Ricky Rudd started second on Sunday, but after getting caught up in a wreck rallied to finish 11th. Credit: Autostock

Bad luck spoils another solid start for Rudd

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Ricky Rudd was cruising along, biding his time, negotiating significant traffic at Martinsville Speedway. But he wasn't concerned. His Ford was quite a bit stronger than any car he'd driven in some time.

The first 170 laps of the Subway 500 on Sunday had been quite fortuitous. But this was Martinsville, after all. Tight quarters make mass chaos standard operating procedure. And mass chaos the Subway 500 was.

Inside the Chase Standings after Martinsville Pos. Driver Pts. Behind 1. T. Stewart 5,957 -- 2. J. Johnson 5,942 -15 3. R. Newman 5,894 -63 4. G. Biffle 5,874 -83 5. C. Edwards 5,808 -149 6. R. Wallace 5,791 -166 7. M. Martin 5,787 -170 8. Ku. Busch 5,785 -172 9. M. Kenseth 5,785 -172 10. J. Mayfield 5,741 -216 • Race Results, click here • Point Standings, click here • Lap-by-Lap, click here Victory LaneJeff Gordon celebrates his Subway 500 victory Around and downEarnhardt Jr. spun by Harvick, loses a tire Subway 500Catch all the racing highlights from Martinsville Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

A record 19 cautions halted the race pace for 113 laps, and one of them halted Rudd's march toward his first Cup Series victory since June 2002.

As Rudd eased through Turn 4 on Lap 175, Scott Riggs veered up the track in front of Mike Bliss, sending Bliss hard into the frontstretch wall. Bliss careened off the fence and body slammed Sterling Marlin's Dodge, which in turn ricocheted off -- right into Rudd's path.

The No. 21 Ford suffered considerable damage to the right front fender, ending Rudd's shot at his 24th career win.

"We had a great racecar until about Lap 200. I don't know what happened," Rudd said. "Tony [Stewart] was working through lapped traffic, and we were really good on long runs and caught up to him. Not really sure. They wrecked in front of us."

Following the accident, Rudd's Ford was the Energizer Bunny.

It kept going, and going, and going ...

"I can't believe this car is torn up as bad as it was and kept going," Rudd said.

On the initial pit stop after the wreck, Rudd was caught speeding on pit road and was served a pass-through penalty. Then, on Lap 294 the brakes began to fail on the No. 21 Ford, so Rudd had to pit to pull sheet metal away from the brake ducts. Finally, on Lap 348 he spun out in Turn 2.

Somehow, he never lost a lap and managed to battle back to contend for a top-10 finish.

"It got us an 11th [place finish]," Rudd said. "We had a top-two or -three car."