RICKY RUDD (Finished 32nd) - No. 21 Keep It Genuine Taurus - ON GETTING CAUGHT UPBARELY, IN A LAP 18 WRECK. "It was really a strange deal. You know, we didn't qualify that good, but we had moved quite a bit. We just passed Bobby Labonte and a bunch of those guys, and was moving forward and the caution came out, and I didn't know that we got into somebody, I guess we got into the 80 and didn't feel the contact but it did some fender damage. So, evidently, in and out of the pits, to get the damage repaired, we must have had a slow leak in the right rear. Must've run over some debris that we didn't see. And, we took off on the re-start and the car was loose, but just sort of felt like that maybe that fender damage was more severe than we thought. The guys said the tires looked like they were up, didn't look like a flat, and the next thing we know, we blow a right-rear tire. It happened so quickly, when it did blow, the casing tore apart and it tore the quarter panel off the car."
MORE ON WHAT HAPPENED. "Everybody put on brakes, and the wreck was happening in front of us, and everybody was dodging each other, and I didn't know I hit anybody until I saw the left rear of the 80 bent up in the air. I didn't feel the contact, but evidently it got our front fender and our day was over, I guess. That's what started our bad luck. Then, it was in and out of the pits trying to fix it, and it's a shame, we had a really, really good car. That's what I'm more upset about than anything - we didn't get a chance to run more race."
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED? Had a flat in a tire when I went back out on the track, and the car was real loose. I figured it might be the right-front fender damage, and ended up blowing a tire, a right-rear tire."