Pocono: Horsepower or aero? Ricky Rudd: "It's a combination of both. It definitely helps to have horsepower because of the long straightaways, but you have to have aero for the corners ..."
Ricky Rudd, driver of the #21 Ford Genuine Parts and Service Ford, has both a win and a pole at Pocono International Raceway. So he understands what is needed to get around the Pennsylvania 2.5-mile triangle. The track drives like a road course with three distinct turns. Ricky discusses all of that and more while answering these questions from his fans.
Pocono Speedway has been compared to a road course. Can you use the same car there that you would take to Watkins Glen or Sonoma? If so, what are the major changes that must be made? "You don't run the same car. When you hear the comparison to a road course to Pocono, it is a left-hand road course where the road courses we run are primarily right-hand corners. So that would be biggest difference. It (Pocono) just drives similarly to a road course. But, again the same car wouldn't work because one is built to go to the right and one is built to go to the left."
Which of the three distinct turns at Pocono do you find the most challenging and why? "They are all different from one another. You hear people talk about different corners that you need to be set up for. Generally, you need to be pretty good in all of them. And, when you are really right you are pretty good in all of them. But there are compromise corners. Probably turn one is one of them because it is pretty high banked. There is not a lot of time to be made or lost in turn one, but there is in turn two and turn three. So if you had to focus on corners you would probably be better to focus on the tunnel turn and coming down the front straightaway from turn three. Most of your speed is made or lost in those corners. Turn one, you don't have to be perfect and you can still get through there pretty good."
Will you be using the new Ford engine? "I hear we are. That will be an advantage over the competition, but it will just get us back on an even foot with the competition."
Do you consider Pocono an aero or horsepower track? "It's a combination of both. It definitely helps to have horsepower because of the long straightaways, but you have to have aero for the corners there, so it is a combination. There's probably no other race track that we run where you really have to have both to win. You can have the best horsepower in the world, but when you get to the corner and you lose a second in the corner, you're not going anywhere. More downforce helps to get you through the corners, but then when you get to the straightaway you need a strong motor to overcome it. Horsepower will show up there quite a bit, but handling good and then complimenting it with horsepower will give you a shot at winning."
How many times a lap do you shift and when? Is the clutch used during shifting? "Everybody shifts there. For years with the transmission we had you would be in third when you got to the start/finish line and you would pull it back into fourth gear down into turn one. And you would downshift it into third, and you would run third all the way back around until you got back to the start/finish line. That was the combination we used for years and years to be successful. Now, because the motors are built to run at a higher RPM, most of the guys are shifting twice. You make the same shift on the front straightaway, maybe a little earlier, though. And you would still run in third all the way to turn two, but then you have to put it back into high gear. And then you have to downshift to third again going into turn two. So, add them up. It used to be you would shift twice a lap and now you shift four times a lap."
What would you say has changed the most with the race cars over the years? "Probably to sum it up the quickest: technology. I heard the other day the Hendrick's organization has 400 people working for them. When I was there in 1990, I want to say we probably had 15 on our team and then the guys in the motor shop. It just shows you how far it has come. The money has bought the technology, and the technology takes all these people to implement the changes. It's a Catch 22. The money started coming and with the extra money comes extra R & D (research and development), and the extra R & D takes more and more people. So the biggest thing would be the technology, particularly with engineering in the aero and the motors. When I first started running Winston Cup in the mid to late '70's, 500 horsepower was a lot of horsepower. The same basic engine that you had then you have now and a lot of the same rules existed then, but they are making 800 horsepower. So that is a big gain, isn't it? And downforce - these cars used to make probably 200 pounds of downforce, 300, max. And now they are making anywhere from 1500 to 2000 pounds of downforce. And the speeds have gone up. The speeds when I first ran - the pole at Charlotte was 155 miles an hour, and now it's a 180-something. The technology opens the door to computers, the wind tunnel, the scale model wind tunnels, the engine stuff. So, a lot of things are different. But the technology has gotten very aggressive with implementing all the latest and greatest resources available."
Do you agree with NASCAR's new green-white-checkered rule? Would you change it in any way? "As a competitor, it is going to work for you on some days and some days it will work against you. The car owners are going to tear up more cars, and they are not going to be a big fan of it later on. It is going to get more expensive for them. The shop will be fixing wrecks. But the fans are going to love it. I think it is going to be exciting for the fans. It's a fan rule. That's who keeps the sport going. We'll try it and see how it goes."
Do you think there is a possibility that only 10 cars will be racing at the end of the season? "No, but I'm afraid that is what is going to happen from the media standpoint. That is why sponsors get involved in racing, for the exposure and so on. But, what I'm afraid is going to happen is that television is not going to know that the rest of the competitors exist. That's going to upset the sponsors, and sponsors are not the easiest things to find in this day and time. So, we'll see. I think one of the fallouts may be that we could potentially run off some good sponsors for the sport."
Is there any movement afoot to reverse the impact of technology in NASCAR? The racing 30 years ago was better and more thrilling. Now the cars are "better" than the tracks and the "rubbin' racing" of the past has vanished. "That is NASCAR'S call. As long as these cars are aero-dependant, you are going to have problems. Until you take aero out of the equation you are going to see races stretched out. They get bunched up on the restart, but then they are going to get stretched out. That is just the nature of it because the cars are dependant on the air. And the only guy that's got clean air is the leader. The other guys are running in dirty air so they aren't handling as good. The trucks don't have as much down force and they've had some good racing.
Have the quys in your pit crew been with you for years? Did any come over from your crew on the 28 Ford? "No, none from the 28."
