Ricky Rudd #21 Motorcraft Racing Talladega Advance

Ricky Rudd: "The sensation of speed, I call it the white knuckle effect, is a whole lot greater at a Texas or Atlanta than it is at Talladega or Daytona. It basically takes zero effort to go around Talladega or Daytona wide open."

Ricky Rudd and Motorcraft Genuine Parts team pit coach Gary Smith answer the fans' questions about Talladega and making good pit stops at all events. One year ago, Ricky sat on the pole at the Aarons 499 bringing to Wood Brothers Racing its sixth first-place starting spot at the Alabama.

> RICKY RUDD - #21 - MOTORCRAFT GENUINE PARTS TAURUS: DID YOU TEST AT TALLADEGA AND IF NOT, HOW DOES TALLADEGA COMPARE TO DAYTONA? "We didn't test at Talladega. We had two cars that we carried to the Daytona 500. When we time trialed, I think we were fifth fastest. We had a car that was probably capable of a shot at the pole. I'm not saying we would have gotten it, but it was definitely faster than the car we qualified fifth with. We elected not to race that car because it always has a push in it at Daytona and we can't seem to get the push out of it. But at Talladega, it's not even an issue because the corners are wider and more sweeping. So we'll probably take that car to Talladega. That is the one we sat on the pole with a year ago and had the outside pole with in the fall last year."

> NO DISCREDIT TO YOUR PAST CREW CHIEFS, BUT YOU AND FATBACK REALLY SEEM TO HAVE THE CHEMISTRY NEEDED TO RUN GOOD WEEK TO WEEK. WHAT IS THE KEY FACTOR THAT SEPARATES FATBACK FROM THE REST OF THE CREW CHIEFS YOU'VE HAD? "We've had some good crew chiefs over the years and most of them I won races with. I guess the best way to describe Fatback is, he listens when I'm telling him something. Every driver has their own way of explaining things, but he seems to really comprehend what I'm telling him, probably as good as if not better than anybody I've worked with. A lot of crew chiefs know how to change the handling. If it's pushing they can make it loose or vice-versa. Fatback just has a real good knack of listening to what I'm telling him and then he takes that data and he can usually hone in and give me a car real close to what I'm looking for." 

> HAS THE COMMUNICATION CHANGED AS THE CARS HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? "No, the driver is basically going to give his description of what the car is doing. If a car was fast enough to win the pole for every race and was good in every race there wouldn't be any communication. But that isn't the way it is. Every car is different and the driver has his input on what he wants, and it is up to the crew chief to take that input and make it better. Over the years things have changed, but the driver is still going to give feedback on what the car is doing. The difference is that the way of fixing it has changed. When you might have used a chassis change or a spring change in the past, now it can be done with a fender. You maybe take a fender and change the angle while five years ago it wasn't that sensitive. It is still up to the driver. The driver might say it is pushing and depending on where it's pushing, it is up to the crew chief as to whether he works on an aero change or whether you work on a chassis change to correct it. That is probably the biggest thing that has changed over the years. Now you've got aero. You are using a lot of your chassis and spring to control the aero part of the equation. And by that I mean how low the car rides down the straightaways as you enter the corner. The car's ride height, pitches and changes are real important to make the car go fast. That wasn't as big of an issue in the past as it is today. So it is up to the crew chief to decide whether he wants to make an aero change or a chassis change to correct it."

> AT WHAT TRACKS IS AERO THE MOST IMPORTANT? "A good example is a track like a Texas. Really the fast way around the race track was on the bottom. So you could have a fast car, but you were forced to follow the car in front of you into the corner. You could have a car that is considerably faster than him, but not fast enough to go up and make a second groove and pass him on the outside. So therefore, you are committed to follow him until you see a break. You can catch the guy and all of a sudden the front end starts to push. The bigger tracks, a mile and a half and bigger, are the ones that are affected by that aero push more than any others - Indianapolis, Texas, anywhere that it is essentially a one-groove race track." 

> BUT NOT AT TALLADEGA OR DAYTONA? "No, it's not that big of a deal there. Mainly at Daytona you can get into an aero push, but it is not a whole lot different whether you are following or leading. But at Texas or Indianapolis if you can get out into clean air that push can go away."

> IS IT FAIR TO SAY THAT ATLANTA AND TEXAS HAVE SURPASSED DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA AS THE FASTEST TRACKS ON THE CIRCUIT? "The sensation of speed, I call it the white knuckle effect, is a whole lot greater at a Texas or Atlanta than it is at Talladega or Daytona. It basically takes zero effort to go around Talladega or Daytona wide open. Texas is another story. Michigan is another story. You know you are going faster. Straightaway speeds are 200 miles per hour plus, where at Daytona or Talladega you never see that with the plates. You also have to slow down for the corners, so timing is a real critical issue - when to roll out of the throttle, when to turn into the corner. All those things are an issue at a Texas or Michigan or Indy where they're not an issue at Talladega or Daytona. I don't know what the lap speeds are, but it takes a lot more effort to make a lap at Michigan or Indy."

