The Saturday night race at Bristol is one of the highlights of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series for the fans. Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Keep It Genuine Taurus, will make his 54th career start at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, and he says, among other things, that the high-banked, .533-mile track in northeastern Tennessee presents drivers with a number of challenges as he answers questions this week from his fans.
What's most important at Bristol -- tires, shocks, or driver? "Tires are really a non- issue at Bristol. Shocks - there's no big magic. Everyone pretty much runs the same type of shock. What's important is to stay out of wrecks, and have your car handle good. To be able to put the throttle down when you come out of the corner and not have to lift it. If you can do that, you are going to be able to run up front if you can stay out of wrecks."
How much does "racing luck" come into play at a track like Bristol? "Probably 75, 80 percent of it where at most tracks it is more like 10 percent or something like that."
What features of the Bristol Motor Speedway stand out over the other tracks in the series? "I think Bristol is a fan's track and it is a real exciting track to go to and watch the race there. From a driver's standpoint, it can be a frustrating track because you can have a fast car and you can get hemmed up in traffic. It just takes a lot of driver patience, especially when you have a good car there and get bottlenecked up traffic. There probably is no other track that we run that takes that kind of driver discipline. It is pretty much a groove and a half wide. It is not a two-lane groove. A lot of patience and discipline takes place at Bristol on the driver's part."
Are you more aware of the fans at Bristol than at any other track? "Not really. You see colors, but at Bristol it seems like you are going 500 miles an hour in a little bowl. To me, I get more sensation of speed at Bristol more than at anywhere else we run. I'm not really sure why. I think it is because it is so banked and it's a little bumpy. You work pretty hard there."
Does anyone shift at Bristol? "No."
How important are aerodynamics at Bristol? "They are not really an issue. They might be a little bit in qualifying when you are on the track by yourself. But, when you put that many cars on the race track and you are down in that bowl and the air stays so disturbed all the time that aerodynamics doesn't enter into it. Cars can run just as fast with the front ends gone as they can with the front ends, so aero at Bristol does not matter."
How do you feel after you are done racing at Bristol? With the high banks, your body must be at an angle all the time that you are racing. Do you prepare beforehand like doing exercises or eating differently before going to Bristol? "You build your seats and such that your head stays propped up in the seat. You've got to make sure that you've got the right type of padding in your seat so that your head doesn't vibrate. If the padding is not fixed just right your vision gets distorted if it's not just right. You have to let the seat do the work. If the seat is not right, you'll catch yourself holding onto the steering wheel too hard, too tight. So you have to learn how to get propped up in the right corner of that seat, and make sure there are no pressure points there are bothering you. At some places you go to you just have to live with it. At Bristol you have to make sure it is right and comfortable. The other thing I do before Bristol is I do a lot of extra stretching to make sure I don't get any leg cramps."
Will you be bringing back the same car you guys ran in the first Bristol race or was that car hurt too bad to bring back? "I'm not sure what we're taking back. We had a car there last year that we ran very good with. I think we finished fourth and then we were running pretty good in the other race and got wrecked. It would make sense to carry that car back this year."
Is it true that Bristol is the track that everyone loves to race on and why? "I think Jeff Byrd and the folks at Bristol put that statement out there. Don't get me wrong. Bristol is different. It is an unusual track to drive. It gets very frustrating when you put 43 cars on that track, especially if you have an unscheduled pit stop or have to repair damage and have to start at the back of that field. You look in the mirror and there is the leader right there on your bumper. You have to turn up the wick when that happens. Even if you've run a very smart race the whole race, you can get swept up in somebody else's accident very easily because there are multiple caution flags there. So, it gets frustrating if you are getting toward the end of the race and you get swept up in someone else's accident. So, from that side of it, it is frustrating. But, you know that going into Bristol. You know when you start Bristol that the percentages of getting in an accident are greater than at any other tracks we run with the exception of maybe Daytona and Talladega."
Do the drivers like Bristol because it reminds them of Saturday night racing where they started their careers? "I never raced Saturday night tracks. I did like Bristol when it was blacktop just because it had at least two grooves of racing and you could go to the top and you could go to the bottom. You had some things you could do if your car was pushing or too tight. You could go to the top of the race track. You had different lines and you could change the car. Now, you are set up for the bottom of the race track, and you can sneak up about a half a lane higher than that, but that's it. They tried to keep it blacktop, but they repaved it and repaved it and it just wouldn't hold up. It would tear the asphalt up. But, the racing was better when it was blacktop. They tried and just couldn't get it done. The concrete seems to work there. If it would allow for two good lanes of racing I would look at the track the way I used to look at it."
Why do you race counterclockwise instead of clockwise on ovals? "I don't know. I haven't got a clue. That was way before I came along, and I've been around a long time."
How do you feel about fans on pit road? Do you prefer fans stay away just on race day or the whole weekend? "No, I think it's great that your support is there. Every driver is represented on pit road. It's a shame that there are so many fans that you can't take the time to go down and sign an autograph for every person there because there are hundreds now. We are very aware of them and we try to go over and sign autographs when we have time, especially when they have Ricky Rudd stuff on, we'll go over there and talk to them."
