Ricky Rudd had the fourth-fastest time in Tuesday's morning session. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Q&A: Ricky Rudd

Q: Bobby Hamilton, you raced with him for years, talk about him as a driver and as a person.

Rudd: Well, Bobby is just a super guy, he's a great competitor, came back up when nobody was making any money in the sport. He was here because he loved the sport. He worked hard to build his race team, but even before that as a competitor, he was just very good. He was very aggressive when he needed to be. He was very smart, a real good setup guy. Really good on getting his cars dialed in and set up, and I think that's what sort of separated him from a lot of the competitors is he was good at setting his own cars up. Not really sure what happened, the Cup deal is kind of crazy.

RICKY RUDD •   Rudd returning to Robert Yates Racing full time in '07 •   Rudd's return to Yates surprising, but wins won't be •   Q&A: Rudd & Yates Ricky's returnRudd excited to be back after time away from the track Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

If you're in the wrong car at the wrong time all of a sudden your career can sort of be over. And I'm not really sure what happened to Bobby but he went over to the Truck Series and started his own team, and as everyone knows he did well over there. He was a great guy, great competitor and he'll be missed, I'm sure.

Bobby worked for that. He put a lot of effort into it, his own money time and effort. He could have walked away and put his money into savings somewhere. But he sort of put it out there for risk and invested heavily in that truck team and it paid off dividends. Hopefully financially it made sense for him and his family is taken care of, because these things involve large amounts of money. But I have a lot of respect for Bobby not only as a driver and car owner but a setup guy.

Q: What was it like the first time you sat and watched a race on TV last year and how long did it take to you get the itch to come back?

Rudd: Well, I don't think the itch to race ever really left. I tried to keep it in check and tried not to watch too many broadcasts, tried not to listen to it on the radio. We did a lot of things on Sundays so there was not a whole lot of free Sundays to watch the TV even if we wanted to. But occasionally it worked out where I could see the race, and I just said I'll watch the start of the race and usually that was the case. But sometimes if the race was really good, I could watch the whole thing, but not too many times did that happen. We were doing other things.

We were busy and working hard at playing and catching people up and seeing people I had not seen in many years and doing a lot of maintenance, unfortunately, that was not necessarily the pretty thing.

I was sitting by the wayside there, and you know back when you race, you've got enough money to pay somebody to do all your maintenance stuff. When you quit you have to do your own stuff and that's probably the biggest reality check. I was good about trying to keep that in perspective because I knew the day would be coming somewhere and we would not always be spoiled like we are today and you have to cut your grass and all that. So I was never really too far away from that because I knew that day would be coming.

Q: You mentioned the burnout factor. What do you think led to that for you, and when you come back into this, do you have a different frame of mind or perspective on what you want to get accomplished now?

Rudd: Well the burnout factor, I think it's probably not too hard to figure out. Thirty years, 31 years of non-stop going. Really they call it an offseason -- as you can see is not a whole lot of offseason. Just one reason rolls into the next and the next one rolls into the next. And before you know it you look around there's 10, 15 years gone by. And the biggest thing for me is to really sit back.

My father passed away last year, and he was 81 years old and still alive and I'm sitting there thinking, man, how did he get to be 81? I don't think that's no different than anything else that you do in life, whether you have your own business and put your heart and soul into it. Time does have a way of getting by and flying away from us.

I think that was sort of a reality check for me to say, gosh, he's 81, how did he get to be that age? And I'm looking at my son, he's coming along and before I know it he's 12 years old. I don't feel like we got a chance to spend the time together that I would like to have had.

Kids go to school nowadays. He goes to school when it's dark and he comes home when it's dark, so you don't see him during the week. Drivers are off some weekdays, but to spend time with your kids and your family, the weekend is what we do. And he's not particularly a huge race fan. He doesn't go to the races so I've not seen much of him.

It was just a chance to get to know everybody again and take a little time off and really figure out what I really wanted to do. Since I was a kid, this is all I wanted to do. You work and you work and you work to try to get to the top of your sport, and again, time gets by, but is that really what I wanted to do -- 50 years old -- is this what I want to do and how much longer can I really do it?

Just thoughts on life and what you want to do I guess when you grow up. It was good for me. I got a chance to clear my head and found out what I really wanted to do is I wanted to race and I wanted to be in competitive cars and the opportunity sort of presented itself. There was some great opportunities early on like February, March with some of the startup teams that you have that are going to be pretty darned good out of the box. And I talked to a couple of those owners and, really, I was not ready to make that commitment, to be fair to myself. And to be fair to the teams, I wasn't able and ready to commit to a full-time schedule at that time.

