RICKY RUDD: "...I didn't take into perspective at the time ... that it'll probably be the last time an owner/driver will win that race."
Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Ford Genuine Parts and Service Taurus, is the only owner/driver to win the prestigious Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This week's questions from fans ask about, among other things, that victory in 1997, the pole he won there in 2000, and how tire changers do what they do so quickly.
HOW DID THE TEST GO AT INDIANAPOLIS? CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CARS YOU TOOK, AND YOUR FEELINGS BEFORE AND AFTER THE TEST? "We tested there, it must've been about three weeks ago. We didn't test in qualifying trim, so we didn't put any really fast laps up. We started off not going too good - I mean, we weren't very competitive - and they kept working on the cars, and we left there, and we still weren't really 100 percent satisfied. I think we really needed to be about three-tenths, four-tenths better to consider ourselves being a really good car there. So, we probably won't go back with the same car; we'll probably take the car that we got from the Roush team, Mark Martin's team. I think we inherited a car to use for at least a couple of weeks. I really like the way that it drove at Chicago. We got wrecked early and didn't get a chance to really see what we have, but I like the way that the car drove, so we'll probably go back with that car."
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOUR WIN AT THE BRICKYARD HAS MEANT TO YOU? "At the time, it was a big, big win, obviously, but I think as time goes by, what it probably means a little different to me that I didn't take into perspective at the time is that it'll probably be the last time an owner/driver will win that race. I think it was the one and only time. But the way the sport is headed at this point and time in history, it'll probably be the last time that somebody wins it as an owner/driver and I think that carries, to me, more weight than it did when I originally won it. I didn't really think of that aspect of it, just wining it was an awfully big deal, but to have that in the record book, not only as a driver but as an owner will carry more weight. It was just a big day. Again, it's kind of one of those type of races that you can win a lot of races over the years, but the ones that will come to your mind, that really sort of stand out, are the Daytona 500s or the Brickyard 400 are probably the highlight ones."
YOU'VE WON A POLE AT INDY. WOULD YOU DESCRIBE A FAST LAP THERE? "To run good or qualify good there, first of all, you've got to have the luck of the draw. But the way they do their qualifying format now it's a lot more fair to everybody. I think it starts at 10 a.m. and it's probably over about 11:30, so the really hot race track really doesn't kick in until later in the afternoon. When we were there testing a couple of weeks ago, what we were happy about the test is that it's going to simulate true conditions, probably a lot better than normal. Going there early, sometimes you get cool temperatures. The track temperature was 147 degrees when we were there testing. So, from that standpoint, we got a good test in because it was so hot. But, again, back to qualifying, if you got a good car and you get the early draw, it definitely can be worth a little bit of speed there. Back when we won the pole I think we went in the afternoon, back when everybody went. But, you just have to have the car really hooked up in the corners, and then it takes a lot of horsepower to get down the straightaways. But, being able to get in the corners and not have to lift the throttle all the way - you need to be able to stay in the throttle a little bit, keep your momentum going. Indy's a momentum track, so you got to enter the corner, not bleed off too much speed, the car really has to handle and stick good to be able to carry the momentum into that next straightaway, whether it be the short shoots or the backstretch. A big thing you have to work on is being able to carry momentum through the corner and have that work for you, enter the straightaway at higher rate of speed. If you're having a little trouble there and you get off on your corner speed, you never seem to get it back. You're on the straightaway, but you never truly regain that speed that was lost on the exit of the corner. So, again, you just got to handle good there and take advantage of the motor that we'll have there."
WILL YOU BE USING THE NEW FORD ENGINE AT INDY? "The way I understand it, we'll have the new-style motor there."
AFTER SEEING JIMMY SPENCER AND KEVIN HARVICK SIT OUT RACES DUE TO POOR CONDUCT, WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON HOW NASCAR HAS DEALT WITH TONY STEWART THIS SEASON, AND WHERE SHOULD THEY DRAW THE LINE? DO YOU FEEL THERE MAY BE AN INCONSISTENCY DUE TO HIS PRIMARY SPONSOR? "I'm just a big believer that you have to treat everybody the same, it doesn't matter if you're running last on the track or you're winning races every week. I think as a competitor you'd like to see the rules the same for everybody. And whether it be a stiff penalty or a weak penalty, whatever those penalties are, they need to be in black and white. So, if you intentionally wreck somebody, and you know that the penalty is that you're going to be called into the pits - in the old days, not too many years ago, they had the penalty box, and they would bring you in and they would discuss what you did wrong, and you'd go a couple of laps down. Now, I haven't seen it used in quite a few years; it worked when they used it. I don't know, I can always speculate. My belief is that everybody has to be treated the same."
