Two days after an accident knocked him out of last month's Sharpie 500, with another wrecked car to dump atop the pile of scrap metal that seemed to symbolize his ever-increasing heap of failure and frustration, Ricky Craven met with team owner Cal Wells to discuss the duo's professional future.

"Our focus was about improving the team," Craven said, "and it got to the point where we weren't productive, and we weren't helping one another, and we weren't doing either one of us any good. We got to the point where we decided to split."

Craven, a former Concord resident, had agreed in July to give up his seat in Wells's Nextel Cup No. 32 Tide Chevrolet at the end of the season. But when the team continued to struggle, and slumped to an average finish of 30.5 after announcing that decision, Wells and Craven began to talk about ending their association sooner. Bobby Hamilton Jr. had already been chosen as Craven's replacement for 2005, and so, after several discussions, a frustrated Craven stepped out of the car and into an uncertain future that he vows will include a continuance of his racing career.

"Our intention in July was to finish the year together," Craven said yesterday from his North Carolina office. "If you go back and look at our first two, two and a half years together, our numbers were very, very good. We had won two races, three poles, several top fives, top 10s, and we were good for one another. It was productive. But the flip side of that was the last nine to 12 months. Particularly the last six months. Our discussion in July, and our intention, was to finish the year together.

"But the lame duck situation wasn't working, and it wasn't comfortable. Or, I should say, it became uncomfortable. There's no question it was time to at least discuss what our options were, and Cal was well down the road as far as his 2005 plans and he wanted to accelerate that."

So Hamilton raced in the Tide ride last week at California, as he will for all but one race the remainder of the season. Craven will climb back into the seat Sept. 19 at New Hampshire International Speedway, where the native of Newburgh, Maine, considers his home course the perfect spot to satisfy the driver's and owner's desire to race together one more time.

"There's nothing that quite compares with me going to New Hampshire," Craven said.

A good performance would be of indescribable satisfaction to Craven, but it may not lift 18 months of disappointment dating back to his side-by-side win at Darlington over Kurt Busch. Since that triumph in March 2003, Craven has only six top-10 finishes, none of which have come this season.

"There's no question that I don't think I've ever been more frustrated," he said. "Disappointed isn't really appropriate because any time you're not performing well, you're disappointed. That's a given. The frustration of being so close - when we won Darlington last year, I felt like we were a teammate away from taking that next step."

Now more than ever, NASCAR success is predicated on teamwork, and as the only driver employed by Wells's PPI Motorsports, Craven was behind the eight-ball from the beginning. Coming into this season he was optimistic his car could slide into a slot in the Cup series' Chase for the Championship - the playoff system in which the top 10 point-getters qualify - but only if it had the information-sharing and tactical advantages of a multi-car outfit.

"The fact is, that didn't happen and it took its toll on the team," Craven said. "As a single car team, statistically we did some wonderful things in 2001, 2002, 2003. But being a single-car team caught up with us. I obviously was frustrated with being in the situation we were in, and I know it had the same effect on the whole team."

Asked yesterday if he would be hesitant to join another single-car team down the road, Craven answered quickly. "Absolutely," he said.

However, Craven insists he intends on remaining a part of the Nextel Cup series, NASCAR's premier level of stock car racing. He'll race in the Craftsman Truck Series at NHIS later this month as part of a once-a-year program through General Motors, but Craven said the trucks or the Busch Series don't "have my attention right now" in terms of future employment. Instead, he'll watch his Cup colleagues compete in the stretch drive of this season, looking to capitalize on what he characterizes as a lack of patience among team-leading higher-ups.

"These next 10 races are very, very exciting for NASCAR," he said. "It's creating a lot of excitement, and it's gotten a lot of attention. But I think the flip side of it is that in the last 10 races of the year, you're going to see teams and team members that have fallen short. There's going to be some disappointments, and maybe some team owners that will recognize how significant being a part of this top 10 is because of all of the exposure and the attention it will give to the drivers and the teams within the top 10.

"I think that's going to create some opportunity. At least that's my opinion; this could create some opportunity, and that's what I'm focused on. I'll give a lot of attention to where I might like to be next year, and then if an opportunity exists, I'll go after it. (Team executives are) not a very patient group. This sport doesn't sit still, and there will be casualties as a result of that lack of patience. I think there's certainly a market for 38 year olds."

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