Ricky Craven
FameRank: 4

"Richard Allen Craven" is an ESPN broadcaster who works ESPN2's NASCAR Now and a race analyst for the network. Prior to his ESPN duties, he was a NASCAR driver who won in four different series—the K&N Pro 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 List of the closest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finishes/NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history.

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If there were a track on the circuit where I wished we raced more it would be New Hampshire. The fact that I have always liked the track as a competitor does not hurt either. I always felt I had a slight home court advantage over the other drivers because I have run so many laps there, and I use that to my advantage.

I expected to be challenged coming into this season, ... We knew that this was a new series and there were some newer things, but we were familiar with some things. We expected to struggle early, but we came out of the gates very strong and we were very consistent. Then we just struggled, but we're still battling.

It's good for the sport because every sport has favorites and underdogs.

You have to be careful because you could make this vanilla.

If a caution comes out late in the race, it's a free-for all. When the caution came out in the '70s, all it did was bring three or four cars together because 10th place was eight or nine laps down.

This season has really been a tale of two seasons for me.

Then all of a sudden things started going wrong, ... It was a bit strange.

It's a sport that will reward you for being selfish.

It would be difficult for me to entertain thoughts of substituting for a year [on the Cup tour].