Richard Allen Craven (born May 24, 1966) is an American stock car racing analyst and former driver.

Craven is perhaps most well known for winning the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, beating Kurt Busch in the closest finish in Cup Series history at the time.

It stood for more than 20 years until Kyle Larson bested Chris Buescher by a margin of 0.001 seconds at Kansas in May of 2024.

[2] Craven began racing at the age of 15 at Unity Raceway, winning twice as well as the Rookie of the Year award.

25 Chevrolet, with two of those ten wins in "combination" races with the Busch Grand National Series, including the prestigious Oxford 250.

In addition, he made his Winston Cup debut at Rockingham, starting and finishing 34th for Dick Moroso.

In 1995, Craven teamed up with Larry Hedrick Motorsports and Kodiak to run for Winston Cup Rookie of the Year.

This crash was similar[citation needed] to Jimmy Horton's barrel roll in 1993 where he cleared the track.

Craven's flip completely sheared the catchfence off the turn and NASCAR threw a lengthy red flag to make repairs.

He walked away, but fell to twentieth in points and only had one Top 5 finish and one pole for the rest of the season At the end of the year, Craven left Hedrick to drive the No.

After the 1998 season started, the side effects of the concussion began to appear, and Craven was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, and was forced to miss several races until he recovered.

In the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway, he battled Kurt Busch for the win, defeating him by .002 seconds in what was voted in December 2009 as the "Finish of the 2000s" in the Sprint Cup Series.

After he did not post a single Top 10 finish three-quarters of the way through 2004, he was replaced by Bobby Hamilton Jr., and only returned to run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his home track.

His last Cup start was the 2004 EA Sports 500 at Talladega, where he drove in a development car for Joe Gibbs Racing, the No.

However, a brutal stretch of finishes led to a free fall in the point standings, and it was announced that he would be gone from Roush at the end of the year.