WHY ARE THERE 43 CARS ON THE STARTING GRID AS OPPOSED TO 44 - OR EVEN MORE, SUCH AS 46? AND, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON ADDING MORE CARS TO THE FIELD? "I don't know why 43 is the number. When I first started racing, I think 40 cars was the number, and that was for the big tracks. The short tracks, I think Martinsville was, like, 33. Thirty-three cars in Martinsville is plenty of race cars. Forty-three cars is too many, to me. It's just jammed up like a big gridlock - to me what it just sort of reminds you of a gridlock on a big interstate highway around a major town in rush hour. There's just not a lot of space there. More, you wouldn't even know if you started 60 or 70 cars at a Pocono or a big track, it wouldn't be a big issue. But, for certain, you wouldn't want to start more on the shorter tracks."
DO YOU THINK THE WOOD BROTHERS WOULD HAVE MORE SUCCESS WITH A TWO-CAR TEAM? IT LOOKS LIKE ALL THE TOP-RANKED TEAMS ARE MULTI-CAR TEAMS? "Well, if you're going to run as a single team, what they did this year makes a lot of sense. Obviously, we haven't had the results that we feel like we should have, but if you're a single-car team and if you don't have any immediate plans or finances or sponsors to allow you to run a second operation, then you have no choice but to work out some kind of arrangement with one of the multi-car teams, and that's what the Wood Brothers and Roush Racing have done, where you're not sort of in that box by yourself, you can kind of see what's going on. Just saying, 'I'm going to a second team,' just to do it, doesn't make sense. It's kind of a Catch-22. There's a lot of teams that would like to expand, but you're not able to expand because you really need to run good with your primary car to attract sponsorship interests. So until that happens, then there's not a lot of people standing in line wanting to get on board to be help for the second team."
FROM A NEW RACE FAN ON PIT STOPS: I NOTICED THAT THE WHEELS ARE ATTACHED WITH SEVERAL LUGNUTS. WHEN THE TIRE-CHANGER REMOVES THE WHEEL AND TIRE, THERE ARE NO LUGNUTS TO BE SEEN. THEN WHEN THE NEW TIRE IS PLACED ON THE HUB, THE GUY JUST WRENCHES THEM ON. ARE THE LUGNUTS ATTACHED TO THE WHEEL ITSELF? (I was guessing that the nuts are in a long socket, spring-loaded perhaps, that sucks them in as they are removed, then feeds them on one at a time when attaching the new wheel.) "that's a good observation. It's pretty simply done. There's a yellow glue, it's used for trim adhesive in the automobile business. Every race you have to clean and prep the wheels. The wheel itself has a 45-degree taper. Obviously, you have a hole where the stud goes through, but in the wheel itself there's a 45-degree taper. The lugnut has an opposing 45-degree taper on it. So what they do is they lay glue around the inside of that wheel, just real lightly, you have to be careful not to put too much glue on it, but they glue that ring where the lugnut will seat. They have the lugnuts cleaned and prepped, and they lay them in place and then they have a heavy metal plate that presses on them that keeps them centered up. The tire changer wants those lugs to fly out of there, he doesn't want them to hang around, especially hang in the socket. There is no spring, by the way, in the socket. Every other tooth on the socket is machined away, but that's one reason the lugs fly out of the socket, which is what they want. They put the new wheel up there with the lugs glued in place. The first inch of the studs on the car are polished, there are no threads on them. So when the wheel goes up there, there's a smooth part of the stud that the lugs, if the glue does its job and it's prepped correctly, when a wheel is placed on the hub, the first inch of the stud the lugnut goes through so the lugnut is ready for the air gun to hit it and wrench it on there. If everything works right, you don't touch the lugs by hand. It doesn't always work correctly, the glue can be temperamental to glue and so on. In pit practice sometimes, the guys have got a spring-loaded lug, that instead of having to glue it, it holds it attached to the wheel until a guy can change it. To pretty much sum it up, the lugs are glued to the wheel, the wheel goes up on the hub, the studs allow the lugs to go up about an inch onto the stud before the thread starts, and the tire-changer simply comes around and never releases the gun pressure and just zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. If it goes right, you got a good tight wheel and you're ready to go."