WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Ricky Rudd is the Stealth bomber of stock car racing: quiet, efficient and capable of dropping a well-placed zinger on the opposition.
After an early-season stint on top, Rudd since May has hovered just behind defending champion Dale Earnhardt in the Winston Cup standings. With 12 top- 10 finishes in 18 events - including one victory and two seconds - Rudd enters Sunday's Budweiser at the Glen (1 p.m. EDT, ESPN) 160 points behind the leader.
While Earnhardt hasn't won at the Glen, Rudd has victories in two of the last four races on the road course. Rusty Wallace won the other two.
Labeled a ``smooth'' road racer vs. Wallace's hard-charging image, Rudd earned his combat stripes in June at Sears Point (Calif.) when - after tagging Davey Allison on the last lap - his win was stripped and awarded to Allison.
``That race still upsets me, but it's over and done with,'' said Rudd, who like Wallace has five career road-course wins. ``The only thing I could do to protest was quit racing, and I'm not about to do that.''
Especially now, as the NASCAR series heads into the home stretch with Rudd, 34, perfectly poised to parlay his consistent runs - he leads in laps completed with 7,090.99 to Earnhardt's 7,045.15 - into his first Winston Cup title.
``Even if we win Watkins Glen, I wouldn't mind hanging around second (in the standings) for the rest of the year and then taking the championship at the last race (Nov. 17 at Atlanta),'' Rudd said. ``To me, that's the only way to do it.''
DIFFERENT STAKES: Saturday's $670,000 International Race of Champions finale won't be the usual NASCAR vs. CART showdown. Winston Cup drivers Bill Elliott and Wallace want to beat one another even more than they do Indy-car pilot Scott Pruett.
Wallace, with wins at Talladega (Ala.) and Michigan, leads Elliott by a mere six points. Should he triumph, Wallace will be the first driver in IROC history to win three consecutive events.
Elliott, runner-up three times this season, will collect the $170,000 top prize if he can win the race and lead the most laps - or finish at least two spots ahead of Wallace.
``My best shot is if Rusty makes a mistake,'' Elliott said. ``Either that, or hope his car goes backward.''
Wallace starts from the pole; Elliott beside him. Pruett, winner of the Daytona opener, and NASCAR's Mark Martin are the only other drivers with a chance to wrest the title.