Conversation: Ricky Rudd

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Ricky Rudd might be in the homestretch of a 29-year Winston Cup career, but the Virginia native is nowhere near the end of his useful time as a competitive racecar driver.

It's a good thing because the first year of his current contract with the legendary Wood Brothers organization from Stuart, Va., is under the range of the pre-season expectations of everyone concerned with the No. 21 Ford, including the driver and team owners.

Rudd took a break while preparing for last weekend's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to sit down with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman to discuss his 800 career starts, his hopes for the future and the possibility of a Wood Brothers move from Virginia.

Q: It's been a long 2003 season, and as you come down the stretch what's the reality of the year been like, compared to your expectations?

Ricky Rudd: Well, it's kind of mixed emotions. The way we've run in recent weeks and how competitive we've been is kind of how we expected to come out of the box at the beginning of the season -- not just myself but also the whole Wood Brothers organization.

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We didn't expect to have a winning car, but at least top-five material if we tuned it right. We didn't expect to struggle as much as we did early on, at least the first half or three-quarter mark of the season. But the good sign has been that we've seen some good, positive results the last few weeks.

There are some reasons for that and some things that we're doing differently in the shop, to the cars. It's a constant learning process and a rebuilding process so I'm very happy with the way we've been performing recently.

Certainly we still need to improve on that, but it's not a bad foundation to build on over the winter.

Q: As good as you're running now, do you wish that the season was going to go on for 10 more races, or is enough enough?

Ricky Rudd: To me, enough is enough and let's regroup. These guys (on the team) have been going at it really hard. I guess the uncertainty part of it is that next year the rules will be structured a little different.

The bodies made a major change over the winter and they're going to implement new rules and new bodies again, and that's kind of how we got behind at the beginning of the season.

The aerodynamic package that NASCAR came out with to tighten the rules on all the cars affected all the cars and we didn't get the combination figured out until just in recent weeks. So I hope it doesn't take us three-quarters of the season to figure it out next year.

Q: Seven hundred consecutive starts was a milestone in your career that was celebrated during the summer, and you said you were just doing your job. Is that how you feel about your 800th start, which you made on Sunday?

Ricky Rudd: Yeah, it's another number that one day I'll look back and probably be proud that I was able to compete in that many Winston Cup races, but to me it's just a number right now.

Some day I'm sure it will mean something to me, but right now I'm so focused on what we've got to deal with at hand, which is stepping up our program to try to win some races, that that is our top priority and I haven't allowed myself to think about 800 starts too much.

Q: It doesn't hurt to walk in someone else's shoes every now and then, so from your wife, Linda's perspective what does 800 starts mean?

Ricky Rudd: Well, she's been with me from the very beginning, actually when we went to high school and junior high and racing dirt bikes. She's seen the career go from nothing to the top level of racing, Winston Cup, so I think she knows we've been through 800 races.

	Rudd with wife, Linda, and son, Landon. Credit: Autostock

I think she sees a lot of the wear and tear more so than I do. She's the one that packs the suitcases every week and now has to get Landon ready to go to school and it complicates her schedule more.

I'm sure if you asked her that question she'd say it seems like we ran 2,000 races more than just 800.

Q: A child obviously sees things in a much different way so from Landon's perspective, as a nine year old, I bet 800 starts doesn't necessarily register; but how neat is it for his dad to be a Winston Cup driver?

Ricky Rudd: I don't think he thinks it's such a huge deal because in the area in which we live, a lot of the dads at the school that he goes to drive race cars, so he's not treated any differently -- which I wouldn't want him to be.

Because there are other race drivers' children at the school he goes to, racing is not such a big deal; especially in the Charlotte area, where it's almost over-exposed to a certain degree. So I don't think he thinks anything different about it, no more than the kid whose father works at a dealership or whatever.

He doesn't get caught up in that too much and on purpose we try not to parade him to driver introductions and stuff. I don't want him to get any false ideas in his head that he's different from everybody else. I want him to earn his way on his own.

We've kind of kept a low profile on that. He's not the kind of kid that just can't wait to go to the racetrack the next week. If he has a choice of going to the racetrack or playing with his buddies for the weekend, he's going to play with his buddies, and that's good. That's doing what he wants to do.

Q: Looking at some of the changes that are coming in 2004, as a former car owner, what's your perspective on the body changes that NASCAR is mandating?

