Rudd: 'He took the race away from us'

By Tim Hipps, Special to Turner Sports Interactive
September 24, 2001
10:20 AM EDT (1420 GMT)

DOVER, Del. -- Rusty versus Ricky, Round 2, went down Sunday at Dover Downs.

Ricky Rudd (left) meets Rusty Wallace after the race.

Race leader Ricky Rudd, who led twice for 169 of 400 laps in the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400, received a "love tap" on the rear bumper from rival Rusty Wallace and spun through Turn 4 of lap 345, bringing out the 10th caution of the race.

"I don't know," Rudd said when asked what happened after he climbed from the No. 28 Robert Yates Ford. "We got damage there messing with Rubberhead Wallace. He hit us and bent our fender in. He took the race away from us."

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That was the end of Sunday's post-race interview session with Rudd, who settled for a third-place finish behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jerry Nadeau. The scene was reminiscent of their Aug. 25 run-in at Bristol Motor Speedway.

"He was about to to get us a lap down and he ran into me on the back straightaway," said Wallace, who wound up 11th in the No. 2 Penske Ford. "I just stood on the gas and we got into each other in Turn 4 and he spun out. His memory is pretty short, I'll tell you that."

Asked what he thought of Rudd calling him "Rubberhead," Wallace replied: "I called a guy a conehead a long time ago. I guess maybe somebody else needs a name. I've got a lot of respect for him [Rudd], but I didn't have any respect for him at Bristol when he got into me."

When the two drivers met in the garage area, Rudd grabbed Wallace and told him they could settle their differences right then and there. Wallace responded that he didn't think Rudd wanted to do that. They were restrained by a NASCAR official and both went their seperate ways.

Wallace offered another explanation for his miscue, rather than flat-out admitting that he spun Rudd's car out of contention.

Ricky Rudd rallied to finish third for his 19th top-10 of the year.

"I was tight all day long," said Wallace, who never led the race but ran among the top 10 much of the race. "The car pushed the front end most of the day. In practice, it was a little tight and I really thought it would loosen up in the race, but I was just too tight. I probably had about an eighth-place car.

"Track position was everything in the world. If I could get in front, I could stay in front. If I got behind, it seemed like I stayed behind. It was real tough for me to pass cars out there today because I had a pretty pushy front end. Other than that, we finished 11th. We didn't gain any points, but didn't lose any, either."

Wallace didn't gain any friends, either, although he may have lost a few.

"With about 125 laps to go, we started making progress in getting the car better," race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "We had a bad pit stop that put it back to eighth place. I was kind of worried about being able to get back up there, but we were able to move back up to third position under the green flag.

"That's when Ricky spun. It was really unfortunate for him. It cost him the race or a chance to win the race, but we were able to capitalize on that. I don't think we would've if he hadn't spun."

Runner-up Jerry Nadeau said Rudd seemed "pissed off" when he climbed from his car.

"He got out of his car and he looked like he was breathing heavy, and he just took off," Nadeau said. "I think there was an incident between him and Rusty Wallace, isn't that what happened? I'm sure he probably was a little upset there and I'm sure he wanted to catch and airplane home."