RUDD FINISHES 13th AT POCONO IN COMBOS FORD

LONG POND, PA– Ricky Rudd drove his way to a Top-15 finish Sunday afternoon in the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway with a 13th-place performance.  Rudd who won at Pocono in June of 2001, piloted his #88 Combos® Ford Fusion to a strong finish at a track where he was also the highest-finishing Ford on Sunday.  The #88 began the Pennsylvania 500 from the 20th position and was able to hover around the 15th position for the majority of the race due to a superb handling car and smart pit stop strategy.

Sunday marked Rudd’s 55th start at Pocono Raceway.  The #88 team sported a Combos paint scheme for the first time during the 2007 season and the bright orange car seemed to glow on the track as the summer sun drenched the 2.5-mile speedway.  The green flag flew at 2:23pm as pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led the field to green but lost the lead to Kurt Busch on the opening lap.

By the third lap of the Pennsylvania 500, Rudd had piloted his Combos Ford up to the 16th spot but quickly found the field under the first caution flag of the day on lap four as the #26 spun out of control.  Following the restart, Rudd once again began to target the cars in front of him for position and by lap eleven, had moved up to 14th-place.  Teammate David Gilliland who started the race from 33rd, methodically drove his way up through the field as well and was in 22nd on lap eleven.  On lap 18, Rudd called in to Crew Chief Butch Hylton that the Combos Ford was starting to slide around a little in the turns and that it felt as though the car needed a little more front grip.  Hylton made a note and told Rudd that adjustments would be made to the air pressure settings in an attempt to alleviate the minor grip issue. 

Rudd continued to run in 14th as Gilliland’s #38 M&M’S Ford began to chase his teammate down on the track and by lap 24, Gilliland had moved up to 15th.  The first pit stop of the day for the #88 team came during lap 30 and found the Combos Ford taking four fresh Goodyear tires and Sunoco race fuel.  The team also tickled the trackbar down slightly and made adjustments to air pressure settings in the rear tires.  Following the pit stop, Rudd dropped to 17th and called in over team communications that the car still lacked front grip even with the adjustments that had been made.  The next caution came on lap 53 for debris on the track surface.  Rudd made another pit stop and took four tires while also taking a half rubber out of the left rear.  During his exit of pit road, Rudd got a penalty for speeding and was forced to return to pit road to serve the penalty.  Following the penalty, Rudd found himself fall to 28th-place while Gilliland had rocketed up to 11th-place. 

Pit strategy came into play during the third caution of the day when the #26 spun out on turn three during lap 65.  Hylton made the call to stay out on the track in a call that ended up allowing Rudd to gain back 12 positions as the rest of the field came to pit road allowing the #88 to jump back to 16th. 

Kurt Busch continued to lead the field in dramatic fashion with an eight-second lead over Denny Hamlin’s #11 .  Gilliland and Rudd continued to hover around the 17th and 18th positions.  The #8 car brought about the fourth caution of the day on lap 124 when he spun out in turn three.  Pit stops continued to cycle through and Rudd found himself  restarting in 16th while Gilliland followed in 17th.  During the caution on lap 139, Rudd received word that the right front fender of the Combos Ford was rolled under slightly from possible contact with another car.  The pit crew and spotter checked for further damage, or signs of wear on the tire, but the car was allowed to continue racing after taking four fresh tires and fuel during a pit stop on lap 140. 

As Rudd continued to climb through the field over the next 30 laps, Gilliland was fighting a tight car which was not allowing him to race aggressively to the front of the pack and he found himself in 28th on lap 172.  

The final caution of the day turned out to be costly for Gilliland and his M&M’S Ford as the #41 and #99 collided in turn 2 which collected numerous cars including Gilliland.  The #38 returned to pit road for repairs, but at the end of the day fell eight laps off the lead lap.  Rudd was ahead of the crash and was able to race to the end even battling for position with fellow Ford driver Matt Kenseth on the final laps.  Rudd completed the day with a 13th-place finish and the highest Ford on the scoreboard.  Gilliland would take home a 39th-place finish after getting caught up in the last wreck of the day. 

“I just think we had a good race car,” commented Rudd following the race.  “That was really the main thing today.  You get a good race car, I did my part driving today, and we didn’t get caught up in any wrecks which seem to happen to us a lot of the time this year.  Our biggest deal is the car was just a little off all day.  It was balanced well, but it just needed a little bit more grip.  I’m not sure if it’s the aero(dynamics) or the chassis, but considering where we’ve been all year, we’ve had some decent runs this season and have never been able to capitalize.  Today we just didn’t have anything go wrong and it was just a good solid day for our #88 Combos team.”

Kurt Busch won Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 making this his sixteenth NEXTEL cup Series win in 241 races.  Busch began Sunday’s race from the second position and lead a total of 175 of the 200 laps for a total of seven different times throughout the race which broke the record for the number of laps lead during a Pocono race previously held by Jeff Gordon with 164.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished second after being the only other driver that was able to challenge Busch’s commanding lead in the Pennsylvania 500.  Denny Hamlin, who swept both 2006 Nextel Cup Series races at Pocono, finished third for the afternoon.  Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five finishers with fourth and fifth place respectively.

Following Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500, Jeff Gordon continues to lead the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver point standings but lost a few points in his lead over Denny Hamlin who remains in second place 366 points behind Gordon.  Matt Kenseth remains third place and is 45 points behind Hamlin.  Jeff Burton held onto his position in the driver point standings in fourth, followed by Tony Stewart in fifth.  Rudd gained three spots moving up to 26th in the driver point standings, while Gilliland also fell two positions moving down to 28th in the driver point standings. 

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Watkins Glen International for the Centurion Boats at The Glen in Watkins Glen, New York.  Pre-race television coverage begins on Sunday, August 12th at 1:00 p.m. EST on ESPN.  Radio coverage will be provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).