SNICKERS CREW IMPROVES CAR FINISH IN ATLANTA HAMPTON, GA

The #88 Snickers® Ford Fusion finished 26th in Sunday’s Kobalt 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. After qualifying in the 42nd position, the #88 team found themselves searching for a way to gain back valuable track position on the 1.5 mile speedway. Quick pit stops and tenacity helped the team finish in the Top 30 cars on Sunday. 

Rudd started the race in the 42nd starting position alongside Jeff Green. Elliott Sadler and Jimmie Johnson led the field to the green flag and by lap 25, Rudd found himself up in 33rd. A caution on lap 35 found the majority of the field making pit stops. The Snickers team took four tires, fuel, and made an adjustment to the track bar after Rudd had come across the team’s radio talking about how the car didn’t have the grip he needed to be able to pass cars underneath in the turns. 

The team continued to monitor the car’s handling for the next forty laps until Rudd once again came on the radio asking for a minor adjustment to increase the handling. On lap 85, the Snickers Ford came in for tires, fuel, and an adjustment to the shocks which proved to help Rudd who then piloted himself into 27th.

Rudd spent the remainder of the race hovering around the 27th and 28th positions but not without its fair share of challenges to stay there. During the caution on lap 142 for debris, Rudd stated that the Snickers Ford was getting free in the middle of the turns meaning that he couldn’t drive into the turns as aggressively as he had wanted. Fifty laps later, the rear grip issues reappeared and the team once again made adjustments to the car’s handling set-up.

Lap 229 found David Reutimann, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, and Greg Biffle all making contact with each other in Turn 3 and brought out the 4th caution of the day. After another pit stop of tires and fuel on lap 233, the restart found Masterfoods USA teammate, David Gilliland, starting directly behind Rudd in the 29th position. The remainder of the race found the Snickers team with solid runs and improved handling, but it was a little too late to capitalize on those settings. In the end, Rudd and his Snickers crew would bring home a 26th place finish and another day of track notes to build upon for the following week’s race. 

“It was a day that we spent just trying to work our way up through the field,” said Rudd. “We had nowhere to go but up today since we didn’t qualify the way we had wanted to, but our Snickers crew did a great job on our pit stops and the car ran well for the majority of the race. We just started so far back, and everyone was running so clean, that it was tough to catch up.”

Jimmie Johnson won the Kobalt 500 making it his second consecutive victory this season following his victory in Las Vegas. Johnson edged out Tony Stewart who had led 121 laps of the race but in the final laps succumbed to the power of the #48. Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top five finishers for the afternoon. Rudd’s teammate, David Gilliland had a 30th place finish with his M&M’s® Ford Fusion. 

Next weekend the NEXTEL Cup continues as the Series heads to Tennessee for a weekend of racing at Bristol Motor Speedway where the Car of Tomorrow will make its race debut. Race coverage of the Food City 500 is scheduled for the FOX Television Network on Sunday, March25 at 1:30p.m. EST with radio coverage provided by the Performance Racing Network (PRN).