Ricky Rudd: Well, first of all, I haven't really kept up with it. Once you quit being a car owner and you get out of the loop of having to be in a planning mode all the time, it's such a breath of fresh air not to have to worry about that.

The rules are going to be what they are and I'm not going to change them one way or the other. As far as my input I'll give it to them (race team) once I've driven it on whether we need to be looser or tighter on the bodies.

But right now I'm not really caught up to what set of rules they've got going on. I know Eddie and Len Wood and (crew chief) Pat Tryson -- all the guys at the Wood Brothers and all the Ford people have got enough heads in there and another one would just confuse it.

The overall plan, I think, is to try to continue to tighten the rules in a way that there's very little room to fudge on the bodies. I know as a previous car owner it's very expensive every time they talk about doing that.

But I think a lot of this package that's going to happen during the winter is part of a phase-in program that did not actually obsolete all of your racecars last year. It's a phase-in program that wouldn't cost the car owners that much money as if it was done all at once.

But again, I'm not in that loop to tell you if it's good or bad.

Q: With softer tires coming in next year as part of a different aerodynamic package, what's your opinion of that, as a driver?

Ricky Rudd: I don't know. I understand the thought process because it used to mean something to come in and put on tires. It meant you were going to beat the competition. Now, everybody stays out on the racetrack and works the fuel mileage situation because the tires don't really need to be changed because there's no advantage like there used to be.

I'm not so sure the softer tire is going to be the magic fix for all this. The cars have gotten so much better over the years and the crew chiefs have learned how to use the aerodynamics to the utmost advantage and they're still learning that almost on a daily basis.

I'm not so sure a softer tire is going to change anything. I'm game so let's try it; but I'm not hanging my hat on saying that's going to fix all our problems, the fastest guy's going to win the race every week and pit strategy or tires is going to be important again. I don't know -- I'm waiting to make a judgment on it.

Q: There's been talk this weekend of the Wood Brothers moving their shop from Virginia to the Charlotte area. In your opinion, would that be a plus or a minus.

Ricky Rudd: It's kind of a twofold deal for me, because I grew up in Virginia. I always thought of the Wood Brothers, as, well, that is Virginia. That's Virginia racing, right there.

They've survived a lot of years there and they've done very well over the years, but without getting in there and making decisions for them, as a car owner I don't see how they've been able to operate in Stuart, as technical as everything has gotten in these recent years.

All the technology is really all over the country if not all over the world, but the heart of it is in the Charlotte area. The problem you have, since this sport has become so highly technical, is to get guys to uproot families to move to Stuart to work for a team, is hard to do -- almost impossible.

So then you go without the technology, and when you do, you quickly fall behind; and that's some of our problems right now. I give Eddie, Len and Kim Wood and Glen a lot of credit for setting the emotions out of it and trying to make the right business decision.

I think when you hear them talking about moving the team from Virginia to the Charlotte area what you're hearing is that the Wood Brothers want to be here for many years in the future, and I think they feel like their future hangs on whether that move takes place or not.

Q: In an 800-race career you've seen a lot of new speedways. How enthused are you about going to Homestead at the end of this season, an old track that has been rebuilt?

Ricky Rudd: I think let's wait and see -- let's go run on it first. I'd hate to sit here and get all excited about it and it might be better or worse than what we had there before.

I think the racing there in previous years was so strung out it wasn't really great racing. I think putting a little bank in the racetrack makes sense but let's see what they've got. I know they spent a lot of money down there trying to improve it for the fans and for the competition.

The easiest thing for those guys at ISC (International Speedway Corporation, track owners) to do would've been to sit back and not do anything. I commend them for making a move to try to make the sport better down there.

Q: What's your take on the championship run that Matt Kenseth has had? Do you want a Ford guy to win to keep it in the family, and what's your opinion on the point system?

Ricky Rudd: I think leave the point system alone because if it ain't broke, why fix it? A lot of people are going to have different opinions about it, but we've operated with it for many years. There are other things that I think have more priority.

This time of year -- at least a couple weeks ago when it looked like a runaway -- people get bored and don't know what to talk about because they can't talk about the championship. So they bring up the points issue every year.

What do I think about the Ford situation? How many championships has Ford won in the last, what, 25 years? I know it's a real low number.

Based on that, I would say the rules definitely don't look like they're biased toward the Ford cars right now. I think it's good and that Ford needs a championship. It looks like Kenseth is the guy to get it done right now (since) they've run a smart season all year.