So that was February, March and I didn't make too much of those conversations. They need to move forward with their race teams, and they need to put plans together to know who their driver is, even as early as February of last year or March.

So the opportunity with Robert Yates Racing came along. And Robert, I hated to see the downfall of that team, how far the performance had gotten off in a fairly short period of time but there's many different reasons for that. And Robert's bound and determined to try to build this thing back up to where it was and he's there every morning opening the doors of the shop.

And I'm working with a great guy, Butch Hilton, who is a crew chief. It's got a lot of the right chemistry that I think can come along and we can be good. David Gilliland, I've never had an opportunity to really work with a driver before. When I was in multi-car teams was years ago and they were not successful at that time. They worked harder to beat each other in competition and that's changed drastically. David is a good guy to work with. He's my size and we can get in and out of each other's cars.

There was many good things that I could see on that team. And sometimes the public just looks and says, oh, look at the performance on the team, it's in the tank. I'm not going to fix it by myself, obviously, but I feel like I can bring some tools to the team that can help benefit them that necessarily a young guy can't really bring. He doesn't have that tremendous amount of background experience in all of these racetracks like I do and there's no question that these guys can drive.

David Gilliland can drive as good as anybody out there, but he has not seen these racetracks, some he has never been to before so I can help him on that. There's many positives there, and I was kind of excited about the challenge and I'm back.

Q: What are your first impressions of David Gilliland? You've been working with him in the off-season, does he have what it takes to win at the Cup level this year?

Rudd: Well, you know, I haven't seen him in race conditions. I've seen him in a racecar. I've seen him roll into Rockingham, N.C., and he's never seen the place before, and same with Ravenel, S.C. -- a place we tested. And right off the truck I'm impressed and right off the truck he's right up to speed. It's not like he had to work at going fast. He's able to go fast and that's a good thing.

I know he's had a couple of accidents and wrecks along the way but that comes with time. To me, that's the right ingredient. It's easier to take a guy that can run fast by nature and work at slowing him down and getting him to be smart and knowing when to run than to take a guy that's not up to speed and getting him to go fast.

He needs to learn how to race a 500-mile race, and I'm sure he's come a long way since he first stepped in the car in the middle of the season. He's got some ways to go, but I think those are mental things you go through as a driver to put a 500-mile race together, and I think he's definitely going to come into his own this coming season.

Q: There were times last year when Robert Yates was pretty deep down, do you see the enthusiasm is back?

Rudd: Well, actually that had a lot to do with my decision to come back. And I started talking on the telephone. And really from an outsider looking in I'm saying gosh, they have probably the most successful motor program in this business. Why would Robert want the headaches? He's not 20 years old. Why would he want the headaches of trying to keep this organization going?

Why would he want to rebuild? It's not easy to rebuild. It's a tough job and a lot of staying awake at night and thinking about different situations, different management, different people, and I'm thinking, why would Robert at this stage of his life not go ahead and enjoy himself a little bit. I thought maybe Robert might go the other way.

I knew it was going to go one way or the other. I knew he was either going to step back and sort of retire and let Joe run the motor shop or be involved with that, or he was going to say, 'I'm tired of being embarrassed, I'm going to roll my sleeves up and come back and make this thing better than ever.'

That's the Robert I saw when I met with him. It was not the Robert that was tired and worn out and I don't know what to do. He's got a plan and he's got some really key people that's helping him put this thing back together. It doesn't happen overnight, but the encouraging thing for me that I saw is I watched and listened to the Homestead race and I saw the performance of the 38, came off the truck fast, qualified fast, ran fast through the race until about three-fourths of the way through the race. And I'm not sure what happened or David made a mistake or something broke, I'm not really sure, but anyway he didn't finish the race, he got wrecked.

But I think the key is the car was competitive on the track, but on a track that's difficult to get a hold of. I didn't find out until after meeting with these guys that they built a couple of cars and D.J.'s got wrecked off the truck, didn't get a chance to show what he had. He had been running the cars he had been running in the off-season, one ran good and one didn't. That's optimistic going through the winter. You know you have a model to clean going into the downforce tracks, so these guys have been busy building cars like that one that ran well at Homestead.

Q: On Monday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in here saying he would like to own DEI. What advice would you give him, and why is it so hard to drive and own a race team?

Rudd: I wouldn't discourage him. I guess if he's -- it's really a personal commitment. To me the only way when I did it and the way Bill Elliott tried it and everyone else to that point, they sort of put your heart and soul and everything you've got into that thing and being very hands-on and that's the way I ran our deal.

We had some success but you know, you learn a lot, too. You learn a lot about business. You learn about people, and I think before it's over with, you probably have a psychology degree in dealing with people because that's what it's about.

