Mr. Consistency: he's always in the title hunt—and each year finds his way to Victory Circle—but Ricky Rudd is still waiting to make the leap from steady also-ran to champion - Interview: Ricky Rudd - stock car racer - Interview

Auto Racing Digest, June-July, 2002 by Ashley Jude Collie

ONCE AGAIN, THE DAYTONA 500 kicked off the new NASCAR season with a bang. The most-watched auto race since 1984, it set the tone for the new season, leaving drivers and pundits talking about blocking, the ongoing perils of the superspeedway, rule changes which shift like the sands, and post-Dale Earnhardt stock car racing. Amidst all of the flux, one of the more Consistent aspects of this NASCAR season Remains the driving of veterans Such as 45-year-old Ricky Rudd.

And few are more consistent than Rudd, the 1977 NASCAR Rookie of the Year. From 1983-98, Rudd set a modern NASCAR record by winning at least one race in each year.

Rudd, who drives the No. 28 Ford for Robert Yates Racing--which won the Championship in 1999 with driver Dale Jarrett--gave eventual 2001 champion Jeff Gordon a real battle for the top spot during the summer before late-season problems dropped him down to a very credible fourth in the points. But in the process, Rudd, who won two races and took his career earnings over the $20-million mark, was quietly effective.

AUTO RACING DIGEST caught up with Rudd to talk about what it will take to wrestle the championship away from Jeff Gordon, the physical demands on today's drivers, and tips for keeping an eye on the form sheet.

AUTO RACING DIGEST: You had a great season last year: two wins, 14 top-five finishes, and 19 top-10 finishes.

RICKY RUDD: I thought it went pretty well. We challenged for the championship until late August or early September, when we had some mechanical problems that knocked us out of contention. The last three races were pretty disastrous. We should have finished second in points but came out fourth, which was disappointing. But overall, we had a very competitive team and we were consistent.

ARD: Speaking of consistency, you spent 13 weeks last year in second place in points: What combination of factors does it take to win the championship?

RR: [Laughs] I'm still looking for that combination. We've come close, finishing second in 1991, but have never been fortunate enough to win the championship. We were right there in the hunt most of the year. I guess the best way is consistency, which we had last year, and the ability to finish off a race. That was our weak spot last year, but we're addressing it.

ARD: So what will it take to take to knock Jeff Gordon off the top rung?

RR: We looked closely at what knocked us out of contention, and it wasn't a lack of competitiveness, it was mechanical failure. So we sat down and talked about what we could do to fix those weaknesses, while not losing our strengths.

I think that the new engine rules are going to ultimately change things a little. We used to be able to use one engine for qualifying and another for racing. This year, whatever engine you qualify with, that's the one you use to start the race. There were also some rule changes on the weights on internal components in the engines, so you're not able to get super exotic with using lighter alloys and such.

The engine laws are now a little more conservative--not as broadly written as they were last year--which should keep them finishing races this year. The internal engine parts were a little more exotic, making them more susceptible to breaking down.

ARD: You and Dale Jarrett are driving top Ford cars. How close are you to overcoming the Chew and Dodge cars?

RR: I think we're still at a disadvantage with the Ford, but I do believe the gap is narrowing.

ARD: Looking at the ages of the top guys, many of them are in their late thirties to early forties. Is that just the nature of stock car racing, that you become a better driver over time through experience?

RR: [Laughs] The old adage was that you had to be in your mid-thirties or forties to win a championship, but I don't think it's true anymore. The first exception to that rule was Jeff Gordon.

Jeff was a very young driver with a strong racing background but nothing that compared to his Winston Cup competition. What happened was that his car owner, Rick Hendricks, basically changed the way things are done by giving Jeff, as a rookie driver, the chance to work with a winning crew chief. And it paid off. Jeff won a championship at a much younger age than anyone had done before.

At first, the reason it worked was that Jeff was just driving the car and somebody else was doing the planning, the thinking. He had a very experienced and knowledgeable crew chief. Jeff had the steering wheel in his hand but the crew told him when to turn, when to back off, when to challenge. That combination of a young driver and experienced crew chief was successful and it can still be today.

That said, a Winston Cup driver becomes a lot smarter after he has been out there a long time. In most other sports, athletes are retired by their mid-thirties. But this is very much a mental game, it's not so physical. Certainly you do have to be well conditioned, but it's not as grueling as people think it is. You do have to have good vision and good reaction time, however--I still have 20/15 vision.