Ricky Rudd will start fourth Sunday at Texas. Credit: Autostock

Confidence building for Rudd after strong lap

Veteran driver will start in second row Sunday at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas -- One week after having to depend on his qualifying speed to get into the field, Ricky Rudd posted his best starting position of the Nextel Cup season Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Rudd placed his No. 21 Ford into Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 in fourth -- his first top-10 start of the season and his first in three years at Texas.

	Credit: Autostock
	Lineup Samsung/RadioShack 500 Pos. Driver Make 1. Ryan Newman Dodge 2. Jeremy Mayfield Dodge 3. Kasey Kahne Dodge 4. Ricky Rudd Ford 5. Greg Biffle Ford Complete lineup, click here

"To me, I don't get caught up in that (pressure) too much," Rudd said. "I'm more concerned about the performance of the car -- and the car's been performing.

"Last year I was much more concerned because we were not running well -- until Fatback came on board."

It's no coincidence that McSwain's return from back surgery has coincided with an increase in his team's performance. The noticeably slimmed-down crew chief actually was atop the hauler during Rudd's 191.557-mph run.

"I don't think there's any question that it's like the team without the coach," Rudd said of McSwain's absence -- during which McSwain served as crew chief from afar thanks to NASCAR.COM's Pit Command application and other electronic connections. "All the players stepped up and did an excellent job.

"But when the coach is back it's a little bit different and it brings something to the team, for sure. The guys Michael has got underneath him did well in his absence, but what really hurt us was we never got a chance to see how good we really were."

Rudd said a strong pre-qualifying practice was critical. Rudd was fourth on the Friday morning practice sheet, again behind Bud Pole winner Ryan Newman.

"This is our best starting position of the year and there's some reasons for that," Rudd said. "Our qualifying effort we've almost purposefully sacrificed. We did come here and test and ran some race runs and qualifying runs.

"By qualifying this well today it's the first time this year we'll have a car that's qualified well that's going to race well, also. If a single car team comes into an event and they haven't tested, they're way behind the 8-ball.

	Inside the Numbers Ricky Rudd at Texas Year Start Finish Laps Led 1997 8 5 26 1998 20 27 0 1999 34 19 0 2000 20 10 9 2001 6 37 0 2002 3 4 29 2003 16 26 0 2004 29 22 0

"Especially with the new tires, that's hurt us in qualifying. We could have elected to come to every race in qualifying trim and probably have been fast, but you can't have it both ways and at tracks we're not able to test at, you either are going to race good or qualify good and you have to choose which one you want to do."

Whatever the reason, Wood Brothers Racing's first five races this season had seen abysmal results -- with a best finish of 24th -- which knocked them back to 37th in the standings and dependent on their qualifying speed to get into the Advance Parts 500 last weekend at Martinsville.

Rudd responded with a 13th-place start and a seventh-place finish -- his best in 12 races stretching back to last season. While it lifted the team to 34th in owner points at Texas -- which locked the No. 21 team into the field -- Rudd said he wasn't worried about the poor luck.

"We only had to go through that pressure thing once," Rudd said. "But I look at it differently than a lot of other people do, anyway. A lot of people need to see their name in print, that they got a good finish or a good qualifying effort.

"I go more by performance, regardless if we get the end result. If I would have spun out on my qualifying run today, I wouldn't have been upset -- (though) I would have been mad at myself.

"But I knew we had a good car -- I don't need to see it in print. But I think the guys that work on the car, and their buddies who might not watch the race but see in the paper that Rudd's team finished 40th -- don't know that we might have been running fourth or fifth and then had trouble.

"But leading up to (Martinsville), it was more of a frustration knowing that we've got really good cars and we had not gotten the finishes that we deserved until last week.

Ryan Newman notches his 30th career Bud Pole Jeremy Mayfield earns a front row starting spot Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"The car's been running good -- we just need to finish."

And keep a short leash on McSwain.

"The trouble is trying to keep him slowed down right now," Rudd said. "His back's been feeling so good you've got to watch him so he doesn't overdo it right now.

"I think he overdid it a couple weeks ago and he paid for it. I was getting nervous that he was going to hurt his back again. Someone's almost always full-time watching him making sure he's not doing something stupid."