RUDD FINISHES 38th IN WILD WATKINS GLEN RACE

WATKINS GLEN, NY (August 12, 2007) – Ricky Rudd, who is widely regarded in the NEXTEL Cup Series for his road-course expertise, entered this weekend’s Centurion Boats at the Glen with hopes of securing another top-15 finish. In a wild race at Watkins Glen International, Rudd would be forced to head to the garage early as his Snickers®/EA Sports NASCAR 08 Ford faced electrical issues at the end of the race forcing him to finish 38th for the afternoon at a track that has brought him success in the past.

Due to scattered showers on Friday, qualifying for the Centurion Boats at The Glen was cancelled and the starting grid was set by NEXTEL Cup Series Owner points. Rudd began the race from 27th, while teammate David Gilliland rolled off from 30th in his M&M’S® Ford. The green flag flew at 2:24pm as pole-sitter Jeff Gordon led the field to green and would continue to lead for the first 13 laps before eventually losing the lead to #20 of Tony Stewart.

The first caution of the day came eleven laps into the race when David Ragan spun out of control and got stuck in the gravel coming off of turn six. While the field ran under the yellow flag, Rudd called in over team communications that the #88 Snickers/EA Sports NASCAR 08 Ford had too much rear brake. The team opted to not pit while under caution and instead chose to stay out in an attempt to gain track position which is so valuable at road courses. During the restart on lap 14, Tony Stewart passed Jeff Gordon for the first lead change of the day as Rudd found himself in 25th while Gilliland restarted in 34th.

Lap 22 marked the second appearance of the day for the yellow caution flag after Brian Vickers spun out of control and clipped the back of the #01 of Regan Smith which caused sizeable damage to the left side of Vickers and dropped debris on the track. During their first pit stop of the day on lap 25, the #88 pit crew took four fresh tires and fuel while also adding a rubber in the left rear of the car. After the restart on lap 26, Rudd was quiet over the team radio communications as he focused on the cars in front of him for position. On lap 33, Rudd was in 28th as the #10 of Patrick Carpentier found himself as the race leader. By lap 38, Rudd and Gilliland had worked their way within car’s lengths of each other as Rudd was in 24th and Gilliland was in 23rd. Stewart also regained the race lead but was followed in hot pursuit by Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Rudd continued to charge on but around lap 52 called in to Crew Chief Butch Hylton that there were major issues with the brakes on the #88 and that the car felt as though it was merely rolling through the turns. The caution came out on lap 53 and Rudd came in for a pit stop grabbing four tires, fuel, as well as two rounds of adjustment in the left rear. The modifications still left Rudd searching for a solution to the braking issue he faced but on lap 58 Rudd called in with another issue of concern, water temperature in the engine. As Hylton and crew continued to monitor the Snickers/EA Sports NASCAR 08 Ford’s gauges, the yellow flag flew for the fifth time for debris on the track.

During the caution laps, the #88 team spotters were able to determine that Rudd in fact had debris on the front grill of his car, causing the engine temperatures to rise. Rudd cleverly maneuvered the #88 during the caution laps so that when he passed the track operations vehicles that were blowing off the debris, the angle of Rudd’s car was such that the jet engines blew the debris off the front of the car’s grill. The clever solution paid off as engine temperatures immediately fell to normal levels and allowed the team to stay out without having to make a quick pit stop in order to clean the grill of debris.

Rudd restarted 16th and felt confident that The Glen would allow the team to bring home another strong performance, but the afternoon was just swinging into action. With 17 laps to go, the field restarted from the seventh caution of the day but quickly found the field under yellow following a collision in turn one. During the restart, the #01 tried to pass Juan Pablo Montoya, but as Montoya went to block Truex, Jr. the #42 spun collecting Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton. The crash dumped oil and grease onto the track surface causing NASCAR to red flag the race for 25 minutes as safety crews attempted to clean up. Rudd was listed in 14th and Gilliland in 12th under the red flag.

The field finally fired up their engines and restarted on lap 78, but Rudd’s Snickers/EA Sports NASCAR 08 Ford was unable to fire back up following the red flag stop. After numerous attempts to restart the #88, Hylton called it a day for the team after it was determined that an electrical shortage had occurred.

Rudd finished the afternoon in 38th having only completed 77 of the 90 laps in the Centurion Boats at The Glen. Gilliland completed the entire race, but was hit twice in the remaining 13 laps of the race and caused him to spin out thus losing his position. Gilliland finished 33rd for the afternoon and was pleased with the M&M’S Ford for the afternoon especially since Gilliland had never raced at Watkins Glen International before this weekend’s festivities.

“It was just a crazy race out there today,” commented Rudd following the race. “We’ve just had a string of bad luck lately and I really feel horrible that we weren’t able to get our car going again after the red flag. I really do enjoy racing here at The Glen, but our car was fighting a bunch of braking issues all afternoon and it was difficult to accelerate to the speeds I really wanted to run out there today. We’re not really sure what happened to our #88 at the restart there at the end, but the car just didn’t seem to want to roll over and start for us so we had to call it a day.”

Tony Stewart won Sunday’s Centurion Boats at The Glen making this his third victory of the 2007 NEXTEL Cup Series season. Stewart began Sunday’s race from the fifth starting position and lead a total of 20 of the 90 laps for a total of three times during the race. Stewart’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, brought home a second-place finish for the afternoon followed by Jimmie Johnson in third. Road racing expert, Ron Fellows who stepped in to pilot the #96 Sunday, rounded out the top-five finishers.

Following Sunday’s Centurion Boats at The Glen, the top three positions remain unchanged. Jeff Gordon continues to lead the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver point standings over Denny Hamlin in second place who trails Gordon by 344 points. Matt Kenseth remains in third place but Tony Stewart moves up from fifth up to fourth place with his victory at The Glen Sunday. Carl Edwards rounds out the top-five drivers in the standings as he gained a position as well following the Centurion Boats at The Glen. Rudd dropped three spots to 29th in the driver point standings, while Gilliland remains 28th in the driver point standings.

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Michigan International Speedway for the 3M Performance 400. Pre-race television coverage begins on Sunday, August 19th at 1:00 p.m. EST on ESPN. Radio coverage will be provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).