RUDD FINISHES 33rd IN TOUGH TEXAS WEEKEND FORT WORTH, TX (April 15, 2007) –  

In a wild weekend in Texas, Ricky Rudd and the #88 Snickers®/Valero Ford Fusion finished 33rd in Sunday’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Severe weather in the region on Friday combined with an accident on the first lap of the race, left the #88 team hanging on to a damaged race car for the entire race.

The qualifying order for Sunday was based upon current owner points since qualifying had been cancelled. Rudd started the race alongside fellow Robert Yates Racing teammate, David Gilliland, on row 15, in the 29th position. Jeff Gordon was the pole sitter and led the field to the green flag and led for the first 45 laps for the afternoon.

The first caution of the day occurred on the opening lap when J.J. Yeley and David Ragan collided, sending Ragan spinning across the start finish line into the infield grass. In the midst of trying to avoid the incident in front of him, Rudd was tagged from behind by Casey Mears and ended up sliding on top of Ragan’s right front hood. Ragan went directly to the garage for severe damage to his car, while Rudd came to pit road and the Snickers/Valero pit crew swung into action beginning repairs that would hinder the team for the remainder of the race.

Rudd’s left rear quarter panel of the #88 was damaged and after attempts to tape the damage down were not successful, the crew decided to replace the panel on lap 45 during the second caution of the day. Despite numerous pieces of tape patches, a replacement panel was installed to help with the car’s aerodynamics and allow Rudd to attain the speeds he needed. Lap 50 however found the team with a penalty for entering pit road too soon and forced the #88 to the rear of the field.

Lap 81 found the team making a green flag pit stop for fuel and tires as well as an adjustment to the trackbar and tire pressure. This stop was an attempt to aid Rudd with the handling of the Snickers/Valero Ford since after the lap 1 incident the car was very loose in its handling on the turns.

The remainder of the race found Rudd and his crew attempting to keep the Snickers/Valero Ford out on the track to complete the race. Adjustments to the car’s body panel, as well as various attempts to diagnose any structural damage to the car, kept the #88 crew busy all afternoon. In the end the team settled for a 33rd finish on a day filled with numerous challenges right from the start. “There’s not much to say,” said Rudd after the race. “We got wrecked taking the green flag and we were lucky enough to not get turned over in that incident. The shame is that we had a pretty good race car coming into this weekend, but we just never got a chance to see how well we could have run with it.”

Teammate Gilliland had been running around the 20th position all afternoon. Lap 210 found Gilliand with a flat tire and the caution was brought out for the fourth time. The #38 team was able to maintain their track position and finished the race 19th. After the Samsung 500, Rudd fell to 30th in the points standings, while Gilliland climbed up three spots to the 27th spot.

Jeff Burton won the Samsung 500 with a last lap pass of Matt Kenseth in turns 3 and 4. Burton’s victory marked the first time a driver has ever won twice in Texas. Never in the track’s 12-year history has a driver won a race more than once. Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin finished second and third while Jeff Gordon who had started the day in the #1 position finished fourth after leading 173 laps at four different times all afternoon.

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series heads to Phoenix International Raceway for the Subway Fresh Fit 500. Pre-race coverage of the Samsung 500 begins on Saturday, April 21st at 8:00 p.m. EDT on FOX, followed by the green flag at 8:30 p.m. Radio coverage is provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).