Rudd looking racy heading into Sunday's 600-miler

CONCORD, N.C. -- It's been a while since either Ricky Rudd or the No. 88 Robert Yates Ford has stuck fear into his rivals.

Looking at the time charts from practice and the results from Thursday night's qualifying session, however, and there just might be that little tingle that tells you, something wicked-fast this way comes.

"We ended up top-10 on the speed chart [in the first practice], and we were just scuffing tires," Rudd said of his car, which will start seventh on Sunday. "What we did, though, we were able to take advantage while we were scuffing, making little chassis tweaks -- very similar to what we would be doing in the race -- just to see if I could feel the chassis changes and I think the car is really good.

"They were just making minor tweaks, but I could feel all the adjustments they were making."

It has been quite some time since anyone feared the No. 88. At Talladega and Daytona, Robert Yates Racing is always worth considering as a favorite, and David Gilliland won the pole at both tracks earlier this year.

Rudd was on the front row with his teammate at Daytona and qualified fifth at Talladega, but wound up 26th in the Daytona 500 and 33rd at Talladega. Something was not quite right with the No. 88, and in truth, with all of RYR for a good bit of the season, but it might be a thing of the past.

"A lot of work went into this effort," Rudd said. "We had a great car at Texas and we never got to show it. We got wrecked on lap one coming to take the green, so we have already had some of this going."

At Texas, he finished 33rd, one of five finishes of 30th or worse he's had in 11 races so far this season. His best result so far this season is 13th at Martinsville, which is pretty much a home track for the native Virginian.

But at Lowe's, something seems to have changed a bit in the Yates camp.

"The other night in the All-Star race, we had one car that was really good and one that was OK," Rudd said. "This [his 600 car] was the better car. Just like everybody else, we brought our best car for the 600, but the team has been steadily working.

"They've been to the wind tunnel and have been putting bodies on and working on the chassis and this is the first time that we've seen some really positive results that aren't sort of maybe just gonna be a flash in the pan."

Rudd went out in the heat of the day, and was eighth fastest. He was less than two-tenths of a second off Ryan Newman's quick time, despite not having been out since Thursday and having had both the Busch Series and sports cars on the track since.

"We figured it would be slick," Rudd said. "It's a big deal because you've got to have your car loose to run at night, but you can't be that loose and try to run during the day. You've got to go conservative on the way you drive the race track."

Rudd feels like his pony has some giddyup for Sunday's 600-mile endurathon, despite running 23rd in the final practice. In that hour-long session, he was two-tenths quicker than in the first session in the heat of the day.

"I feel like it's got a lot of staying power. I really like the way this car feels, so it should run good the entire night, and then they'll just take this car and clone it.

"We need more of them."