ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604020013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
Ricky Craven is a soft-spoken, well-mannered 29-year-old Yankee from Maine. His crew chief, Charley Pressley, is a good old boy from the North Carolina hill country, bossing around a group that includes some Yankee mechanics from the Modified ranks.
They've been together for less than three months.
And somehow, they're making it work in the NASCAR Winston Cup series. They're making it work beyond their wildest expectations.
Going into today's Food City 500 at Bristol International Raceway, Craven is fourth in Winston Cup points. He has finished third twice and, more importantly, hasn't finished worse than 17th.
The team is so far ahead of its primary goal - improving on 1995's rookie of the year performance (24th in points) - that ``we've been forced to play our hand a little differently,'' Craven said. ``We want to win a pole and we want to win a race.''
The team's performance is more of a surprise considering the upheaval that occurred in late January - less than three weeks before the start of Daytona Speedweeks - when veteran crew chief Waddell Wilson resigned.
The assumption was Craven would be doomed to a mediocre year after a change of that magnitude. But Craven says he wanted the change. And when you listen to his explanation, it's obvious who's in charge.
``I felt like we needed to be a little more aggressive, and I felt like we needed to pursue different things and maybe take a little different approach from the racing we were doing,'' Craven said.
``What I saw in December and January concerned me a little bit. I wasn't sure we had improved as much as I hoped we would. We were unhappy, and [Wilson] was unhappy, and sometimes the shoe doesn't quite fit.''
It's hardly the kind of talk you would expect from a second-year Cup driver. But Craven is nothing if not determined.
Before the team left for Daytona, Craven and team owner Larry Hedrick had replaced Wilson with Pressley, who had been the crew chief for his brother, Robert, and the Leo Jackson team.
``The opportunity came about suddenly and surprisingly,'' said Pressley, who had lost his job to Andy Petree. ``I'd had a few things working with different Winston Cup teams and, for some reason, those doors shut. I was going to go truck racing.''
But then he got the call from the Hedrick shop.
``Only four days before we had to leave for the [Daytona] 500, we met together and talked,'' Charley Pressley said. ``In a matter of just sitting around a table and talking for 15 minutes, I just could tell this is where I was supposed to be.''
Pressley said he has no problem making his slow drawl understood by his Yankee mechanics.
``My father was a racer and we spent a lot of time racing in Maine and Vermont,'' he said. ``I have a lot of friends up there. They've always looked at Southern people ... to them this was big-time racing. And they take their racing up there just as seriously as we do.''
Whenever a team starts doing well, you hear that it has ``chemistry.'' It's one of the most overused words in the sport.
``But you can't really appreciate what the word `chemistry' means until it happens to you,'' said Hedrick, who has been a Winston Cup car owner since 1990. ``It's attitude, it's stability, it's a calmness. It's politeness and respect, no matter how tense the moments are.''
Said Craven, ``I do have to say we've got a special group. I honestly think this is the best group I've been around in a long time.
``For the first time in a long while, I'm in a position where I can just drive my race car and almost completely concentrate on driving. Charley Pressley has so much confidence and the team allows me to do my job. As a result, I really think I'm doing a better job driving the race car.''
Said Pressley: ``Ricky is just so confident in what he's doing. He is Mr. Cool all the time. This guy does not get rattled. When you've got somebody like that, it comes easy. It's natural to him.''
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB