Checker Auto Parts 500 - Ricky Rudd Notes
11-02-04
Ricky Rudd: “Any time you have a car that runs really well on the inside, generally it will run good on the outside.”
Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Taurus, is scheduled to make his 750th consecutive NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend. The former Phoenix winner (1995) talks about what it takes to get to the front at the Arizona mile, what kind of cars work well there and how one gets into NASCAR’s top series.
You won at Phoenix from the 29th starting spot. Most of the best cars were making passes on the inside, but you were able to pass on the outside. Is having a car that handles good on the high side of extra importance at Phoenix and is that the only way you can win there? “I’ve had cars that would run on the outside there, and I’ve also had cars that would run on the bottom. Any time you have a car that runs really well on the inside, generally it will run good on the outside. Generally, some time during the race the bottom groove goes away and you have to move up. But, I would prefer to have a car that you can run on the bottom the whole way. If that were the case then you could run on the outside.”
I remember you leading the final laps in the 28 a couple years ago, and a lapped car wrecked in front of you and took the win away from you. Can you describe what went through your mind at that moment? “It was pretty tough emotionally. You get geared up. I can’t remember what happened that day. I remember we had cars wreck in front of us, but you can’t really let your guard down, but it looked like we had that race won. We had Jeff Burton behind us chomping on the bit pretty hard, but it looked like we had them covered that day. All of sudden, your worst fear happens. You get a couple of lapped cars racing pretty hard that shouldn’t have been side by side with the leaders coming up, but they were, and they ended up wrecking in front of me. One of them went down in the grass and came back up in front of me and we got into them and the race was over. That is a pretty big letdown all of a sudden from such a big high to such a big low at the end of the race.”
Does Phoenix warrant its own car or do you use one you have already raced this season? “No. It’s not that it doesn’t warrant it. It’s just that a car that will run at Martinsville or a car that would run at some of your intermediate flat tracks would also do well there.”
Is there any track on the circuit where you use only that car? “Martinsville is almost getting to be a car of its own. Your road courses, where they used to have one for each road course, now you have a car that can run at both of them since they changed Sears Points around so much. Other than specific road-course cars and the superspeedways, where you have a car that is unique only to Daytona and Talladega, your short-track car is getting to be where they have a car of their own now.”
What is the best part of racing? How many races do you think you've driven in? I am seven yrs old and you're my favorite driver. “I’m still looking (laughing). I’ll let you know when I find it. I don’t know. I guess it’s the competition. It forces you to be at your best.”
Have Fatback and Hoyt been signed for next year? “Yes.”
Can you get a ride in NEXTEL Cup without going through Busch and Truck Series? “Maybe the only possible way is if you run Indy Car races or something like that. But now you have to submit a resume before you go to a track, and they scrutinize it pretty heavily. When I came along, I went straight to Rockingham, North Carolina, and you can’t do that any more.”
When you first started your career in NASCAR were there any drivers that really helped teach you things? Are there any drivers you think you've taught some things to? “When I got going it was a different time then. The guy that gave me really a break was a local guy, Bill Champion. I drove his car in the Cup series. I’d been go-kart racing the week before and he gave me a chance to run his car. He was instrumental because he gave me something to try. Then, when we had our own car the guy who would come by and try to help us was James Hylton. James was a pretty good race-car driver. His career was starting to wind down, but he still was doing really well and it seemed he could always find time to come by and help. At the different tracks with different peculiarities, he would always make it a point to come by and throw some information out to me that would be helpful. He gave me some good tips when I first got going that I still use today. Most of the time the young guys that are coming in today have a lot of races under their belts by the time they get to the Cup races now. So they are not as raw as the rookies of old. They are pretty seasoned by the time they get here. They have kind of worked through a lot of those things. Rookies like they used to have coming into the series don’t exist any more. With the onboard computer systems and the people they have working on these cars, they are getting good advice from the team engineers and the crew chiefs. They are looking at data when they go to test, and they can tell what they are doing right or wrong.”
Do you believe you would have had a better chance to win the championship in past years under the current system? “Probably so because we finished in the top 10, I think, 19 times over 24 full seasons. If you could make it to the top 10, then it’s anybody’s guess. It is kind of who has the best luck that is going to win this thing. It’s the guy who doesn’t break anything or doesn’t wreck that is going to win. It’s hard to say. I’ve never gone back and looked at it that way. The real race is to get to the top 10, and it’s anybody’s guess as to who is going to win it.”
Does Landon play the NASCAR video games, and if so, does he like to be you or race against you? “Yeah, he does. He does it both ways. It’s probably 50/50.”
