Mike Beam, a native of Hickory, N.C., seized the opportunity to come back home to work with a top-flight Winston Cup team in 2001. Beam, who most recently had worked in Statesville, N.C., with Bill Elliott Racing and Stuart, Va., with the Wood Brothers, joins Hickory-based PPI Motorsports, which signed driver Ricky Craven in the off-season. Beam, 45, began his career as a crew chief in 1981 working with Kyle Petty in his first full Winston Cup season at Petty Enterprises.