Ricky Rudd: “Generally stock car racing at your local track – and it was a pretty lengthy proc
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Jun 20, 2007
RICKY RUDD – No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion
THE ’92 RACE WITH IRVAN BEING BLACK-FLAGGED AND THEN COMING FROM THE BACK TO WIN WAS MEMORABLE. WILL THAT EVER HAPPEN AGAIN, ESPECIALLY WITH THE COT?
“It’s hard to say. The car of tomorrow, the guys that figure it out what I’ve seen is it’s a tremendous advantage for those that hit that combination, where are very few, just right, and then there are a lot of guys that are OK, and then a bunch of them that miss the setups altogether. I could see the chance of somebody hitting on a dominant setup like Ernie and his team did back in the early nineties and he was definitely the class of the field that day for sure. There’s no other way to prove it than to do it the way they did it. They didn’t get it easy. It wasn’t the circumstances of pit stops that put him up there, he just raced his way through the field. ”
DO YOU STAY IN TOUCH WITH ERNIE?
“I see him around a little bit. I saw him at Michigan. He was up there doing a charity walk that he does to raise money for the head injury foundation and he looked good. He looked healthy. ”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON BILL FRANCE JR. NOT BEING AT DAYTONA IN A FEW WEEKS? WILL THERE BE AN EMPTY FEELING?
“Bill definitely had a presence in our sport for many years and then as his health declined we saw less and less of him. We were sort of, I guess, being weaned from his presence. We missed seeing him. Like I said, he was a guy you could go up and have a really good conversation with about the sport and where it’s headed and walk away from there feeling like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a guy here who is really leading us. He’s a strong leader. ’ He definitely will be missed. Unfortunately, his health was declining in the later years and we didn’t see that much of him the last couple of years, but he definitely will be missed. ”
HOW TOUGH DO YOU THINK IT IS FOR YOUNG DRIVERS TO BALANCE COMPETITIVENESS AND THEIR INEXPERIENCE?
“I will say this that there’s been no better time in the history of racing where a young guy gets a chance to sort of prove himself. The downside of that is if you don’t prove yourself or do remarkable things on the race track, then it seems like your job is in jeopardy as quickly as you get here, so there’s a lot of pressure on these guys to perform once they do get here. Like I say, there’s a lot of pressure there but they’re getting the opportunities. It’s tough on them. Not only do they have to learn how to drive the race cars and race tracks and how to handle the media, there’s a lot of things on their shoulders. It’s a lot different coming along now as a young driver than when I came along, but I necessarily wouldn’t want the pressure that these guys have got. ”
HOW MUCH DOES IT HELP THAT THERE IS MORE EFFORT ON DRIVER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS?
“I think what it’s doing is showing the way of the future. At one time you sort of had to come from a certain rank – generally stock car racing at your local track – and it was a pretty lengthy process to get yourself recognized and get to a certain point. You would never go to top equipment. You had to work your way through the Cup division. You might get lucky to get a ride in a C-type effort and after years of proving yourself, you might get a shot at a B level. Nowadays, these guys are being recognized at the early stages and they’re being put into a regular training environment where they can showcase their talents and by the time they get to Cup, they’re pretty prepared. At least they’re used to running the big tracks and such, whereas years ago they didn’t get a chance to see the big tracks until their first opportunity to show up in a Busch car. ”
HOW MUCH DID YOU MISS RACING LAST YEAR?
“To be honest, in the early going I didn’t miss it at all. I enjoyed the time off. I didn’t really follow the sport – not because I didn’t want to, we were just so busy doing everything and just catching up on life. It wasn’t until probably September, October – right in that area – that I was fooling around with my go-karts and playing with those a lot and decided to run a race, which I hadn’t done in about 35 years, and I think that sort of got the taste going again when we ran a kart race right outside of Indianapolis. That kind of got it going and then I started missing it. ”
WERE YOU COMING BACK REGARDLESS OF THE TEAM?
