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| Rudd poses before the race with wife Linda and son Landon. Credit: |
And why not? He's done that for 22 consecutive years. Finish one race. Go to the next. That's how he got to 700 with his sanity intact. You can't get too high when things go well, and you can't get too low when things go poorly.
"It was a neat weekend," Rudd said. "I just wish the outcome would've turned out a little bit different, something we would remember 700 by. We'll remember it, but not in a real super positive way because we didn't finish."
Rudd was having a mediocre day Sunday, patiently waiting for the end of the race so he and the Wood Brothers could play out their strategy. But they never got the chance.
"It's really kind of strange," Rudd said. "We were running around there under caution. We didn't two-tire our car all day. We were waiting for the end of the race to do that to get track position.
"We were riding along under caution discussing strategy, and all of sudden, the motor just vibrated and shut off."
The oil pump belt came off the Roush Racing engine, ruining Rudd's day.
Rudd probably wasn't going to win anyway, but he was going to try to make the best of it.
"It wasn't pretty today," Rudd said. "We were going to hang around and end up pretty decent. ... It worked out good for us last week at New Hampshire to wait until the end of the race to put on just two. We were getting to that point."
And then ...
"It's kind of a strange deal," Rudd said. "I've never had that happen before."
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