Notes: Decision on future for Gordon not before 2009 (cont'd)

Rudd optimistic

The veteran Ricky Rudd, who scored one of the most impressive victories of his long career at Martinsville in this race in 1998, said he more than likely would be able to complete Sunday's Subway 500 without the help of a relief driver -- but that he would not make the final decision until Saturday's two practice sessions.

Rudd, who suffered a separated shoulder in an accident at California Speedway in early September and missed five races before returning last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, had said this week he was unsure of being able to stand the physical strain of completing 500 laps at Martinsville.

"I think we'll be OK," Rudd said after qualifying his No. 88 Ford in 23rd position. "All in all, considering we had six laps of practice, I think we've got something we can race. The arm feels pretty good right now [but] I haven't run many laps yet.

"I really planned to come in here and run like a 25-lap run and make a decision: Do I get out of the car and let Kenny [Wallace] get in now? But with the way the weather was, we didn't get that, so I guess that's gonna be on hold until [Saturday].

"So far, I haven't seen any signs of it giving me a problem where it would keep me from racing, I don't think."

Dirty Gordon

Nextel Cup driver/owner Robby Gordon turned exactly two laps Friday at Martinsville Speedway in his No. 7 Ford, which was good for 41st in Sunday's race's lineup. Gordon is splitting time between Martinsville and racing his off-road truck in the Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) Series races this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where he'll race in both the Lucas Oil Series Pro 2 point races as well as the Pro 2 Jason Baldwin Cup Qualifier.

Gordon actually never planned to miss any Cup practice, but was dealt badly by the rainy weather in Martinsville, so he swapped seats with Craftsman Truck Series regular Brendan Gaughan, who practiced Gordon's car and allowed Gordon to get some laps in his No. 77 truck in that division's practice.

After Bud Pole Qualifying, Gordon went to Texas where he led his CORR event before he was flipped on the last lap. Gordon was 11th in Saturday morning's Cup practice and planned to return to Texas after Happy Hour before coming back to Virginia in time for Sunday's Subway 500.

Allmendinger not short on bullrings

Team Red Bull Toyota driver A.J. Allmendinger, who has run only 14 Nextel Cup races in his career, after qualifying his No. 84 Camry 25th on Friday has qualified for all six Cup short-track races this season. Conversely, his veteran teammate, Brian Vickers, made only two of six short-track races.

"We were just a bit tight overall [but] all the credit goes back to everybody at Team Red Bull, especially the test team because we may have got in this race [in April] but we weren't very good when we were here," Allmendinger said. "They worked really hard throughout the past couple of months getting ready for here [and] the car is way better.

"We still need to be a little bit better but overall, just a great job by everybody on the team."

After missing races at Kansas and Talladega, Allmendinger finished a career-best 15th at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He was 38th in the spring at Martinsville.

"Like I said, we may have got in the race but it was so bad when we were," Allmendinger said. "I've never made a pit stop during green just to tell 'em to fix it because that's how bad it was [but] everybody just worked really hard back at home getting ready for this racetrack specifically.

"It's the short, flat tracks that we struggle on and the car, from the first lap, was way better. I actually passed a guy [and] I was like, 'Whoa, that's pretty cool around here.' I really didn't see the bottom lane most of the first race because I was getting passed by everybody [so] it's a lot better."

What drives Harvick?

Former two-time Busch Series champion Kevin Harvick may be out of contention for the Nextel Cup championship, as he's in eighth, 328 points behind leader Gordon, but that doesn't change his intensity.

"Oh, you should have been at my house last night and you'll see why they call us racers -- we raced go-karts and you would have thought we were racing for a million dollars," Harvick said. "We just like to race. We just like to go out and that's what drives us all is the thrill of the competition and pushing yourself to beat the next guy and that's really what drives me.

"Everybody talks about points racing and this and that, but you just go out there and you race just as hard as you can to get the best finish that you can every week and anything less than that you're disappointed with.

"So, for us, we've had a miserable Chase -- not performance-based by any means. The first few races we've run well at tracks we normally don't run well at; we just don't have anything to show for it." (Continued)