> IS TALLADEGA A "COOKIE CUTTER" TRACK? "No. Cookie cutter tracks are the ones that look identical to one another, like they used the same blueprint to build them. A Kansas, Chicago, Vegas somewhat, Michigan somewhat falls into that category. They all have similar bank angles and such. That is what is meant by the cookie cutter term." 

> HOW HAVE THE RULES CHANGES OVER THE YEARS AFFECTED YOUR RACING? WHAT ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES HAVE HELPED OR HURT YOU AND THE OTHER DRIVERS? "That is a question that would take forever to answer. I'll only speak to the most recent changes. They made one rule that basically took spoiler off the cars, which should have made them harder to driver. But at the same time Goodyear came back and changed the tire compound so from a driver standpoint there is virtually no difference. I'm not sure of the reason behind it. I can see making the spoiler smaller and making the cars ill to drive, but at the same time why would you cut the spoiler off and then have softer tire? That is a good example of a major rule change, but the crews are so good at working and getting these cars to where the performance loss is back to where the driver doesn't see a whole lot of difference. Now the crews have lost a lot of sleep over it and a whole lot of work has gone into getting these cars to that point, but we don't notice the difference."

> GARY SMITH - #21 MOTORCRAFT GENUINE PARTS TAURUS PIT CREW COACH: I NOTICED THAT YOU POSTED RELATIVELY SLOW PIT STOPS IN TEXAS. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE PIT STOPS BETWEEN RACES? "It's true that a bad pit stop can cost the driver in a race. That is an important part of our day. We had very good pit stops at Texas. We had nine pit stops in all and our overall average was 13.46 seconds. We did lose a few spots on our very first pit stop because we had so much congestion off the jack leaving pit road that Ricky had to slow down so there wouldn't be an altercation, creating a wreck. We probably would have gained spots on that one, but overall we had a good day and good stops. Thirteen forty-six is a good average. We did have one stop that was a 14.50. I believe we hung a lug nut on the front. These are things that can happen during a race. Certainly you hope they don't, and we work very hard all week during practice. It's hard to have that many pit stops and not have some sort of problem happen. If it does, we forget about it and move on because there is no sense in looking back. We normally practice two to three times a week. We do actual live pits stops. And then, of course, we are in the weight room a couple days a week doing weight training. That is a very important part of it - conditioning. If we need to pick a third or even a fourth day if we have a certain problem, an individual or an area that we need to address, we certainly take the time to address them." 

This Week In Ford Racing - 
This Week in Ford Racing April 26, 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series

Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus, has been visiting Talladega, site of this weekend's Aaron's 499, since 1976. He produced his first top-10 finish a year later with an engine that was purchased at the track after losing his qualifying engine during Happy Hour. Rudd, who put up the fastest qualifying lap at Talladega in last year's spring race, which delivered Wood Brothers Racing's first pole since 1984. The team heads into this weekend's event with two top-10s in the last three NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series starts.

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus - WHAT ABOUT THAT FIRST TOP-10 BACK IN THE 1970S? "It was 1977 and we were running for Rookie of the Year, and we blew our last motor up at Pocono the week before. Back then you needed a truck block, that's what you started building an engine with. So we drove the tow truck home from Pocono, and the tow truck, that we towed our trailer with, happened to have the block that we needed. So we got back to my dad's junk yard and pulled the motor from the truck, got it to my brother in the machine shop, and they worked and took that motor and made a race motor out of it. They needed the block, and of course, they had race cylinder heads and stuff, but those blocks back then were a little harder to find, so there was a good block, and they took it out of the tow truck and another buddy put another motor in the truck. They didn't have the right block, but it would get us to Talladega. So we get down there and get qualified, and we blow our motor up in Happy Hour practice, and we didn't have a spare. So we got together with Robert Yates and he agreed to sell us a motor, and we finished fourth that day. So that was sort of a strange deal. We won the money, and it was just enough money to pay Robert for the motor."

ON WINNING THE POLE, HIS FIRST WITH THE WOOD BROTHERS, AT TALLADEGA LAST APRIL. "If you look back, ever since I came on board here, these guys have had good speedway cars. I'm thinking the same car went to Daytona and qualified well, they massaged on it a little bit and then went to Talladega and it sat on the pole. There had been a trend leading up to that pole, and if I'm not mistaken, that's probably the same car that's going back."