If he does go do that, he definitely needs to surround himself with great people and he needs to delegate. He can't do it himself. If he tries to do it all himself, his performance is going to suffer. There's no way you can step in and understand all the business aspects as big as these things are today.

If he can get the right people to surround himself, go for it. Getting the right people is one thing, but keeping the right people -- that's the toughest part about this business and that's the mistake I made. I figured, OK, I'm going to be really smart and recruit these guys and bring them together and we have a nice, happy little team.

But as you start having more and more success. People come in and they raid your organization, they take the key people so you're constantly rebuilding. It's not like I'm going to hire these people once. It's a constant struggle to hire good people. As long as he's up for those headaches and understands what the challenges are and is going to set his personal life on the side, then I think he can do it. But a lot of sacrifices have to be made to do that.

Q: There's a handful of guys that are going to be competing this year, yourself included, along with Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin is going to be running part time, Sterling Marlin -- you guys are not exactly spring chickens but do we make too much of the age factor in the sport?

Rudd: Well, I'll be honest, I came up in a sport where I was in both spectrums. I've been the young guy. I was 18 years old when I stepped into the Cup garage for the first time, and at that time the guys to beat were in their 40s. They were 45 years old and they were strong and 50 wasn't impossible. You had guys like Richard Petty, Buddy Baker, David Pearson, a lot of these guys. I remember the first time I was 18 years old racing motorcycles professionally, which I was in the best shape that you could ever be in, coming into this sport of Cup racing.

And I remember going through the garage looking at the old men and I'm thinking, gosh, there's no way these guys can compete, they are not in shape, there's no way. I remember going into Rockingham, the 500-mail race, Donnie Allison, he had to be 45 or 50 at that time and he lapped me for probably the 10th time that day. I remember Donnie going by, I'm halfway through the race, dead physically. No question I was in the best shape of anybody in the garage at that time coming off the motorcycle circuit. Here comes Donnie Allison, my tongue is hanging out, he's waving with one hand as I go by and he's waving to me, and I'm white knuckled up on that steering wheel thinking I'm missing something here -- what am I missing?

So to answer that question, if we're talking about going out and playing in the Super Bowl and you're starting lineup is the guys -- you had a choice of guys in their 50s or 20s, no question I would line myself up with guys in their 20s because you have just the physical beating that your body would take.

Racecars are not like that. A lot of this stuff is mental. So to make a long story short, the big trend really changed when television came into this really big when everything went national television, the big push for the young guys came on board.

Can they get the job done? No question about it. Can the old guys get the job done, the right ones? No question about it. Anyway to sort of sum that up, I don't think it's age as much as it is ability. There's a lot of young guys and old guys and a lot of young talent. Now the world is not looking for 45- and 50-year-old experienced drivers. Are they out there? I don't know if you can take a 45- or 50-year-old guy from another form of racing and put him in a Cup car and expect him to go good today. I don't think that could happen when the young guys could be brought in and be trained.

That's probably the biggest difference is young guys that are stepping in are trainable, and they had better get it done. They have the pressure, too, because if they don't get it done, there are 10 young guys standing behind them ready for the seat to open up.

Q: Can you give perspective on what you can achieve this year, what is realistic for the fans to expect, and if you could chat about the Car of Tomorrow?

Rudd: To be honest I've never been good at putting goals out there -- everyone likes to set their goals out. If you talk to everybody, everybody is going to win every race in the season and they are going to make the Chase and they are going to win the championship and that's just the nature of everybody this time of year. They are putting a fresh outlook on everything.

I look at it, I don't really know, there's some big challenges in front of us. I certainly see good things happening. How quickly will it happen? I really don't know yet. I would not have taken this job if I thought we were going to go out there to run 10th or 15th or 25th every week. I would not have taken this job.

I'm very optimistic. I see no reason that if we don't beat ourselves, the top 10 is getting to be a tough deal now to make at the end of the year. A lot of people are predicting we won't make the top 30 or whatever it is, but I've always enjoyed the challenge and liked proving people wrong. Everything is within my control and I'm going to go out and do the very best we can and settle for what we get, and hopefully there will be some good finishes along the way and I wouldn't rule out anything.

Q: When you first came to RYR in 2000, they were fresh off a championship and really doing very well, and their performance waned a bit in the years to come and especially the most recent couple of years. Do you think Robert was really close to shutting down? There was speculation about that late last year before you came on board.

Rudd: Well, really, the way I look at it, when I came on board I guess it was in 2000, 88 had won a championship and 28, performance wasn't there. I'm not sure.

