#88 SNICKERS FORD FINISHES 22nd AT MICHIGAN

BROOKLYN, MI (June 16, 2007) – Ricky Rudd and the #88 Snickers® Ford Fusion finished 22nd Sunday afternoon in the Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series spent Father’s Day afternoon in Brooklyn, Michigan for the 15th race of the 2007 season. Sunday’s race also marked Robert Yates’ 1,000th and 1,001st career starts as a car owner with the #38 and #88 starting the Citizens Bank 400.

Rudd started Sunday’s race from the 25th position on the inside of Matt Kenseth on row 13. Rudd’s Robert Yates Racing teammate, David Gilliland, began the race from row ten in the 20th position alongside Daytona 500 Champion, Kevin Harvick. Under sunny skies and humid temperatures, the green flag flew at 2:18pm EST. First-time Bud Pole Winner J.J. Yeley, led the field to the green flag but lost the lead on the first lap to Jimmie Johnson who started the race second. On the opening lap, Rudd got caught up in traffic dropping him back to 30th where he began to climb his way up through the field at the two-mile speedway. Martin Truex, Jr. surpassed Johnson and took the lead on lap ten. By lap 14, Rudd had driven his Snickers Ford into the 23rd spot calling in over team communications that the car was better than it had been in the weekend’s earlier practice sessions. Crew Chief Butch Hylton made the call to not to make any adjustments to the #88 during the first pit stop. Around lap 34, Rudd was in 19th and the first cycle of green flag pit stops began. The #88 team chose to pit on lap 37 taking only four fresh tires and fuel without any changes to the car.

The first caution of the afternoon came on lap 51 for debris on the track. Rudd called in to Hylton that the Snickers Ford felt loose and was now a little free in the center making it difficult for him to drive as aggressively as he wanted. Hylton decided to make an adjustment to air pressure settings in the rear tires and on lap 53, the #88 made a pit stop for the new tires. The caution flag would fly for the second time when the #42 hit the wall and Rudd made another pit stop on lap 69 for another fresh set of tires and a splash of fuel. The field restarted to green on lap 74 but the #12 of Ryan Newman spun out of control coming off of turn two causing the third caution of the day and involving six other cars including Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex, Jr., Jeff Green, and Brian Vickers. Rudd restarted 16th followed by Gilliland in the 18th spot.

During a run on lap 96, Rudd called in to Hylton that he feared some debris was caught on the grill of the car. The Snickers Racing crew monitored the #88 in the laps that followed and noted that nothing sizable was on the grill of the car allowing Rudd to stay on the lead lap. Another series of green flag pit stops occurred and on lap 111, Rudd brought the #88 onto pit road for a routine stop getting four tires and fuel. The caution flag flew for the fourth time due to the #96 of Tony Raines in turn four. Gilliland and his M&M’s® Ford had just entered pit road when the yellow flag flew placing the team a lap down to the leaders. The restart on lap 119 found Rudd in 24th and Gilliland in 25th.

The teammates would not remain back-to-back in the running order for very long however. Shortly after the restart, Rudd called in stating that the Snickers Ford was bouncing around in Turn one especially when the brakes were applied. Following the call for help, Rudd found himself back in 31st and asking for assistance with the car. Hylton asked Rudd to stay out on the track in an attempt to not lose any more track positions stating that if Rudd could stay out until lap 157, the Snickers Ford could make the remainder of the race based on fuel mileage. Lap 131 found a new race leader in the #99 of Carl Edwards.

Lap 158 marked the final pit stop of the afternoon for the #88 team and gave Rudd four fresh tires and fuel. Rudd returned to the field and fought his way through the pack for the remaining 42 laps eventually working his way to 22nd still questioning what happened on the one set of tires that found the team dropping to 31st late in the race.

“We just had something that was off with the car towards the end of the race,” commented Rudd after the race. “I’m not really sure what it was, but after one of our later pit stops, the guys put on new tires and with that set of tires, our Snickers Ford started to bounce around in Turn one. We didn’t change anything else with our car during the race so I’m not sure what the issue was, but we ended up battling back from that towards the end, we just ran out of time to climb through the field. I felt that our car today was much better than what we had been running during our practices this weekend and it really settled in during the long green flag runs we had today.”

Rudd finished 22nd and Gilliland finished 17th in the Citizens Bank 400 to culminate their Father’s Day weekend in Michigan. Gilliland had been pleased with his M&M’s Ford for the majority of the afternoon. Fuel strategy came into play late in the race for the #38 team as they attempted to make up track position lost to being caught on pit road during the caution on lap 114.

Carl Edwards won Sunday’s Citizen’s Bank 400 making this is first NEXTEL Cup Series win since November of 2005 and his first of the 2007 season. Edwards win on Sunday afternoon also gave Ford its second victory of 2007. Going into Sunday’s Citizens Bank 400, Chevrolet had won 13 of the 14 regular season races for 2007. Edwards led a total of 63 laps a total of three times. Dover-winner, Martin Truex,Jr. finished second marking his third consecutive top-three finish in three weeks. Tony Stewart finished third and was followed by Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the fourth and fifth positions.

After Sunday’s Citizen’s Bank 400, Jeff Gordon continues to lead the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver point standings. Denny Hamlin moved up to second in the standings thanks to his 14th-place finish in Michigan. Jimmie Johnson moved from fourth up to third, and Matt Kenseth fell to fourth place due to his involvement in an accident Sunday during the Citizens Bank 400. Rudd remains in 33rd in the driver point standings, while Gilliland gained two spots in the driver point standings moving to 32nd place.

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California for the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Pre-race television coverage begins on Sunday, June 24th at 3:30 p.m. EST on TNT. Radio coverage will be provided by the Performance Racing Network (PRN).