RUDD FINISHES 31st AT DAYTONA AFTER UNLUCKY COLLISION

DAYTONA BEACH, FL (July 7, 2007) – Ricky Rudd and the #88 M&M’s® Ford Fusion finished 30th Saturday night in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. On a race day filled with speculation regarding luck and numerology due to the date of 07/07/07, as well as a racing double-header after the Busch series race was rained out Friday night, there were plenty of fireworks both on and off the track at Daytona Saturday.

Rudd and Robert Yates Racing teammate, David Gilliland, both ran special paint schemes Saturday night. Gilliland ran a Red, White, and Blue M&M’S scheme while Rudd exchanged his traditional Snickers® paint scheme for the standard M&M’S colors on his #88 Ford.

Due to Friday’s qualifying session being rained out, the starting line-up for the Pepsi 400 was determined based on car owner points. Rudd began the Pepsi 400 from the 31st spot alongside Gilliland who began from the 32nd position. Rudd had to drop to the rear of the field before the start of the race however due to changes the team made to the car before the race. The Pepsi 400 was an impound race and after the qualifying attempt on Friday, all the cars were locked down until the start of the race. The #88 M&M’S team started up the car on Saturday morning only to discover that the oil pump was not working properly thus forcing the team to make an adjustment to the car before pre-race tech inspection. The green flag flew at 8:24pm EST as Jeff Gordon led the field to green for the first two laps before losing the lead to Denny Hamlin on lap three.

Rudd jumped up to the 37th position on the opening lap as he harnessed the power of his Roush-Yates engine to begin the battle up through the field. The first caution of the evening came during lap four as Kasey Kahne and Jeff Green collided in turn two. Rudd was in the 34th position when the flag flew and after the dust settled from the accident, he found himself restarting in the 27th spot on lap eight. When Crew Chief Butch Hylton asked Rudd to comment on the #88’s handling, Rudd’s only comment was that the car felt a little unbalanced on the tires.

The second caution of the evening came on lap 15 as teammates Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart met in turn four and collected three other cars across the grass on the front straightaway. During the caution laps that ensued, Rudd came in for a pit stop on lap 16 taking four fresh tires and fuel. The #88 team made a minor adjustment to the air pressure settings in the rear tires in an effort to balance the handling.

On lap 18, Clint Bowyer and his #07 Chevrolet took the lead and the theme of the night turned to superstition and luck. Bowyer’s #07 was based out of the seventh pit stall and on the date of 07/07/07 his car was in the lead and showed no sign of backing down. Rudd continued to race his way through the rankings and on lap 25 found himself in 21st. During lap 39, Rudd called in over team communications that the car was getting tight as track conditions were changing due to nightfall.

A caution for debris on lap 58 allowed the #88 M&M’S Ford to make a routine pit stop. Rudd took four fresh tires and fuel as the #88 crew took out a half round out of the left rear to combat the tightness Rudd felt on the track. Rudd restarted from the 19th position on lap 61 as Clint Bowyer led the field back to green flag racing. Luck would run out for Bowyer on lap 78 as his #07 fell through the field and out of the lead position due to an electrical problem.

Green flag racing continued for the next 50 laps and on lap 100 Rudd had moved up to 15th on the scoreboard as pit stops began to cycle through starting on lap 108. The #88 M&M’S Ford came in for another set of four tires and fuel on lap 110 as Hylton called across team radio communications that the car could make it to the end on fuel mileage.

On lap 115, Sterling Marlin blew a tire sending his #14 into the rear of Rudd’s #88 forcing Rudd into the wall clipping his front right fender. Rudd immediately entered pit road for an assessment and repairs. The restart came on lap 119 and Rudd found himself a lap down to the race leaders. Rudd’s teammate Gilliland had rocketed up to the 11th position on the restart. By lap 130, Gilliland was running third behind brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch but a caution came out on lap 132 as the #42 and #43 met coming off of turn two. Rudd made another pit stop for repairs and restarted 31st. The seventh caution of the night came on lap 144 as Gilliland spun out coming off turn two while he was racing for track position dashing his hopes of a Daytona victory.

At the end of the night, Gilliland finished 11th and Rudd finished 31st in the 49th annual Pepsi 400. Gilliland and his #38 team were thrilled with the performance of their Red, White, and Blue M&M’S Ford. Rudd once again was an innocent victim in a race where he had nowhere to go to avoid his collision with the #14.

“We had a really great race car today,” commented Rudd following the race. “We just got caught up in some bad luck this weekend and it ended our hopes for a great run here tonight. We started the day with an oil pump issue but the guys did a great job of getting our M&M’S Ford ready to race. We used our horsepower to work our way up through the field but we just got caught up when the #14 spun out. As a result we hit the wall and that caused a lot of damage to our right front. It was just a tough night but luck wasn’t on our side tonight.”

Jamie McMurray won Saturday’s Pepsi 400 making this is first NEXTEL Cup Series victory of the 2007 season, as well as his first victory since October of 2002. McMurray began Saturday’s race from the15th starting spot and only led a total of three laps holding off race holding off Kyle Busch at the finish line by a margin of only .0005 seconds. Kyle Busch who led a total of 20 laps, finished second followed by his brother, Kurt Busch in third. Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon finished fourth and fifth in the Pepsi 400 respectively for the evening.

After Saturday’s Pepsi 400, Jeff Gordon continues to lead the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver point standings by 277 points over Denny Hamlin who remains in second. Matt Kenseth remains third, followed by Jimmie Johnson in fourth, and Jeff Burton round out the top-five drivers in the driver point standings. Rudd lost one spot dropping to 31st in the driver point standings, while Gilliland gained five spots in the driver point standings moving to the 27th position.

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Chicagoland Speedway for the USG Sheetrock 400 in Joliet, Illinois. Pre-race television coverage begins on Sunday, July 15th at 2:30 p.m. CST on TNT. Radio coverage will be provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).