Rudd sitting in comfort
By Al Levine
c. 2002 Cox News Service
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. -- If he should get off to a quick start this season, Ricky Rudd might change the way Winston Cup drivers prepare for a new year.
Maybe all the test sessions at various speedways are unnecessary. How about a nice bumpy ride on a snowmobile?
When Rudd climbed into the No. 28 Ford for his first Speedweeks practice, it was his first time in the car since Nov. 23 at New Hampshire.
The 76-day non-driving stretch was the longest in Rudd's 25-year career. Offseason surgery to repair a bulging disk in his lower back had literally put Rudd flat on his back for weeks.
It wasn't until three weeks ago that he finally climbed back into the driver's seat of a vehicle. But it was a snowmobile in Michigan on one last fun off-weekend. Someone else put the 28 car through January shakedown tests while Rudd was still recuperating from the December operation.
Apparently, the long break has had no effect on this season. Rudd will start ninth in Sunday's Daytona 500.
"The doctor told me the longer I stayed out of the car, the better my chances of it never recurring again," Rudd said. "The only problem you've got with this operation is that you may rush the healing process."
Not many were aware of the back pain Rudd had to endure last season. Four engine failures weren't the only sources of aggravation for his team.
His pain was so great that after most races from midseason on, Rudd had to be pulled through the window of his car by crew chief Michael McSwain.
"I would make it to the hauler and lay down on the floor for about 10 minutes, flat on my back," Rudd said. "Then I was fine to get up and go to the airport or whatever."
He said he rolled out of bed one morning before the May race at Dover thinking he'd slept wrong. But years of sitting in a race car had taken a toll.
The impact of driving a stock car down a speedway at 160-180 mph, Rudd said, is "like riding a go-kart down a set of railroad tracks with no suspension. The only thing that takes the impact is your spinal column."
A bad habit of slumping in his race car seat only made matters worse.
"Once I got into that race car and into that form-fitted seat, I was good," Rudd said. "I just couldn't get out of the seat too quick and I couldn't stand up or sit down real quick."
He'd get in the car for practice and be stuck, literally.
"If we had a two-hour practice session, it was such an effort to get in and get out of the car that once I got in the car I stayed in the whole practice session," Rudd said. "Most people get out and take a 20-minute break while they're working on the race car. Walk around, stretch their legs. I would sit in the car."
The out-patient surgery made Rudd feel like a new man. "I hobbled into the hospital and four hours later I walked out in good shape," he said.
Rudd couldn't be in a seated position for two weeks after the procedure. He had to eat standing up or laying on his side.
"The doctor didn't say I couldn't be driving around town," Rudd said, "and I was going stir-crazy. So I'd lay in the back of the Lincoln Navigator while my wife, Linda, drove around town. We'd get to the shopping mall, she'd open the hatch and I'd roll out, like the family dog."
The forced lack of activity gave what Rudd considered his most relaxing offseason in years. "Matter of fact, the rest was so good I think I'm going to have back surgery again next year," he said.
Rudd is NASCAR's newest iron man, bringing a streak of 644 consecutive starts -- tops among active drivers -- into this season. He's on track to break Terry Labonte's all-time record, 655, on May 26 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
Rudd's starts haven't been a challenge; last season it was the finishes.
For 12 weeks through the latter stages of the season, from the August road race at Watkins Glen to the first weekend of November at Rockingham, Rudd was second dogging Jeff Gordon -- as close as 212 points, as far as 395.
Rudd's season fell apart in the last month of the season and when he finished 13th in the finale at New Hampshire he fell to fourth in the final points standings, behind Tony Stewart and Sterling Marlin.
Rudd points to the October race at Martinsville as the one that destroyed his season. He went in trailing Gordon by 237, went out down by 334.
"We still had an outside shot," Rudd said. "We're running second with 100 laps to go, have a really good shot at winning the race and all of a sudden we blew a motor. I think that was the straw that broke the team's back. You could tell the air was let out of the balloon."
The usually-dependable Yates engines also failed Rudd at the second Michigan race, Texas and Indianapolis.
"I'm not making excuses," Rudd said. "What took us out of the championship hunt was failures. We had more engine-related failures than the Yates organization is used to. We had a series of them. It was basically out of our control. The things that made us competitive were also the things that came back to bite us late in the year. Those are problems that you simply can't have and win a championship."
Al Levine writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
