>From NASCAR and Chevrolet.

             RICKY CRAVEN (No. 41 Kodiak Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"I knew Kyle Petty was good, and Mark Martin and Terry 
Labonte had won two of the last three poles. It was a disappointment 
last year. We wanted to be in the Busch Clash real bad. Our plan has been 
altered, since we left Daytona I think, and that's been good. We've got 
a good group of guys, and I'm really fortunate I've been able to get 
such a great group of people to work with. A lot of things have changed 
since my rookie season, and I've got to admit I underestimated our 
potential a little bit, but we've still got a long way to go. The pole 
is wonderful, and being in the Busch Clash is one of my ultimate goals. 
I'm thankful for that, but we still have a lot of work to do.

"Jeff and I had talked about qualifying, and he thought he 
could run about what we ran. He thought he could run about a 30 (20.30 
seconds), and I said I'd take that. Braking is such an important part of 
the equation in qualifying here. It takes at least a lap to get some 
decent brakes. I didn't think we could duplicate what we did in 
practice. We didn't have enough brakes last year in the race, but 300 
laps here in the Busch Grand National car was pretty successful for us. 
Last year, the brakes kind of gave out on us here after 300 or 400 laps. 
I'm really thankful Larry Andy I talked Charley Pressley into coming 
aboard with us. He's doing a great job. Last year we were competing 
against Charley and Robert for rookie of the year. For us to be able to 
work so well together, he's the best I've worked with. He understands 
me, and he compliments me. Actually, our personalities are a lot alike.

"Obviously you've got to finish before you can finish 
well, and we've been finishing races, Every element of our program knows 
how important it is. For me personally, one of my strengths while I've 
been racing is that I've worked on my race car. As I got into Winston 
Cup, it became one of my weaknesses. When you get in with this crowd, 
you need to do one thing well, and that's drive a race car. That was a 
little bit of an obstacle last year. I was thinking about working on the 
race car. That's what Scott Maxim and Charley and the guys have taken 
off me this year. They've taken that burden off me and allowed me to 
focus on driving. I'm very happy. I can't imagine if somebody asked me 
to write a book on the perfect life of a race car driver, it would be 
pretty easy because it would be 1996 for me. I'm really focused on 
racing.

"Pit stops are critical and that's another example of how 
this team has matured. We've got a lot of young crew members. You'd 
marvel at how many hours they put into practice. Along with building the 
race cars and assembling the pieces, they'll stop at 5 o'clock and 
practice pit stops for a couple of hours. it's so dangerous when this 
becomes as enjoyable as it is for all of us. It was really a big 
struggle coming into the series. I put a lot of pressure on myself, but 
it's really becoming a lot of fun."




Jack Durbin                                   indy500@freenet.tlh.fl.us
Motorsport News International                      jackd@motorsport.com
(Moderators for "rec.autos.sport.info")
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