The last two years, Ricky Craven couldn't leave Las Vegas fast enough.

He came to Sin City with what he thought was a competitive car, yet fell victim to bad luck both times. A broken oil line in 2001 caused Craven to finish 41st, while a flat tire ruined his day in last year's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

	Ricky Craven has not enjoyed good luck in the past at Las Vegas.

But Craven heads into Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 with much more optimism, particularly after last week's fourth-place finish at Rockingham, N.C.

Why, despite his misfortune the last two seasons, Craven is feeling downright lucky this year, with high hopes of escorting Lady Luck to Victory Lane.

"Our objective is to go into Vegas and obviously run well, but finish the job," he said. "The last two years we have not been able to do that. We've gone into Vegas each of the last two years being in the top-10 in points, but then we wound up leaving outside of the top-10 in points after the race. So, one of our objectives this year is to leave Las Vegas in the top-10 in points."

Craven's run at Rockingham vaulted him 17 positions from 25th to eighth in the standings. Now he just wants to stay there. But he isn't taking the track lightly, either.

"Vegas is the wrong town to go to thinking that it owes you one," Craven said. "I really enjoy what I'm doing and I love driving for the Tide team and I've got a great group of people. I'm having as much fun as I've ever had, and I believe we can contend anywhere we go. There are places we expect to run better than others, and that's just a fact. For example, we expect to run better at Martinsville than we do at Sears Point.

"But a place like Las Vegas, a mile and a half track that really isn't that difficult, is a place that we can perform because we've performed at other mile and a half tracks. We got a top-5 finish at Atlanta last year, and finished third in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. So, we know we can go out there and perform and run well. We just have to all do our jobs."

Even though the season is just two races into the grueling 36-race schedule, Craven is arguably the biggest surprise thus far.

"The 26th-place finish we had in Daytona was not a reflection of how we ran," Craven said. "We were much better than that and certainly had the potential to finish in the top-10, but we fell victim to the weather. We gave ourselves a shot there to have a top-five finish if circumstances had worked out.

	“	I don't think there's anything more important than confidence, in large part because it's so difficult to get from a team's perspective. And, there's no substitute for running well or finishing well, and the confidence that comes from all that is so valuable. ”
		— Ricky Craven

"But instead, we moved on to Rockingham knowing that we were much better than a 26th-place finish. Rockingham was very good for us, maybe even a little better than we expected, considering all the changes we went through during the off-season. What I was most impressed with was how well everyone worked together for having such little time together. Fortunately, the pit crew is the same crew members we had last year that worked for us. That was an advantage -- keeping and retaining people is always an advantage. They gave us some great pit stops that allowed us to maintain a top-five run all day and finish fourth. That was a good run for us and for the second race."

What made the No. 32 team's performance more notable was it was the first time PPI Motorsports used its own motors, having previously farmed out engine development the last few seasons.

"Four months ago, the engine program didn't even exist," Craven said. "They've done some incredible things in a very short period of time. Let's face it, in their debut (at Rockingham), the engine program for PPI qualified sixth and finished fourth. That's a hell of a debut.

"So, from that standpoint, it's a little bit of a surprise. Plus, my communication with crew chief Scott Miller is fabulous. Those things are all going to pay off. I think we're on-track. I don't think we're ahead or behind of where I expected to be this early in the season. Although, a top-five finish in the first two races is a bonus, it really is."

Now the biggest question staring Craven and the rest of his team in the face is whether they can build upon the Rockingham finish and do just as well, if not better, Sunday.

"I don't think there's anything more important than confidence, in large part because it's so difficult to get from a team's perspective," Craven said. "And, there's no substitute for running well or finishing well, and the confidence that comes from all that is so valuable. That's one of the things I value about Rockingham is that we gave ourselves a chance to win because we ran top-5 all day. The message to the team is that we need to run that way every week to win some races.

"We think that we're going to go to Las Vegas more confident perhaps than if we didn't have such a good finish at Rockingham. Being that it's a new car, a new engine program, a new crew chief -- all those things, I believe, will help make us a better racing team, but they come with risks. And, when you qualify sixth and run top-five all day, you help eliminate some of those risks."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.