RUDD STARTS 11th IN RICHMOND

RICHMOND, VA (May 4, 2007) – Ricky Rudd will start Saturday night’s Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 at Richmond International Raceway from the eleventh position. Rudd posted a fast lap time of 21.604 seconds at 124.977mph. The #88 PEDIGREE® Brand Food for Dogs Ford Fusion will begin Saturday’s race from the sixth row on the inside of the #66 of Jeff Green.

Due to the fact that the Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 is an impound race, the weekend began on Friday with the only practice session of the entire weekend. The day started out with cloudy skies overhead and temperatures in the upper 50’s, but eventually warmed up to the low 70’s. During the practice session Rudd and his crew started with their full race trim and quickly diagnosed that the #88 PEDIGREE Ford was loose coming off the corners. After a few adjustments to the rear springs, Rudd called in over the team radio that the handling was a bit better.

Crew Chief Butch Hylton and his crew worked diligently to find a set-up by which Rudd would be able to comfortably accelerate into the track’s turns. After running 45 laps during the weekend’s only practice session, the #88 PEDIGREE Ford posted a fast lap time of 22.061 seconds putting the team on the board as the 24th-fastest car during practice. Scott Riggs posted the fastest time in practice with 21.848 seconds.

Friday’s qualifying session began at 6:10 p.m. EDT and Rudd qualified from the 19th position. The sun was still on the track as the #88 PEDIGREE Ford took to the track for his first lap. Rudd’s fastest lap time of 21.604 seconds was a notable improvement for the team over the earlier practice session. After his run, Rudd was shown in the fifth position, but as the sun was setting, the #88 team knew that the track conditions would be faster for the remaining cars. Rudd was able to hold on for the remainder of the qualifying runs, and was thrilled to know he was starting near the front of the field in the 11th position for Saturday night’s race.

“We’re happy,” said Rudd after qualifying. “This is a different race car than we tested.  After we tested they took the car back and made some pretty drastic moves.  I mean, they didn’t just tweak on it, they made some major chassis changes.  We didn’t know what we had, but the results speak for themselves.  We’ve got a really good PEDIGREE race car here this week.”

Rudd’s teammate, David Gilliland in the #38 M&M’s Ford Fusion, will start Saturday’s race from the 41st position. Gilliland’s qualifying time was 21.869 seconds at a top speed of 123.462 mph. Gilliland and his team spent the afternoon practice session attempting to diagnosis the tight conditions that his M&M’s Ford was experiencing out on the track.

Jeff Gordon clinched the pole for Saturday night with a fast lap time of 21.386 seconds. Gordon will share the front row with Carl Edwards, followed by Scott Riggs and Jimmie Johnson in the third and fourth positions respectively.

The FOX television network is scheduled to provide live television coverage of the Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 beginning at 7:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 5th with the green flag scheduled to drop at 7:30 p.m. Radio coverage will be provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).

RUDD RETURNS TO NATIVE VIRGINIA AND AIMS TO HAVE HOME-TRACK ADVANTAGE

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 2, 2007) – The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Richmond International Raceway this weekend for the Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400. This weekend will mark a homecoming for Rudd who’s hometown of Chesapeake, VA is less than 100 miles away from Richmond. Rudd was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame last weekend and was named Virginian of the Year in 2006. This weekend the #88 team will be running the bright yellow PEDIGREE® Brand Food for Dogs Ford Fusion instead of their normal Snickers Ford. Rudd and his teammates hope that the home-track advantage of Richmond will help the team garner a strong finish.

• Quoting PEDIGREE Driver, Ricky Rudd:

How does it feel going to Richmond this weekend with another Car of Tomorrow race?

“Well I really like the track at Richmond. I’ve had some really good runs there but I’m not sure how things will play out this weekend. We tested the Car of Tomorrow there and we ran ok, but we felt we could do better, so the guys came back to the shop and changed a lot of things on the car for us to head in there this weekend. It really could be a surprise this weekend. I’m hoping it goes along the lines of our weekend in Martinsville a few weeks back, but we’re going to see how our adjustments play out this weekend on the track.”

What do you enjoy about racing at Richmond International Raceway?

“Richmond is close to where I grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia so there are always a lot of friends and family around, but the racetrack itself is just a unique race track. It really is the perfect track. It’s fast, but it’s not too fast for aerodynamics to be a factor making it difficult for cars to pass each other, and it’s a small enough track where you see a lot of door-to-door action. The racing surface lends itself to at least two-wide racing safely. At Richmond, cars can run side-by-side at full speed and not have to worry about taking cars out next to them or sliding in the turns.”

• Quoting PEDIGREE Crew Chief Butch Hylton:

What do you feel the team needs heading into Richmond this weekend?

“We’ve just got to have a good solid run this weekend. We’ve incurred a lot of damage in the last seven out of nine races so it’s just been very tough for us to jump up in the point standings so far this season. We just need to stay out of trouble on the track and make sure that we maneuver ourselves away from the “danger zone” of being near the 35th place in driver point standings.”

• NOTES OF INTEREST:

* Richmond, VA is roughly 97 miles from Rudd’s hometown of Chesapeake, VA. * On Thursday, May 3rd, Rudd and his family will attend Virginia’s Royal Welcome event commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. The event will take place at the Capitol Square in downtown Richmond and her majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be the guest of honor. * Legendary Crew Chief Buddy Parrott will be spotting for the #88 team this weekend in Richmond. Parrott replaces Jon Wolfe who is now serving as Car Chief for the #88 PEDIGREE Ford. * Jimmy Rollins, mechanic on the #88 team, is a graduate of J.R. Tucker High School in Richmond, VA where he played football and was a Virginia All-America team member. * Rudd has an average starting position of 14.7, and an average finish of 13.4 at Richmond * Rudd has 54 starts at Richmond which is more than any other active driver. * Rudd’s best start at Richmond has been from the pole twice (1983 and 1990). * Rudd’s best finish at Richmond is a pair of victories having won at Richmond in 1984 and 2001.

• MASTERFOODS, USA

Masterfoods USA, the United States food, snack and petcare operations of Mars, Incorporated, is one of the world’s leading food manufacturers. With more than $5 billion in annual sales, the combined food, snack and petcare segments are a symbol of excellence for quality brands. Headquartered in Hackettstown, NJ, Masterfoods, USA employs more than 7,000 associates in the United States, with 15 manufacturing facilities nationwide. The company owns some of the world’s favorite brands, including M&M’S® Brand, Snickers® Brand, Uncle Ben’s® Brand, PEDIGREE® Brand Food for Dogs and WHISKAS® Brand Food for Cats.

• CHASSIS #711

Chassis #711 is what the #88 team will be running this weekend at Richmond International Raceway. This is a brand new Car of Tomorrow chassis for the team.