Ricky Rudd finished second Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Ricky Rudd

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Ricky Rudd isn't sitting at home planning a farewell tour. He's racking his brain, trying to figure out how to run better.

All Rudd is ever done in his adult life is drive a race car. He doesn't want to quit, especially not now, when his team is starting to recover from a disastrous first half.

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Rudd, of course, wasn't content with starting 35th and finishing 28th every week. Then, he got a stroke of luck -- Michael "Fatback" McSwain became available in July, and Rudd's team, The Wood Brothers, quickly snapped him up.

Rudd was also instrumental in bringing in Hoyt Overbaugh, the immensely talented engineer who had worked with Rudd in the 1990s.

Progress wasn't immediate, but Rudd has come on as of late. He qualified second at Talladega and this weekend at Kansas, he nearly won after a thrilling last-lap duel with Joe Nemechek.

Rudd spoke with NASCAR.COM's Ryan Smithson about Terry Labonte, TV opportunities and team chemistry.

Q: Terry Labonte is probably announcing his semi-retirement this week. What can you tell us about racing with Terry Labonte?

Rudd: Well, Terry -- I guess the best way to word it is that Terry is a class-act guy. What you see is what you get. He never has been one to be a TV star.

Rudd staged a thrilling last-lap duel with eventual race winner Joe Nemechek on Sunday at Kansas. Credit: Autostock

He is a heck of a good race car driver. Always has been. He has struggled in recent years, but I do not think it's Terry. Nowadays, what I have seen is that you have got to get that right driver-crew chief combination. If you don't have it, I don't care how good you are or how bad you are. You are not going to run very good. Terry has had his hit-and-miss races, but as far as a driver and a person, (he's) a fine fellow. I have a lot of respect for Terry.

Q: You mentioned TV. You haven't been one to get into the booth at all. How come you haven't really pursued that? A lot of guys your age are trying to get into TV after they get out of the sport.

Rudd: Because I don't like it. I think that's the same thing with Terry. A lot of ways we are similar in that respect. Either you want to do TV or you don't, some guys are good at it and some guys aren't.

I have been offered plenty of times over the years to do some booth time and I'd just rather not. Rather not do it.

Q: When you do retire, Ricky, are you going to quit cold-turkey or do a semi-retirement deal?

Rudd: I haven't got a clue. I really don't. I believe in taking care of the fans that have taken care of me over the years.

Banquet 400 Victory Lane Nemechek celebrates the weekend sweep at Kansas Final laps Joe Nemechek takes the checkered flag at Kansas Speedway Chase Reaction Chase contenders review their runs at Kansas Hard hit Title hopes of Newman and Johnson take a hit at Kansas Minor setback Mark Martin avoids disaster after cutting a tire on Lap 141 Early Caution Sterling Marlin encounters clutch problems on Lap 4 •   Results •   Standings

That will be in my mind real hard, how to handle that, how to do it gracefully and diplomatically and take care of all the people that have supported us over the years.

But I don't know if we have a lot of say-so how we do a farewell tour or whatever. I am not so sure Terry was looking to do a cut-back schedule. It just kind of worked out that way. But it makes a lot of sense. I see why guys would do that.

When you get to our age, you have other interests and kids to think about, you can see how a full schedule sometimes is not always the right answer.

But I really haven't thought that hard about how I am going to exit when it comes time. I don't have another 5 to 10 years in this sport, but I am just focusing on how to get this team running.

Q: You mentioned team chemistry earlier. A lot of people, when they finish 25th in points, they go to Daytona and say, 'We are going to bounce back and finish 10th' and it rarely happens. But you guys seem to have a legitimate argument that you'll push up towards the front next year.

Rudd: Well, I think you have to look at it realistically; you have to measure yourself and measure the team's performance.

Up until four weeks ago -- it was almost getting caught up in a poverty and welfare system, you have got to get yourself out of it and a lot of times you don't have the control to get yourself out of it.

Rudd says his reunion with crew chief Michael McSwain has improved his team's fortunes. Credit: Autostock

Had we not made the major changes we did with crew chief Fatback McSwain and (engineer) Hoyt Overbaugh coming on board, we would not have dug ourselves out. I am gauging it strictly on performance the last four or five weeks, if you look at it and plot it on a graph, you'll definitely see a big leap.

If you look at it on paper, you'll say, "what happened here? Why all of a sudden you see a flat curve, and all of a sudden you're on top of the mountain? What's the deal?"

You have got to be competitive you got to be racing, you got to run good to think about how you get out of the position we're in right now. It's based on performance.

Q: I think I read somewhere that some of your memorabilia was damaged?

Rudd: Yeah, I had a basement flood. I had a lot of stuff in the basement. Stuff that went in boxes, you're going to sort it one day so it's separated by years. A lot of early stuff, a lot of old photographs got destroyed.

Q: If you wanted to get a trophy replaced, how do you go about doing that?

Do what I do, you call the racetrack promoter where you got it from, say "Hey, let me jog your memory, I had a trophy from there three years ago."

I had some back 20 years ago. Fortunately only about five or six of them got damaged. I've got 23 wins or so; some of them are pole trophies and something of that nature. Probably a total of six trophies got damaged.

Q: Parting shot: Who do you like for the Nextel Cup title?

Rudd sits 26th in the Nextel Cup Series standings heading into this weekend's action at Charlotte. Credit: Autostock

Rudd: I don't know how to guess that, I think it will come down, I think, to who has the least amount of trouble.

Obviously a bunch of guys can win it, but I would not know how to pick a favorite right now. It's gong to come down to who keeps running. You can take the guy that is performing the least and not have problems and that can be the guy that wins it.

Q: Kind of like Kulwicki back in 1992 when he won the title even though he didn't win a race in the last 10 races?

Rudd: Yeah, I see a similar thing shaping up. The guy with the least trouble is going to win it.