RUDD FINISHES FIFTH IN THE NEXTEL OPEN CONCORD, NC (May 19, 2007)

Ricky Rudd and the #88 Snickers® Dark Ford Fusion finished fifth in Saturday’s NEXTEL Open at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The NEXTEL Open consists of 40 total laps which are broken into two 20-lap segments. The first and second-place finishers of the NEXTEL Open are then qualified for the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. One other driver from the NEXTEL Open qualifies for the All-Star Challenge based the highest number of fan votes while also remaining on the lead lap. Rudd and his crew entered Saturday night’s Open event with the goal of finishing in one of the top two positions.

Rudd began the race alongside Paul Menard on row five from the ninth starting position. Rudd’s Robert Yates Racing teammate, David Gilliland, began the race from the fourth position on the outside of Dave Blaney. NEXTEL Open Pole Winner, Carl Edwards led the field to the green flag at 7:42pm but the caution flag flew early in Charlotte. The #42 got loose and checked into Gilliland’s #38 sending him into the wall ending the evening’s race for the Shrek M&M’s® Ford Fusion. Also involved in the incident were the #15, #13, and #21 cars all of which went to the garages with damaged race cars.

A restart on lap 7 found Rudd up in the fifth position as the team hopped to get in some green flag runs in order to warm up the tires. After one lap of racing, Rudd had moved up to fourth on the scoring charts but the caution flag once again flew over the field. The #49 of Mike Bliss got loose and then slammed into the #37 of Boris Said. The Snickers Dark Ford restarted on lap 14 in the fifth position once again eager to catch the race leader Edwards.

Lap 17 found the third caution of the night with some action in Turn 4 as Jeff Green bumped into Jamie McMurray sending Green through the infield grass along pit road while he managed to get back into race traffic without any damage to his car.

Carl Edwards continued to lead the race followed closely by Martin Truex, Jr. and Dave Blaney. Lap 20 found the field starting the final segment of the evening and Rudd restarted in fourth. Lap 25 found Johnny Sauter passing the Snickers Dark Ford sending Rudd to fifth place and Sauter continued to fight his way through the field. Green flag racing continued and during laps 36 through 39 found the top three cars of Edwards, Sauter, and Truex, Jr. battling for the lead. Martin Truex, Jr. won the NEXTEL Open while Johnny Sauter finished second placing both drivers into the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge event later that night. Kenny Wallace, driver of the #78, was the driver voted on by the fans and he also claimed a spot in the All-Star Challenge and a chance to race for $1,000,000. Edwards, Blaney, and Rudd finished out the top-five finishers of the NEXTEL Open event.

“We were tight, tight, tight,” commented Rudd after the race. “I thought we were going to be free enough in practice yesterday because we tried to practice in the heat of the day and we gauged those results off our test in Charlotte the other week. This car set-up that we raced tonight didn’t get tested. Our Coca-Cola 600 car got a lot of night practice and day practice so I feel comfortable about that, but we just never got this car to free up. It was just way too tight and it wouldn’t turn.”

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series returns to regular season action at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600. Pre-race coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 begins on Saturday, May 27th at 5:00 p.m. EST on FOX. Radio coverage will be provided by the Performance Racing Network (PRN).