FRUSTRATING DAY FOR RUDD IN MICHIGAN

BROOKLYN, MI (August 21, 2007) – After several days of rain and lengthy delays, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series was finally able to complete the 3M Performance 400 on Tuesday, August 21st. It was the first time NASCAR has run a Nextel Cup race on a Tuesday in their modern era. Extra days of waiting and watching the rain drops escalated into a frustrating race for Ricky Rudd and his #88 SNICKERS® crew on. Rudd finished 33rd, two laps off the lead lap. The finish dropped Rudd one spot in the points standings to 30th.

Rudd started the race on the outside of row 11 in the 22nd position. The race started under a green/yellow condition at approximately 10:14 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning, with the field of cars circling the track at a pace slightly faster than pit road speed. Unfortunately, the weather again came into play and caused another delay. Thick fog forced NASCAR to stop the race after only 10 laps due to poor visibility until spotters were able to see the back stretch. After a 30-minute delay, drivers started their engines for the second time and the race resumed, this time under full green-flag conditions.

With the track having most of the rubber washed away by the rain, NASCAR called a “competition caution” on lap 30 to allow drivers and teams to evaluate their cars and the condition of the track. Initially, Rudd felt his car was too tight through the center and exit of each corner. But after changes were made the car immediately became too loose. However, the race continued under green for more than 30 laps and the #88 SNICKERS® Ford Fusion began to improve substantially. After a green-flag pit stop on lap 71, Rudd found himself the last car on the lead lap when he returned to the track. Soon after he was caught by the leader and forced one lap down.

From there, Rudd continued to fight with the handling of the car for the remainder of the race, while his crew fought to find solutions to fix it. Several cautions and pit stops later, Rudd dropped another lap to the leaders as he rode in the 35th position. He radioed in that he was experiencing no front grip and that the left front tire was rubbing badly on the fender, a problem the team thought they fixed in Saturday’s practice. Crew chief Butch Hylton made one more attempt during a pit stop on lap 176 to help alleviate the problems his driver was experiencing. Rudd was able to fight through the remaining laps, and even the final green-white-checkered restart, to bring home a 33rd-place finish. While the crew wasn’t satisfied with their result, they were confident they learned from it and will be better prepared in California, the next track they will visit that has similar characteristics to Michigan.

“Today we just started bad and ended bad,” Rudd said. “Normally you can dial it in if it’s not so good in the beginning. We just never really got a handle on it. I don’t know if it was in the tires or the shocks, but the fender was hitting the left front tire really bad. It didn’t really feel like the same car we had on Saturday. It was pretty good on the long runs on Saturday, but we could just never really get going today.”

Kurt Busch won the 3M Performance 400, strengthening his bid to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Martin Truex, Jr. picked up the second spot. Jimmie Johnson finished third, while Matt Kenseth came home fourth and Denny Hamlin finished in the fifth position. RYR teammate David Gilliland fought hard all day to finish 28th, one lap down.

Next weekend the Nextel Cup Series travels to “The World’s Fastest Half-Mile,” Bristol Motor Speedway for the Sharpie 500. The race can be seen Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN. Radio coverage of the race will be provided by the Performance Racing Network (PRN).