ON QUALIFYING AT TALLADEGA, WHERE THE RACING IS DONE IN PACKS. "The qualifying and the race have nothing to do with one another. The only thing about a good qualifying car is that hopefully it starts you up front and gives the guys a little pat on the back when they can accomplish a pole, because it's really a crew members' race. They build the slickest car and take down there and that pole is definitely a crew members' accomplishment. Everybody in the garage area realizes that, and these guys get a few pats on the back, which they deserve, for that, but it really has no bearing on the race whatsoever."

DOES ANYTHING ABOUT TALLADEGA STAND OUT TO YOU? "It's the same old Talladega, the track's a lot easier to drive than it was years ago because the speed is down, but by the same token, I race trim when you're running four-wide all day long, or three wide, it's pretty intense racing. You tolerate it. I don't know anybody who really loves it, you tolerate it. It's hard to look forward to it. I get more excited about going there looking for a pole then I do anything because that's something these guys can control. When you get out there in those big packs, you have no control over your fate."

HOW IMPORTANT HAVE THE TWO TOP-10S IN THE LAST THREE RACES BEEN FOR THIS TEAM? "The team has made big, big gains since last year. It came on last year when Fatback (Michael McSwain, crew chief) came on board, and he's slowly been making changes and a new season gets here and we're really looking forward to coming out of the box. We knew we had good cars, they'd run well, but we didn't know exactly how well until you go out and race the competition and finish the races. We knew we were good but we needed some races under our belt to tweak on the cars - we simply couldn't get. Fatback ends up having a back injury and had to have that taken car of, and then we wreck in the first I don't know how many races right in a row, a victim of circumstances, so we didn't get into a race four or five laps and then we'd get wrecked so we didn't know what we had. We went to Atlanta and had a top-three car and ended up with a freakish part failure real late in the race. That was only indication we knew that, 'Hey, we're pretty good. I don't know about good enough to win, but we're good enough to run up in the top five. And the we turned around and broke, but at least we ran the majority of the race to find out what we needed to work on."

SO THIS TEAM STARTING TURNING IT AROUND TOWARDS THE END OF LAST SEASON? "I think you would go back and erase everything and start at about the time Fatback showed up. Give him a couple of races when he got here and got settled, but from that point on, and then all of a sudden you've got this group of DNFs - they don't show up as DNFs, they show up as bad finishes because we patched the cars up, some without front-end parts, some just to ride it out - but there's that streak there in a row of a bunch of bad finishes, but if you could erase that, go back and start all over again and look at Martinsville a few weekends ago and Texas - it's not a dominant team yet, but it's a competitive top-five, top-10 team."

USING THAT AS YOUR TIME FRAME, HOW IS THIS TEAM DOING HEADING INTO TALLADEGA? "I think we're a top-10 team for sure, week in and week out - top five on occasion. If you run in the top five nowadays, you can slip in there in the right circumstances and you can win. But these guys are not content with, 'This is what we've got.' They needed those races under their belt so they can tweak on things. If the car continuously has a push situation, then they'll go to work on sticking the front end better. If we go somewhere where we've been constantly loose, they'll work on un-sticking the front and sticking the back. So, there seems to be a pattern there they've got so now they can go to work and tweak a little bit and hope to make them better."

EDDIE WOOD, co-owner No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus - WAS THE POLE LAST YEAR AT TALLADEGA, THE FIRST FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS IN 20 YEARS, A SURPRISE TO YOU? "The qualifying package that we had for restrictors was pretty good, because I think we were fourth or fifth at Daytona. We had a good qualifying package there and that was kind of our bright spot of getting us through. We didn't race well at Daytona. The car pushed pretty badly and at Talladega the car was good and as Talladega is - and always has been and will be again - to be fortunate to be in the right line with two or three to go is good. I think we went out of sight in second and we came back wherever we finished. That's how quickly things change. We're taking the same car back to Talladega that we sat on the pole with. It'll be good in race trim, but it may give up a little bit in qualifying from where it was, but part of the reason it did push in the race is because it was quick enough to sit on the pole."

IT WAS A LONG TIME BETWEEN POLES FOR THIS RACE TEAM. "We came close to sitting on a lot of poles from that point until last year, but it just really worked out. That was good. At the time we needed a boost and that was just at the right time. Now, I'd like to go back down there and sit on the pole, sure, after we've dug out of the hole that were in three weeks ago, to gain a number of spots in the standings, actually that in itself is a pretty big boost for us. All year we felt like we had good cars, fast cars, we just couldn't show it. Things just didn't work out. In this business they won't work out until they're ready to work out. It doesn't make any difference what you do. Fortunately, it's kind of starting to come around and I think we'll be okay."

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PINK HAT YOU WORE AFTER WINNING THE POLE? "I think I threw that thing over the fence somewhere. I can't remember where it was. I wore it for a while. It's like the luck wore out in it. I may have to regroup and go get me one. I'm going to go to the souvenir hauler and get me one at Talladega. I think they've still got 'em or they got the 2005 version of 'em. I like pink. I got pink shirts. I like pink."