Craven Takes a Step Down to Victory

A couple of Winston Cup drivers stepped down in class to run in the California 200 for Winston West stock cars Saturday at California Speedway and stole the show.

Ricky Craven, driving a Ford, passed Ken Schrader’s Chevy for the lead on the 73rd of 100 laps, then cruised to victory when Schrader ducked into the pits for fresh tires during a caution period.

“We pitted ‘cause we weren’t going to get around him,” Schrader said of Craven. “We had to try something.”

On his fresh rubber, Schrader moved through the field after the restart and moved into second with three laps left. But there he stayed as Craven motored to the victory at an average speed of 113.58 mph.

“The car we had had a really strong engine,” Craven said. “It was up about 10 horsepower on Kenny’s, or else his was about 10 down to ours. This is a better car than the one I’m going to drive [today, in the California 500 for Winston Cup cars].”

Rick Carelli, a Winston West regular, finished third in a Chevy.

Two drivers, Brendan Gaughan of Las Vegas and Gary Smith of Canada, escaped serious injury after their cars collided in a fiery crash.

Both cars had already experienced trouble and were out of control when they hit, tail to tail, producing a giant fireball.

Both got out of their cars and were examined at the infield hospital. Gaughan suffered minor burns on his face and one hand.