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.
Craven occasionally served as a pit reporter when NASCAR aired on TBS in the mid-1990s. He 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 twenty years until Kyle Larson bested Chris Buescher by a margin of 0.001 seconds at Kansas in May of 2024.
Racing career
Beginnings Craven began racing at the age of fifteen 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.NASCAR Driver of the Day: Ricky Craven 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 second 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
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 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-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 No. 25 Budweiser Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. Craven finished in the top-five 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 nineteenth in points with 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, where he won the pole. After four races, he was released 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 nineteenth while driving the car, although he did score the team a Winston West Series win in the California 200, 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-twenty 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 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 for his first career Winston Cup win. In 2002, he won two poles, scored nine top-ten 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.Craven win at Darlington in 2003 top (Sprint) Cup race of the decade In that race, he became the last person to win in a Pontiac. Craven failed to win races again that season and dropped twelve spots in the points standings. After he did not post a single top-ten 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 nine 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.
Craven's 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. In 2025 he bought Speedway 95 in Hermon, Maine, which he renamed Ricky Craven Speedway.
Personal life Craven graduated from Hampden Academy in Hampden, 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 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 CAR34 PHO ATL 82nd 61 1995 Larry Hedrick Motorsports 41 Chevy DAY16 CAR16 RCH38 ATL12 DAR42 BRI29 NWS33 MAR18 TAL17 SON25 CLT10 DOV22 POC26 MCH33 DAY22 NHA31 POC25 TAL26 IND31 GLN10 MCH7 BRI32 DAR18 RCH29 DOV22 MAR35 NWS21 CLT25 CAR8 PHO24 ATL30 24th 2883 1996 DAY13 CAR3 RCH17 ATL12 DAR3 BRI9 NWS7 MAR12 TAL36 SON31 CLT37 DOV14 POC17 MCH29 DAY22 NHA26 POC20 TAL19 IND34 GLN36 MCH18 BRI21 DAR42 RCH28 DOV35 MAR26 NWS22 CLT5 CAR22 PHO34 ATL35 20th 3078 1997 Hendrick Motorsports 25 Chevy DAY3 CAR5 RCH14 ATL35 DAR40 TEX BRI MAR22 SON39 TAL27 CLT37 DOV13 POC16 MCH18 CAL9 DAY37 NHA16 POC18 IND16 GLN17 MCH12 BRI13 DAR31 RCH18 NHA5 DOV41 MAR8 CLT25 TAL6 CAR3* PHO43 ATL39 19th 3108 1998 50 DAY14 CAR10 LVS27 ATL34 DAR BRI TEX MAR TAL CAL CLT DOV RCH MCH POC SON NHA29 POC41 IND17 GLN35 MCH BRI NHA DAR RCH DOV MAR CLT TAL 46th 907 MB2 Motorsports 36 Pontiac DAYQL† PHO30 CAR37 ATL25 1999 SBIII Motorsports 58 Ford DAY26 CAR22 LVS39 ATL42 DAR37 TEX27 BRI41 MAR43 TAL27 CAL34 RCH19 CLTDNQ DOV31 MCH POC SON 41st 1513 Midwest Transit Racing 50 Chevy DAY43 NHA13 POC IND34 GLN MCH30 BRI42 DAR RCH NHA43 DOV40 MAR24 CLT43 TAL CAR41 PHO30 HOM32 ATLDNQ 2000 DAYDNQ CARDNQ LVS40 ATL DARDNQ BRIDNQ TEX MAR31 TAL29 CAL RCH40 CLT42 DOV MCHDNQ POC SON DAY29 NHA17 POC IND41 GLN MCH37 BRIDNQ DAR RCH26 NHA36 DOV MAR20 CLTDNQ TAL30 CAR15 PHO18 HOMDNQ ATL30 44th 1175 2001 PPI Motorsports 32 Ford DAY23 CAR5 LVS41 ATL13 DAR27 BRI23 TEX27 MAR28 TAL15 CAL41 RCH43 CLT31 DOV4 MCH35 POC43 SON16 DAY33 CHI21 NHA38 POC10 IND9 GLN35 MCH2 BRI38 DAR18 RCH11 DOV26 KAN21 CLT35 MAR1* TAL24 PHO8 CAR12 HOM30 ATL38 NHA38 21st 3379 2002 DAY17 CAR5 LVS31 ATL5 DAR41 BRI13 TEX14 MAR30 TAL18 CAL37 RCH9 CLT3 DOV7 POC14 MCH15 SON19 DAY23 CHI20 NHA21 POC17 IND33 GLN34 MCH17 BRI16 DAR14 RCH21 NHA6 DOV9 KAN38 TAL15 CLT36 MAR7 ATL21 CAR9 PHO34 HOM24 15th 3888 2003 Pontiac DAY26 CAR4 LVS36 ATL12 DAR1 BRI15 TEX21 TAL4 MAR27 CAL15 RCH38 CLT38 DOV8 POC10 MCH15 SON21 DAY43 CHI25 NHA21 POC40 IND17 GLN28 MCH40 BRI8 DAR8 RCH30 NHA38 DOV40 TAL8 KAN41 CLT19 MAR32 ATL35 PHO38 CAR39 HOM29 27th 3334 2004 Chevy DAY23 CAR35 LVS25 ATL22 DAR36 BRI22 TEX28 MAR16 TAL43 CAL18 RCH26 CLT24 DOV16 POC34 MCH29 SON16 DAY38 CHI38 NHA38 POC20 IND24 GLN32 MCH35 BRI34 CAL RCH NHA17 DOV 34th 2086 Joe Gibbs Racing 11 Chevy TAL30 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