Ricky Rudd, driver of the #21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus, will be making his 874th career start at Phoenix this coming weekend. And although the demands on a driver’s time have changed over the years, the competition hasn’t. It is still the number one thing that has brought Rudd back every weekend for the past 25 years. Ricky addresses a number of fan questions this week, including his car and racing at Phoenix, the rush of adrenalin at the start of an event and what he loves most about his sport.
Will you be using the same car you used at Phoenix in the spring? And, can you use the car you had at Martinsville a couple weeks ago? “I don’t know the answer to that. I just hope we don’t use the car we took to Phoenix the last time. It would make sense to me to take the Martinsville car, but it all depends on how much suspension travel it gets. So I don’t know if that car would work or not. Fatback knows, but the Martinsville car drove good, felt good and races good, so if it would work it would make sense to take it.”
Which is better – a loose or tight car at Phoenix, and is your preference different at different tracks? “Just whatever is fast. Some places you go, a tight car is fast and some places you go a loose car is fast. We always try to have a car that is fairly neutral, a neutral car with adjustability built into it. If you end up going with a tight car because you think tight is the way to go, you always build in some loosening tools just in case it is not the right way to go. But generally, the middle ground is the most practical, and we try to ride with that in practice with adjustments on either side of that for the race. There are so many variables – the way the body is on the car, the way it is set up. There are days when a car can go out front and win races tight. Years ago someone said you had to have a loose car to win. These tires are so sensitive now that a tight car abuses the right front tire and a loose car abuses the right rear. There are times if you know tires are going to be a problem and you’ve seen in practice that they are tearing up right fronts then you better make sure you’ve got a loose race car. If they are blowing right rears in practice then you better make sure that you have the balance shifted more to the front.”
At Phoenix, will the bump and run be an issue? “Phoenix is plenty wide down there in turn one. The bottom, top, inside, outside works there. It is kind of like a Pocono turn one. But, it gets pretty tight getting into the corner after the dogleg if you are at speed with two of you side by side. It gets a little bit of a handful getting in there, sometimes, side-by-side. Once you get in there and the car takes a set, then it opens up and you can run side-by-side again. You can get in there side-by-side, but the bottom guy has to be real careful that he doesn’t spin, and the guy on the outside has got to be careful that he doesn’t get a little bit wide and get the right-front tire out into the marbles. You sort of hold your breath there. Even if you are lapping a car there you have to be careful you don’t get your tire out in the loose marbles.”
Is there more adrenalin flowing at any time during the race, maybe on the first lap? “That settles down, but you can see accidents happen on the first lap because everyone’s adrenalin is really running high. Most of the time it is a 500-mile race or a 500-lap race. The races are really long, and they’ll tell you in the driver’s meeting pretty much every week, you don’t try to win it in the first lap. But, that doesn’t stop people’s adrenalin from going. And they can be really determined that they are not going to drop back any spots, and sometimes you just have to drive it the way circumstances dictate early in the race. Sometimes it works to get out front and get ahead of a bunch of cars. And, sometimes you have a lot of guys in over their heads and you need to let them go for a few laps until they get settled down and then you can go race. Traditionally, the accidents that happen within the first 10 laps are adrenalin related.”
Does team late-season momentum usually carry over from one season to the next? “It depends on what happens with the rules. Our team went in to the wintertime last year with a lot of momentum coming off the second-place finish at Kansas and really running strong at the end of the year. And, now you’ve got a different set of aero rules and you’ve got to cut an inch or so off the back spoiler, and that dictates you having to move the bodies around. So, if you were finishing on a high note, it sort of bursts your bubble. So you are starting the season with everything brand new, even though the cars look pretty much the same. What worked last year wasn’t going to work this year because of the spoiler change. So, that can be a momentum killer because the tools you were working with all of a sudden are gone. But, what if you have a good test at Daytona? “Daytona has no bearing whatsoever on what the season will be. Daytona is an animal by itself, and Talladega – Daytona and Talladega testing are pretty good indications of what you are going to do for four events out of the 38.”
How did you get the nickname ‘Rooster’? “Richard Broome, the crew chief I had back in about ’96 put that on me. I guess. Whenever something would happen that I’d lose my temper or whatever, he just compared it to a bantam rooster. He grew up on the farm and those little roosters get pretty feisty, I guess.”
When they give out the prize money, why, for example, a driver starts in 10th and ends up in 8th place makes less than a driver starting in 20th and ending in 11th place? “Without over-complicating it, what you see at the end of the race is a total gross number that the team took in for the weekend. There are various incentive plans that the teams are eligible for – a winner’s circle plan, one is a program if you finished in the top 30 in points the previous year, there is incentive money. You could start dead last and no matter where you finish you would get starting money plus those various incentive monies along with the purse money depending on where you finish. A lot of these plans have been initiated fairly recently. I think a lot of it came out when the new TV contract came out. Certain teams get percentages of the purse money based on previous finishes or championships. It is more a car-owner issue. They used to call it show money or tow money, and there are five or six a team might be eligible for. But a guy could finish last and might make more money than the guy that won the race, if the guy that won wasn’t on any plan. So it can be confusing. And, at different race tracks the incentives might be different. The guy who improves the most positions in a race might get $10,000. The guy who finishes fifth might get an incentive if he is using a Holley carburetor. So it is very hard to keep up with, but most of the time it is the car owner plans that make it look so radically different.”
What do you love most about racing? “I guess probably the number one thing I like is the competition. It sort of brings out the best in you. You have to step up to the plate 120 percent every weekend. I like the idea of the competition. A lot of people in amateur motorsports say they can’t wait until they can get to the big time. They say they want to be in the big time, I want to be at the Cup level, but what they don’t realize is when you cut through the money and all the other issues, it is really about beating the other competitors. That is what it is at the Cup level. You are up against the best in the business, so when you have a good day or win a race at the Cup level you know you have really accomplished something. That being said, I think too much emphasis has been put on being in the big time and they don’t enjoy today, but are always looking to get to that top level of racing. And, whatever equipment you are dealing with, whether it is a dirt bike, a go-kart or stock car, it really gets down to you are trying to beat the other competitors at that particular day’s event. Race days, to me, haven’t changed that much over the years. Once that window net goes up then you are in your own element. Everything that leads up to that has become more and more complex. There are more demands on your time. It’s like you have to go through all these distractions to get to that. Everything that leads up to that can get stressful, but race day hasn’t changed over 25 to 30 years. You do the rest of it just so you can have this opportunity.”