Ricky Rudd fans want to know about night racing, racing at Richmond International Raceway and multi-car teams in the Chase for the Championship. Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Ford Genuine Parts and Service Taurus, answers these question and others from his fans this week.

What is it about night races that make everybody get real mad if they get hit? "Well, I'm thinking short track races - it doesn't matter when you have it, tempers flare. At Bristol the conditions are tough for a driver. Fans seem to love that race, but from a driver's standpoint it is frustrating because you can have a good car and get penned up in traffic and there is not a thing you can do about it but just wait until the circumstances unfold and work your way through the traffic. Wrecks happen and a lot of times they are not your fault but you get swept up in it no matter how smart a race you've been running. You've got your plan about how things are going to work and all of a sudden somebody makes a mistake and you get swept up in it. As far as Bristol I think it is because there are so many things that are out of our control. You don't put Richmond in the same category as Bristol. It's maybe somewhat similar because when you have a wreck there you are running bumper to bumper. You are not in just a single line there, but you are running side-by-side. And, tempers flare because people get nudged or shoved, whether on purpose or by accident, and cars get wrecked and taken out. And, people feel like they've been wronged and they are going to vent some steam. That is just pretty much typical short-track racing."

At Richmond do you feel that multi-car teams will collaborate against the smaller or single-car teams in order to advance their own teammates? "First of all, where are the single-car teams in the top 10? There aren't any. They are all multiple-car teams. Some of them have more than one car in the top 10. The word 'small' team doesn't exist in NASCAR, at least not the way we used to know it. Who can guess what's going to happen? I can't. I can't predict what's going to happen. If one teammate has a broken motor running around on seven cylinders, is he going to be a blocker for the guy that's not? I've never seen it before. I've never experienced it. Is it going to start? I don't know. Who knows?"

In your eyes, what is the best thing about racing at Richmond International Raceway? "The good thing about Richmond, it's got a good track surface. It has at least two distinct racing grooves. If you are a faster car, you can pass on the bottom or you can pass on the top, so you have options there. That's the good thing about Richmond. You can race each other there. The track is big enough to where you can see some speed, but not big enough to get aero push going there."

Do you have the same routine to prepare for each race? "Race day is a pretty long, drawn-out, boring process most of the time. You have the driver's meeting that happens about two hours before the race. The later and later starts mean there is a lot of time to kill in the morning so it is a lot of hurry up and wait. Some race days we do have hospitality visits, but the routine - there is nothing major there. If it is a hot day you need to make sure you drink a lot of fluids. There really is no special format though."

Can you explain how the prize money for the driver is divided up? Do the team owners or pit crew get any? "I can't answer that exactly. You will see in the newspapers a published amount for each finish, and that is a little misleading. Drivers in general get anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of the purse, but the numbers you see in the paper include additional monies that would generally go to the car owner. So it is not truly a 50/50 split. It is more like 20/80 or 30/70 because the drivers don't generally share in a lot of that. As far as the crews, different teams do things differently. Some of the teams have a special incentive package that depends on race finishes or point finishes. At the end of the year that may be how bonuses are figured. It varies."

Have you ever raced on dirt? Would you be interested in racing a dirt late model, like Ken Schrader and Bill Elliott? "No thanks. I've had fun playing on dirt. We have some go-karts we've played with on dirt, but I've never run cars on dirt. It's not that I wouldn't like it, but right now it's a little late to teach an old dog new tricks."

Do you think the modular engine will replace the pushrod engines currently used in the NASCAR series? What is your opinion on this? "I'm not much of a motor guy, first of all, so I don't think I can answer that question. Pushrod motors are amazing that you can get 9,500 to 10,000 rpms with a pushrod motor, but I don't know about the modular engines."