When he stepped in, yeah it was a two-car operation, but at that time, Robert's organization, not only Robert's, the Hendrick camp had not really totally gelled yet but they were coming along. At that time in history you had the 28 that was in a separate building, a rented building near Charlotte Motor Speedway, and you had the 88 that was at that time they had the big budget behind them.

So I guess Robert being an owner, he shored up where the money -- he didn't take the money off one organization and put it in the other. He kept them separate so the 88 outgrew the 28 and when I came on board, Robert didn't know what he was going to do with the 28 then. He seriously thought about possibly shutting the operation down and wasn't getting the results where it used to be.

I came in and it started clicking and I brought a lot of people with me. When I came at that time they had good personnel but they had enough of it and I was able to bring some guys with me and shore that program up. All of a sudden Robert had two teams equal with each other, and a lot of days the 28 out performed the 88.

Anyway, I saw Robert in a very similar situation this time as I did at that time. Only difference being is that now both teams were not performing the way he wanted them to be. Again, and in all fairness to what Robert had going on, he's trying to figure out how to expand and all that so he had to step back a little bit to be able to, you know, to look at how to create a plan and add more teams and such. But he steps back, he hires general managers and he hires crew chiefs and people that are well respected in the sport, but it just didn't click, it didn't gel.

So Robert was handing the keys over to somebody else and it didn't click, it didn't happen and the team goes down in the hole. Robert could have bailed out and it will be the easy way out, but he tries to fight and come back and build it up again, and that's the fight I saw in Robert when I met him. That's the same thing I saw when he was trying to get the 28 going again is what I saw here. I don't think it's a question of if it will; it's just a question of when.

Q: You talked earlier about you needed that break to get home and reacquaint yourself with everyone and hang out with Landon. Now you're back and you say you don't see him at the week because he's at school and he doesn't like the racetrack. So how do you reconcile that? How do you juggle both now and make it work for you?

Rudd: Probably the only thing I've got going and it's part of me coming back is we've got a sponsor in the Snickers candy people that they are very accommodating.

Part of for me to come back there's a lot of demands on drivers, not just personal appearances. You see them here, you see them there, there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes, a lot of corporate functions and things of that nature that drivers attend. That's great. That's not about separating the young guys from the old guys. It's more about the married guys and families versus the guys that are being married without any children is one thing. Being single without any responsibilities or anything, that's the big difference. I guess that's what sort of separates things.

What's the best way to say this? I guess I cherished that time enough and the sponsor recognizes that I cherish any day that I can steal instead of being at some function shaking a few hands, which don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of that, but to me, I weight the two and that's one reason I did step aside.

Now I have a sponsor that's willing to give me a few days here and there to spend time that I would not have gotten in the past. That's a big plus for me. That's one of the reasons that I'm here today, having a sponsor that's very accommodating in that area. It's not going to be the same as being at home every day, seven days a week, but it's a lot better than it used to be.

Q: There's an old saying that the mark of a good person is how forgiving they are. When you left Yates in 2002 it was not under the best of circumstances. Can you talk a little about that?

Rudd: We had two and a half years at Yates when I was there, it was a great situation there. Everybody got along great and then it turned sour. There's many reasons it turned sour and I probably don't want to get into all those, but I was letting Robert know that he needed to have a heads up. We're not going to be here forever, and he has no youth in the organization to take over D.J.'s job or my job and we needed to bring somebody along.

It snowballed and sort of got out of control and the next thing I know, instead of this thing being held together, now it's just trying to blow apart. And so the last half of the year wasn't real pleasant. The sad thing is we were on the verge of probably winning the championship. They say we could have won it, but we were second up until the very end one year. And that was the sad thing to see that even though we ran well we had the championship or a good championship contention year sort of blow up midway through the year.

I think time has gone by and I think probably after leaving and being on the outside looking in, there's a lot of things that were right about it. You know, a few things were off but there's a whole lot of things that were right and Robert sat back and he evaluated it and he sort of came up to the same conclusion. Sort of let bygones be bygones and work to the future, and we felt that we clicked, and let's see if we can get it back. It's all about people and chemistry -- no question about it. Even when it blew apart there's always been a respect for Robert's and Doug's abilities to put together a winning race team.

Q: If somebody would have said to you after you left in 2002 that you would be in this spot now, what would you have told them?

Rudd: Probably never happen. Like I said, time has a way of dealing with things like that. I mentioned the other day, you have some pretty bitter spats with my brothers and sisters again, and I'm not going to speak to them ever again, I'm not going to see them for years, and I'm not even going to go the Thanksgiving deal get-together, that's how mad I am. And out now all of the sudden, a little time goes by and everything is back to normal again, that's kind of how this is.