GM 500 – Lowe’s Motor Speedway October 16, 2005

Ricky Rudd driver of the #21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus added to his top-ten career total Saturday night finishing ninth at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Rudd’s crew put him at the front of the field with a 5.89 second two-tire pit stop under the yellow on lap 308. Shortly after the green flag flew on lap 312 Joe Nemechek overtook Ricky passing him on the high side. As the Motorcraft driver moved to fall in behind Nemechek, he and a hard charging Jimmie Johnson made contact.

“I just thought I blew a left-rear tire and I pulled out of the way and was coming into the pits. Then (spotter) Dave (Atkins) said, ‘Hey, the 48 got into you.’ When he said that I was already down here in three limping on the apron, so then I had to take off and go again. I thought for sure I blew a tire. I had no idea he got into me. But it was a good, solid run.”

Ricky fell back to 11th, but before the race ended he had moved back up to ninth, making a last lap pass on Carl Edwards.

The team, under the direction of crew chief Michael “Fatback” McSwain, massaged Rudd’s Taurus until it was to his liking, and the longer the run, the better the car seemed to be. Long runs were rare Saturday night as tire problems and accidents took a toll on the field. “We just had a real tight race car when we started. We had to come from a long way back. Our tire strategy was to put on four all night, whereas a lot of guys got temporary track position by putting on two. We did that right at the end. I think we came in like seventh or 10th and came out with the lead. We were sitting pretty decent on the restart and I guess Nemechek got up on the outside of me, but then I didn’t know that the 48 car ran into us. I’m a little disappointed.”

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was the first victim of the tire issues in the NEXTEL Cup race that started with the Busch race Friday night. Attrition was high in both events with accidents claiming 11 competitors in the Cup race. Throughout the entire weekend McSwain kept a close watch on the condition of every tire that was removed from Rudd’s Taurus, and at one point during the race a Goodyear representative told the team that the #21 team had the best looking tires on pit road.

The team concentrated on race set-up during practice sessions, and Ricky and the team hadn’t been happy with the car in qualifying trim. Then right before Ricky was slated to take his qualifying run Thursday night another competitor lost an engine, and the track crew had clean up a significant portion of the racetrack.

After he went back to the garage Rudd answered questions about his run. HOW MUCH DID THE OIL AFFECT YOUR RUN? “It’s not a good thing to have happen. They did the best job they possibly could to clean it up, but, like I told Fatback, we need to look at segments. I was really good at this end (three and four) and I went down to this end (one and two) the car wouldn’t stick. It wasn’t like you were gonna wreck, but the car just wouldn’t stick. It was like you went in there and just hit marbles or something and it just wouldn’t stick. You were out of the gas longer, it took longer to get back in the gas and then you lost more momentum. I was surprised it ran as good as it did when I saw Hamilton go in front of me and I saw dust flying up. What can you do? It’s not a good draw right then. We weren’t that fast in qualifying trim in practice, but they did some things to the car that helped it. I felt like we left two-tenths on the table, which would have put us down in the .15s or .20s, which would have been pretty good.”

He ended up 31st on the starting grid Saturday. 

Even after the collision with Ricky, Jimmie Johnson went on to power past Nemechek and stay ahead of Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle until a green, white, checker that extended the race two laps beyond the scheduled 334.

Johnson’s win put him into a tie with Tony Stewart for the lead in the point chase with five races left to complete the season.

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series goes to Martinsville this coming weekend. The Virginia “paperclip” oval is the only short track left on the 2005 schedule. Television coverage of the Subway 500 will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 23 on NBC. The green flag is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live over the Motor Racing Network (MRN) radio network.

Lowe’s Top Ten: 1. Jimmie Johnson  2. Kurt Busch 3. Greg Biffle 4. Joe Nemechek  5. Mark Martin  6. Casey Mears  7. Ryan Newman  8. Denny Hamlin  9. Ricky Rudd  10. Carl Edwards

Points after Lowe’s: 1. Tony Stewart 5777 2. Jimmie Johnson 5777 3. Greg Biffle 5766  4. Ryan Newman 5760 5. Mark Martin 5726 6. Carl Edwards 5723 7. Rusty Wallace 5685 8. Jeremy Mayfield 5662 9. Matt Kenseth 5653 10. Kurt Busch 5635 22. Ricky Rudd 3141