Newburgh’s Ricky Craven has signed a multiyear deal with ESPN to continue as an in-studio analyst for the TV show “NASCAR Now” and also handle prerace and postrace duties for the Sprint Cup series. He will also be a color analyst for five Nationwide Series races.
The 45-year-old Craven, who notched two wins, 17 top-five finishes and 41 top-10s during his 278-race Sprint Cup career, has worked for ESPN since 2008.
Craven didn’t divulge the terms of his contract but said he was “extremely happy” with it.
“When I retired from racing, I didn’t think I could find anything that would match that level of challenge,” Craven said. “This has come very close. I really, really enjoy what I do.
“I appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given with ESPN and I also appreciate that I was able to capitalize on it,” Craven said. “I’m able to use my 25 years behind a steering wheel in a way that keeps me involved in the sport and connected to my fans, my peers and my friends. It keeps me in the game and I enjoy the camaraderie a great deal.”
He will spend most of his time at the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., including an eight-day stint leading up to the Sprint Cup series-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26.
He said he has enjoyed spending time with his family during the hiatus the last few months.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a better place,” he said.
Craven is looking forward to the NASCAR season and feels it will again have its share of intrigue. Last season, Tony Stewart rallied in the last race to edge Carl Edwards for the series title. Edwards held the points lead until the final race. Jimmie Johnson had won the previous five points championships.
“I have tremendous appreciation for what Tony Stewart did last year,” said Craven. “I expect Jimmie Johnson to come back with a vengeance. Jeff Gordon still has some gas left in the tank and it’ll be interesting to see how Kasey Kahne fits in at Hendrick Motorsports. Then you always have the Dale [Earnhardt] Junior watch and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Mark Martin win a race at age 53.”
He is also interested to see how Carl Edwards rebounds after last year’s devastating loss to Stewart in the last race; Danica Patrick’s progress and if the Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt, can overcome adversity and have good seasons.
Evey retired sportman’s dream! Congratulations.
Congratulations Ricky!
278 starts and 2 wins. I don’t know much about auto racing but I would shy away from his “expert analysis” if I was a racer or fan. That is one terrible record.
2 straight 2nd place finishes in the Nationwide Series point standings and Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, 2 bad crashes that were probably a setback for his career early on. Without those injuries, I bet he would have had some top 10 points finishes in the Cup Series, especially if he had been able to stay with Hendricks! More importantly, if you listened to his analysis during his part-time role with ESPN, you’d recognize that Ricky’s race commentary is considered top-notch by those who understand and follow NASCAR racing. I’ve never understood how many “Mainers” were Ricky “haters”? I suspect that many were local racers who were simply jealous of the success that Ricky did achieve in his racing career!
They might have been “Ricky Haters” because they knew him. Maybe Bangor/Newburg/Holden and alike are small towns and those that knew him didn’t like his attitude and they shared that with family and friends. Maybe some of the guys that worked on his own pit crew were “ricky haters” because of his attitude towards them. Maybe some on his crew felt he left the north for the south and were ashamed of his roots when he was in the cup. Maybe some people didn’t like getting pounded by family working at Ricky Craven Motorsports before the mystery fire in Belfast. Maybe some people don’t like red hair, I don’t know. Maybe some people liked him to start when he had a great rookie year but got sick and tired of rooting for a guy that couldn’t win, showed no passion, and very little skill. Hey, I’m no Nascar expert by any means.
As I said earlier, 278 starts and 2 wins…Expert? In some peoples world maybe not mine. That makes about as much sense as asking Nick Cage or Gary Busey for financial planning advice.
Ricky had more success at the top levels of racing than any other Maine native that I know of, so I think he should be applauded for that. He was hired by ESPN because he is good at providing insightful racing commentary, which is made more meaningful by the fact that he has experienced both the highs and lows of Cup racing. Sure, there are drivers with many more wins in the Cup series, but they are either not as good at being a TV commentator, or they don’t want to be one. As a comparison, some of the best baseball team managers were themselves very mediocre players, but their knowledge and understanding of what it takes to win makes them great managers. Ricky has always been very intelligent about things related to racing, even though he didn’t win as often as some others have.
Applaud him if you like. He did get some good breaks at the right time. There have been many great Maine drivers that didn’t get those breaks. Andy Santerre was a great driver with a ton of knowlege but didn’t make it to that level. Some of the Busch Whackers that have come to Oxford and been beat in recent years have been beaten by some good drivers too. I guess if you don’t know Ricky he can pass as a likeable enough fellow and you are right, many retired drivers were more comfortable behind the wheel then in front of the camera. Too bad he wasn’t. Lets face it, that is a ton of starts with only 2 wins. He still owes Dale Jarrett a chunk of anything he gets post driving career by not putting him in the catch fence at Martinsville. That win in the old tide ride put Ricky on the map as far as media popularity. For a while, and maybe still, that was the closest finish in Cup history. I will fully agree that he has found something he is better at then driving. I guess he can now sit there with the rest of us and listen to DW shout “pull them belts tight boys one more time, let’s go racing…boogity, boogity, boogity and watch Bill Elliot and Mark Martin and many other guys older than him that are passionate about driving still living the dream. Those boys are listening to “10 minutes to green flag” instead of “10 minutes till make up”.
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Its more then I won for sure but I didn’t see 278 green flags.
Well Bushfan, you pretty much summed it up with ” I don’t know much about auto racing” about yourself.
Thank you.
Bushfan likes lapping up Darrell Waltrip. Thinks that is “quality analysis” because Darrell has 83 wins. You can keep Darrell, Bushfan, Ricky is the best in the booth.
You also summed yourself up with your hasty analysis, ahhhh, a true Nascar fan. My guess is your are a “Junior” fan. Funny.
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Racing at it’s finest !!!!
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Ricky Cravens two winston cup wins have been voted by his peers as the two most exciting finishes in nascar ! And for anybody who thought the big wreck took the starch out of him, you should of seen him qualify first at Loudon New Hampshire the first time he came there after the big wreck ! He came out of the pits wide open and on the second lap had it sideways coming out of turn four and still qualified first ! He was cookin !
Has any other single-car-team driver won a race since Ricky did or is he still the last? I stopped following NASCAR after Ricky lost his ride.
Great job ESPN. Love hearing Craven’s professional, unbiased analysis. Now bring back Randy LaJoie and replace Rusty Wallace and Nicole Briscoe.
Great job ESPN. Love listening to Craven’s professional, unbiased analysis. Now bring back Randy LaJoie, love his humor and self depracatinng humor. Replace Rusty Wallace and Nicole Briscoe in the booth and you’ll have an all star line up.
He deserves what he has just received, his unbiased comentary is easier to listen to than , Rusty Wallace, Kyle Petty, Darryl Waltrips and any other ex-racer with family drivers, crew chiefs or other nepotism based comments !
Good for him. He’s one of the best commentators on the sport. Supremely professional, unbiased (unlike others), and not afraid to call out Nascar when they need to be called out. There’s lots of analysts of this sport that never say anything bad about the governing body, even when it needs to be said. Chocolate “once again” Meyers is the worst. Love the guy but good god he’s got his head stuck so far up Nascars behind it’s kind of embarrassing.