The Official Website of Ricky Rudd - NASCAR Nextel Cup Driver

BRISTOL, TN (March 25, 2007) - The #88 Pedigree® Ford Fusion finished 38^th in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. After qualifying in the 24^th position, the #88 Pedigree team struggled the majority of the afternoon to find a balance in the car that was to Rudd’s liking. Several combinations of track bar, air pressure, and wedge adjustments could not improve the handling of the car and, after an accident late in the race, the car limped home to a 38^th-place finish.

When the green flag flew at 2:29 p.m. EDT, Rudd started the race on the outside of row 12 next to Jeremy Mayfield, who qualified for his first race of the 2007 season. Pole sitter Jeff Gordon led the field to the green flag but immediately lost the lead to a faster Tony Stewart. Meanwhile, Rudd spent the first forty laps riding around and avoiding any trouble as he

evaluated the handling on his car. He was relatively happy, as his only comments were that the car was a little “snug” in the exit of the turns and he needed a little more front grip.

The team’s first opportunity to make a change came at the misfortune of their teammate, David Gilliland in the #38 M&M’s Ford, as he was caught up in a wreck on lap 43. The #17 spun the #44 car in turn two directly in front of the #38 M&M’S Ford, leaving him no chance to avoid a direct hit into the driver’s door of the #44 car. During the caution for that incident, the #88 Pedigree Team made the first of many air pressure adjustments along with a small wedge adjustment.

The next green-flag run showed the team’s potential for a strong finish by the end of the day as the #88 Pedigree Ford spent fifty laps gaining four positions on the track while running laps as quick as the leaders. But a string of minor adjustments throughout the next couple of pit stops to free up the car were negligible with the car staying fairly tight through the center and exit of the turns. During the next two hundred laps, Rudd raced mid-pack and spent most of the time in and around 25^th place.

When a caution came out on lap 367 for debris on the front stretch, Crew Chief Butch Hylton called for a major track bar adjustment in an attempt to again free up the handling of the car. Unfortunately Rudd and his #88 Pedigree Team did not get the chance to see if the change was an improvement as Rudd’s #88 suffered significant damage to the right front in an accident only three laps after the restart. The crew cut away the damage and made enough repairs during two lengthy pit stops to salvage a 37^th-place finish.

“Everything felt pretty good early in the race even though the car was a little bit tight and we were just trying to make a few small adjustments to stay ahead on the track,” Rudd said after the race. “I don’t know yet if maybe we got some inconsistent tires, but it just seemed like the changes we were making didn’t affect the handling the way they should have. At least we’ve got our first race under our belts with this new car and hopefully we can improve on what we learned today and have a good race next weekend in Martinsville.”

Kyle Busch held off a hard-charging Jeff Burton to earn the victory in the Food City 500 and become the first driver to win in the new Car of Tomorrow. Teammates Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin dominated the race by leading a combined 434 of 500 laps, but suffered different fates to keep them out of victory lane. With his third-place finish, Jeff Gordon sits atop the points standings, replacing an absent Mark Martin.

Next weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series moves on to Martinsville Speedway for the second Car of Tomorrow race. Pre-race coverage of the Goody’s Cool Orange 500 begins on Sunday, April 1^st at 1:30 p.m. EDT on FOX, followed by the green flag at 2:00 p.m. Radio coverage is provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).

BRISTOL, TN (March 23, 2007) – Ricky Rudd will roll off from the 24th position on Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Rudd posted a fast lap time of 15.510 seconds at 123.417 mph during Friday’s qualifying session.

“That’s a couple tenths quicker than we practiced,” said Rudd following his lap. “We didn’t have a bad practice lap but it was just all (the speed) we had. They freed the car up a little bit and that (lap) was much better.”

Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway marked the debut of the highly anticipated “Car of Tomorrow” introduced by NASCAR in a select number of races for the 2007 season. For Ricky Rudd and the #88 Team, the weekend also marked the debut of a new look for their Ford Fusion as it carried the PEDIGREE® colors for the first time during the season.

Rudd’s qualifying lap was a marked improvement from his practice time of 38th quick in Friday’s only practice session. In fact, Rudd believes that the entire process of learning a new car in the Car of Tomorrow has been a learning process for all the teams starting with the first NASCAR sanctioned test session held at Bristol nearly one month ago.

“The first day (of the test) I couldn’t even drive the car,” said Rudd. “It was pretty bad bouncing and jumping and I knew it wasn’t right. They went back to the hotel that night and stayed up quite a few hours looking at all the data and it showed them what they needed to do. When we came back the next day, it was a different car, but, still it needed to be a little bit better. They went back and worked on it and I’m pretty happy about where we ended up here today.”

Rudd’s teammate David Gilliland will start from the 36th position on Sunday after clocking a fast lap time of 15.608 seconds. Gilliland fought a tight condition during practice on Friday but was able to correct a problem found in the front end of the #38 between Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions.

Jeff Gordon clinched his first pole of the 2007 season by posting a fast lap speed of 125.453 mph. Gordon will be followed by Dodge teammates Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler who will roll off in the second and third positions on Sunday. Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray posted the fourth and fifth quickest lap times respectively to round out the top-five starters for this weekend’s Food City 500.

Coverage of the Food City 500 is scheduled for the FOX Television Network is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Radio coverage will be provided by Performance Racing Network (PRN).

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (March 20, 2007) – This weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500 and it will mark a series of firsts for the #88 team. NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow will make its racing debut providing a true test as to how the newly redesigned body styles will handle the pressures of race day. Sunday will also mark the first time the #88 team has run a special paint scheme for the 2007 season. Instead of the normal Snickers Racing scheme, the team will be running a bright yellow PEDIGREE® Brand Food for Dogs Ford Fusion.

What are your feelings heading into Bristol this weekend with the new Car of Tomorrow?

“Bristol is always an interesting place to say the least. There’s definitely a lot of excitement, but there’s going to be a lot more unknowns for everyone when we go back to Bristol with the Car of Tomorrow. We struggled the first day of testing with the new cars and had a hard time figuring out how to get the suspension working correctly. We came back the next day after the guys had worked hard, and I really liked what I had for race set-up. We’ll just have to see how it all turns out, but it should be a very exciting weekend for everyone that’s for sure.”

“I’m really excited about the Car of Tomorrow races. It’s going to be something very different for us and all the other teams as well as the fans, but I think that it should be a really fun weekend with a lot of racing action that fans come to expect when they come to Bristol.”

· Rudd has a driver rating of 92.7 at Bristol which is the ninth best of current drivers

· Rudd has a tenth-best average running position of 13.320 at Bristol among all active drivers

· Rudd’s best finish at Bristol is second scored at both the spring and fall races in 1981, as well as a second-place finish each in 1985 and 1986

· Rudd earned his best starting spot at Bristol in 1984 while driving the #15 Wrangler Jeans Ford by earning the pole for the Valleydale 500

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