Rudd beats Harvick, claims Yates' 50th win
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Ricky Rudd led 88 laps in the Chevy Monte Carlo 400.
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By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
September 10, 2001
10:57 AM EDT (1457 GMT)
RICHMOND, Va. - Just when it appeared that Kevin Harvick had yet again bullied his way to Victory Lane on the Winston Cup playground, Ricky Rudd reared back with a counter punch for the ages.
Rudd was leading the Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 with 17 laps remaining when Harvick, in what has become characteristic fashion, stormed to his rear bumper, got under him, lifted him up and turned him sideways coming out of Turn 2.
Rudd somehow managed to save the car, then collected himself and began a furious charge after Harvick that ended when he moved Harvick from his path on lap 394.
He would not relinquish the lead again, therefore earning the crafty veteran his second victory of the 2001 season, his second career trip to Victory Lane at RIR and a landmark victory for car owner Robert Yates -- his 50th.
“I was ahead of Kevin, until the restart point he kept bumping into me, and raised me up in the straightaway,” Rudd said. “It just sort of got me a little ruffled under the collar there a little bit. I just about got turned around on the backstretch.
“I should’ve wrecked. I knew I had a better race car at the end of the race. I got to him and sort of returned the favor. It’s hard (to catch up) when you’re hot headed like I was.
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Jeff Gordon lost 120 points to Rudd in the championship chase.
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"I was pretty steamed up. There’s two ways to drive hard. You can either have a little class about it or you can be like a bull in a china closet. He chooses to do the latter of the two.”
While Rudd had every right to be upset, he was quite fortunate to even be in that position. Rusty Wallace utterly dominated the 400-lap affair, leading a race-high 276 laps before a late-race mishap relegated him to a fifth-place finish.
Wallace was leading Rudd and Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 23 laps remaining when he got loose in the backstretch and bobbled, nearly hitting the inside wall. Rudd roared by on the outside as Wallace was shuffled back to fourth position.
“I put some air in the right-rear tire on that last pit stop and it just killed me,” Wallace said. “It just made me so loose that I couldn’t get going. Before that the car was perfect. I should have never touched it but I did. (Rudd) didn’t hit me.
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Ron Hornaday hood is crushed after a mid-race incident. Hornaday finished 41st.
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"It just went up in smoke. I got loose up off the corner and when he got behind me if just caused me to spin my rear tires.”
Wallace led a race-high 276 laps here in the spring as well, but, like Saturday, was unable to bring home the hardware.
“To lead both of these races - lead the most laps and come away without a win is very disappointing,” Wallace said. “I’ll just have to quit messing around with the air pressures there at the end. It’s frustrating to lead all those laps and come up short.”
Harvick came up just short of winning his third race of the year, but did manage to move past Wallace into eighth position in the point standings. The big points mover of the night was Rudd, who gained 120 points on Jeff Gordon in the championship chase.
Gordon was done early. The championship points leader by 342 points coming in, Gordon was caught up in an early-race accident that sent the No. 24 Chevrolet behind the wall with severe damage.
Gordon had been battling Sterling Marlin through Turns 3 and 4 on lap 35 when Marlin tapped the rear end of Gordon’s Chevrolet, sending the three-time title winner into the Turn 4 wall.
“That wasn’t how I wanted to start, that’s for sure,” Gordon said. “The car is really good on long runs. It took it a while to come in, but we were real good on long runs. I was just waiting for it come in. Sterling got inside of me and I let him have it, then I don’t know what happened. I guess you’ll have to ask Sterling.”
Gordon’s teammates managed to repair the car, and he returned to the race on lap-144, 109 laps down in 43rd and last position. He managed to make up seven spots and finish 36th, which happens to be the third time this year he’s finished outside the top-35.
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Terry Labonte finished 38th after a crash ended his night. He dropped to 25th in the standings.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third, followed by Dale Jarrett and Wallace. Earnhardt Jr. vied for the lead early and often, but as the race wore on his car was unable to run with the leaders.
“That was just a lot of fun, but I was kind of ticked off a little bit - we ran up front all day and never led a lap.” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We had a good car but we were way too tight in the middle of the corner to keep up with leaders.
"Kevin (Harvick) had a shot at win. I was disappointed he didn’t. He did what you gotta do. If you want a chance to win in this kind of race that’s what you gotta do, you gotta get up there any way you can.”
That’s what Harvick did. That’s what Rudd did. Rudd is a driver that prides himself on clean driving, but Michael McSwain, Rudd’s crew chief, may have characterized his driver best, saying:
“I was a little bit disappointed (at Harvick) because I thought we had a chance to win. But when you piss the Rooster (Rudd) off, it’s hell to pay.”
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