Craven's cravings

He doesn't have a heart-shaped tattoo inscribed with "Mom" on his arm, nor does he say "That's a big 10-4, good buddy" on his radio.

But make no mistake about it: After more than 10 years on the Cup circuit, Ricky Craven is proud to be a trucker – in the Craftsman Truck Series, that is.

After making just one previous career start in a truck (last season), the driver of the Roush Racing-owned No. 99 Ford is enjoying a tremendous start thus far in his "rookie" season in the CTS.

Craven has three top-five finishes in four starts. His close runner-up finish to Bobby Labonte last Saturday at Martinsville propelled Craven into second place in the CTS standings, just 19 points behind defending champion Bobby Hamilton.

"We've positioned ourselves to make a run for the championship, and we've gotten off to a decent start," Craven said. "I'm enjoying it and things are going good."

Craven names Hamilton as the guy to beat. But if he keeps up his current pace, Craven himself might wind up being the driver everyone else is chasing. That speaks to one of Craven's two main goals for 2005: to prove to himself, team owner Jack Roush, his fellow drivers and fans alike that there's still a lot of gas left in his tank.

His second goal is to possibly segue whatever success he attains in the trucks to landing a full-time ride in Nextel Cup next season.

"Professionally, I have a tremendous desire to go back to the Cup level. I'm 38 years old and I think we can still perform like we did in 2001 and 2002 and the first half of 2003," said Craven, who won a race in '01, finished 15th in points the following season and won again early in '03. "That's the primary reason that I chose to race with Jack and to be a part of Roush Racing. It's a wonderful organization. "

Craven's tenure in Cup – along with his more than 3½-year association with team owner Cal Wells – abruptly ended two-thirds of the way through last season when Wells released Craven from his contract to drive the No. 32 Ford, replacing him with Bobby Hamilton Jr.

The firing took Craven by surprise, but he did understand that Wells might have just felt it was time to make a change considering the team's struggles over the past couple of seasons.

"The wheel fell off the car, figuratively, last year," said Craven, who was 27th in points in '03 and had eight DNFs and no top-10s in 26 starts last year. "And I suppose that from Cal's position, he wanted to pull the starting quarterback out of the game and put in another quarterback because there are times that will inspire the team or rally the program."

Virtually everywhere Craven goes, fans continually ask whether he'll be back in Nextel Cup racing soon. He already has turned down one marginal opportunity this season and instead chose to stay with Roush, as he feels it's the best place for him to be at this point in his career.

There indeed will be opportunities with Roush at the Cup level, as Mark Martin is retiring at the end of this season. Craven delicately sidesteps rumors that he may replace Martin in the Roush-owned No. 6 Ford or take over for Carl Edwards in the No. 99 if Edwards is tabbed to replace Martin next year.

"Jack and I have had conversations, but our primary conversation and objective is to battle for the championship in the 99 truck," Craven said. "I still think there's an opportunity for me [to go back to Cup], but that's all predicated on us meeting our goals this year. ... If [that] happens, then I'll have made a pretty good argument for a year in a Roush Cup car. That's really only as far as it goes."

Thus far, Craven is ahead of schedule on meeting those goals. But he doesn't want to get too far ahead of himself.

"I've got my hands full, along with everybody else, just concentrating on the 99 truck," said Craven, who did admit he'd like to run this season's two New Hampshire Cup races in a Roush car if the opportunity presented itself. "And if I did take my eyes off the ball, I'll pay a price. But I'm not going to tell you that I don't think about the opportunity and that it doesn't interest me, because I still feel that my best years are ahead of me.

"I'm very sincere when I say that the only thing I'm considering is the next 21 races."

And if Craven uses those remaining 21 races to pad his case for a return to the Cup ranks, so be it.

"I'm not going to play the role of a politician and campaign," Craven said. "I'm not going to be distracted by trying to bring attention to myself and be campaigning for a job or a particular ride. My approach is that I'm going after this 2005 truck series championship with the 99 team. I think it's my best argument and think it's my best chance. And I'm OK with that."