cup team owners knocking at his door. In 1995 he teamed up with Larry Hendrick Motorsports and Kodiak for a sensational season. He qualified for every race in the Winston Cup, finished in the top-ten four times and took the top rookie award. He also enjoyed an excellent year in 1996.

At the end of the year he was given the opportunity to drive for the Hendrick Motorsports team. Craven signed immediately and the new seasons started well. However, while practising for the Interstate Batteries 500 in1997, Craven crashed hard into the wall. He suffered from a concussion and missed two races. Before long he was back in the driver’s seat. He won the Winston Open, finished 19th in points and enjoyed massive winnings. Unfortunately things did not go so well the following year when the side-effects of his concussion began to become evident. He was forced onto the sidelines until he recovered. He made one premature attempt at a return, winning the pole at the New Hampshire International Speedway before fading again. He went through a bad patch after this before returning to racing glory in 2000 when he won the Michigan International Speedway’s summer race, amongst other things. In 2003 he made NASCAR history at the Darlington Speedway where he finished first in an epic battle against Kurt Busch. He career has since declined somewhat but he raced the Craftsman Truck Series in 2005.