Notes: Rudd, Yates ready for final Cup Series race

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Sunday's Cup race at Homestead will be the last to run the Nextel name tag, as the brand will change to the Sprint Cup next year.

More than that, it's the last race period for Robert Yates, owner of the Nos. 38 and 88 cars, and it will be driver Ricky Rudd's final career start. Both men are retiring after Sunday's Ford 400.

"I probably cry about 50 percent of the time and get excited about the things I could possibly do and get excited about," Yates said. "I still have to get through [Sunday]."

Rudd is just as emotional and rightfully so.

The 1977 rookie of the year is ending a career that spans more than 30 years. Rudd, who made his first series start in 1975, did not miss an event from 1981 to 2005, a streak of 788 races.

After his Sunday start, Rudd will have 906 career starts -- 23 of which ended in Cup victories.

The only driver with more career starts is Richard Petty with 1,184.

"I'll miss getting ready for the Daytona 500, as I had done for so many years, but on the other side of the coin, I'm looking forward to not having to be on the schedule what follows the Daytona 500, which is a heck of a grind," Rudd said. "There's so much time spent on the road and before you know it, 30-some years of your life are gone."

Offseason calls for getaway
The NASCAR season has undoubtedly been long and, like a 500-mile race, tends to wear on the drivers in the last laps.

Down time in the offseason is cherished and, depending on who you are, is spent either in North Carolina keeping a low profile or around the globe doing anything but.

"I'm going to have some time off," said Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford. "I think we're going to go somewhere crazy, out of the country, where they don't speak English and don't know anything about NASCAR, and get a week or so of that."

Edwards, the 2007 Busch Series champion, also said, "I'm going to do some flight training next week, starting Monday, and I'm really looking forward to Christmas."

And if you're Dale Earnhardt Jr., you're preparing for a new job, but still trying to have some fun nevertheless.

"I started bow hunting, which was pretty fun," Earnhardt said. "Me and Tony [Eury] Jr. went to Oklahoma and I killed my first buck with a bow. So I'm enjoying those types of things where I can spend more time with Martin [Truex Jr.] because that's all he does in the winter time. You can't hang out with him because he's deer hunting." (Continued)