“There were a lot of opportunities when I first stepped aside early on in January and February, but mainly it was with programs that would be coming on for the 2008 season and not for the ’07 season. Some of it was ’07 season, limited schedule stuff, but I really put all those plans on hold. I told the team honors, ‘I’m honored that you’re talking to me about that, but I’ve got to figure out what I want to do first before it’s fair to sit down and talk seriously about driving your race car. ” The Yates situation came in around October or November and about that time I realized I was ready to go back to competition. At that time of the season there aren’t that many opportunities available that late in a season, so as it turns out, the Yates camp called and they were in a major rebuilding process and I felt like I could help contribute to helping get that program turned around a little bit. ”
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE CONSECUTIVE START RECORD TO YOU?
“I think right now the number is running up there, but it’s not consecutive anymore. But I think at that time I hadn’t thought that much about it, but with it being brought aware by the media and such that the record was getting ready to be broken, I think it’s a pretty neat record because consecutive means day in and day out – good, healthy, unhealthy, sick – it doesn’t matter, we were still there and we made it happen and kept the consecutive streak going through injuries and so on. But if you look at the honor of the people before me you have to be in awe. Terry Labonte and I think Richard Petty, if I’m not mistaken, was the guy that had it before them so it’s a big honor to be in that company. ”
WHAT ARE THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES WITH THE COT ON A ROAD COURSE?
“I went to VIR just to answer those questions, not only for what the team needed to know but what I needed to know as a driver. The car at VIR, which is a relatively smooth race track, it wasn’t a huge difference. They didn’t drive quite as well. They didn’t stick in the corners quite as well and they didn’t get the forward traction – we fought that quite a bit – but overall the feel was very similar. We cut through the esses and the cars feel very similar. The car of tomorrow doesn’t like a track that has a high bank or a lot of bumps in it, especially on a high bank. That presents the most problem because one of the bigger differences is that you’re limited to your suspension travel because of that front valance on these car of tomorrows with the splitter. You have a little bit less than I think half of the normal suspension travel that we would normally get, so bumps and banking tend to aggravate that, but more of the banking than the bumps. ”
ANY SOLID PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR?
“No, not really. I haven’t thought that far ahead. We’ve been struggling and trying to get our program together right now. We’ve had a few good things happen, but we’re still struggling trying to get going. Our performance is getting better on the race track, but not to the level that we need to be. We’re not nowhere near where we need to be to contend for top 10’s on a regular basis. We did finish seventh at Charlotte and had a good run there, but this Snickers Ford team is working and they’re going at it as hard as they possibly can. I see progress, but I think until we see some good things happen on the race track because the team has gotten stronger, I don’t think until that time it’s time to talk about next year, really. ”
INFINEON IS A GOOD TRACK FOR YOU. WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES SUNDAY?
“I’d hate to even put any kind of odds on it. I was telling someone earlier that with the nature of that race track, you’ve got a car of tomorrow thrown into the equation, it would be hard to pick a favorite. I think we’re gonna be good, don’t get me wrong, but sitting down to predict wins is pretty hard to do. I think anybody, even the guys that are used to winning out there, it’s gonna be hard to predict wins because the car of tomorrow is different from what they normally run, so they can’t just roll out their old setups and roll out their old cars that they sort of pushed aside and brought out twice a year. That car doesn’t exist now. Guys are going with different equipment than they’ve run ever, so I’d hate to pick a favorite. ”
TERRY LABONTE IS RUNNING THIS WEEK. HOW HARD IS IT TO STAY RETIRED WHEN OWNERS WANT EXPERIENCED GUYS TO COME BACK? ARE YOU SURPRISED TERRY CAME BACK?
“No, I’m not surprised. I think it was last year that he finished second or third, but Terry is what I call a true road racer. If they gave us the old style transmissions, Terry would still be competitive. I think Terry is coming out there because he loves road racing and he loves road racing in a Cup car. I think he’ll do very well.
I don’t think his time away will hurt him at all. What I noticed for me is that I looked forward to going up to VIR, not so much as a test day just to see what our new equipment would do, but really to test myself and get myself back in the rhythm of road racing. That first day, I probably spent the first three outings just trying to get familiar with everything again, and then it’s like that old bicycle. It was like, ‘I remember how to do this now. ’ Without that test session, I would not have liked to have gone to Infineon without any practice or any tune-up for the driver, and I’m sure Terry’s got some seat time somewhere just to pin himself up, but I’m sure he’ll be right on his marks when he gets there. ”
