Craven likes Michigan, but does Michigan like him?

Michigan International Speedway may not be the best NASCAR Nextel Cup venue for Ricky Craven to start a season-turnaround with the #32 PPI Motorsports Tide team for in 14 career NASCAR Cup starts at the two-mile venue, he has but one top five and two top ten finishes.

However if there is a silver lining to a potentially dark cloud, it is the fact that of the two Michigan races on the schedule, the June event has been by far the more successful of the two for the popular New Englander

In the past two June events at Michigan, Craven and the #32 team have come away with 15th place finishes while he also claimed another top 20 finish in June 1997 while driving for Hendrick Motorsport.

"In 2002, we had a flat tyre and lost a lap," Craven recalled. "We were the first car one lap down at the end, but we had a car much better than 15th. Last year, we were unbelievable. We took a provisional to start, but drove up to the second position under green. We were really, really smokin'. We got caught up in an incident with a lap car and it tore the fender off our car and we limped home 15th. At the time we were battling Tony Stewart for third."

Despite his relatively so-so track record, Craven reckons that Michigan would be a perfect template for him if he was given the tools to construct his own racetrack.

"If I were going to build a race track, Michigan would be a great template," he stated. "And they actually did that with California. The reason why is it is a two-mile track, so you have a lot of speed, but it is unrestricted, so you have corner entry speed fast enough where you have to use some brake.

"Handling is a premium, but aerodynamics is a big issue and you and mix it up a little... you can run side-by-side or push someone down the front stretch. It seems like it has all elements of racing. Even fuel mileage plays a factor."

Adding to Craven's confidence is the fact that after crashing in the early stages of last month's NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge, the PPI team have rebuilt the chassis that gave Craven "the most fun I've had this season," prior to being stuffed into the wall.

Craven also attended the Victory Junction Gang Camp Grand Opening celebration on Tuesday, June 15th with his family on behalf of Tide Racing. Tide is the official sponsor of Victory Junction's laundry hut, freshly painted in Tide orange, yellow and blue and officially named "Tide's Soap Box Racer." Tide also donated brand-new Whirlpool appliances in the laundry hut, as well as will annually supply Tide laundry detergent and Downy dryer sheets to meet the needs of Victory Junction on a year-round basis. Lastly, Tide donated a Tide/NASCAR racing simulator and slot car game for Victory Junction's recreational facilities.