Food City 500 - Ricky Rudd Notes

RICKY RUDD: "Bristol is definitely an attention-getter for a race-car driver. I've been running there for 25 years or so, and every time I come in from my first run there I'm usually huffing and puffing and out of breath."

Sunday will mark Ricky's 51st race and 46th consecutive start at Bristol Motor Speedway. However, Rudd will be looking for his initial win at the track where he has recorded 14 top-fives and 24 top-10 finishes since his first race there in 1975. It will be the 54th start for Wood Brothers Racing at the high-banked Tennessee half-mile track. The Wood Brothers have been to victory lane there only once, when the Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus captured the spring race in 2001.

"It's a fun race track to drive, a very violent race track to drive - more so than any other race track on the circuit. You get the sensation of speed more at Bristol than just about anywhere else we go with the exception of maybe Dover. And it doesn't make sense because the speeds are not all that great but it does give you that sensation. I think it's because of the tremendous G-forces that we feel in the corners. It makes it feel like you are going a lot faster.

"I guess with that being said, coming up to speed in a typical deal you usually pull out of the pits in one and two and merge onto the back side. You drive off into three and four, but you always check your mirrors to make sure nothing is coming and you depend on your spotter to clear you.

"Coming off turn four to the start/finish line, obviously you are wide-open down the front straightaway right up against the fence. You drive off into turn one. There is a tremendous amount of banking there - 38 degrees or so -- and the straightaway is banking probably half that amount.

"There is a real nice layout at that track. They did a good job on the transition from the straightaway to entering the corner. So when you start off, you are against the fence on the straightaway, and then right to the bottom of the race track. You turn right to the bottom of the race track and put your left front wheel right down right up against the flat, right down at the white line.

"You're only out of the gas, maybe a second there; no more than two seconds you are out of the gas. Really no brakes at all; if you use the brake it is really light brake pressure just to make sure that the brakes are there if you need them. It is probably one of the few tracks we run, at least short tracks, where you don't actually use the brake.

"You get in there pretty deep. You're turning into the corner when you lift the throttle and you only go about one second out of the gas. And as soon as the car gets to the bottom of the race track you just mash the throttle and hug that white line. If the car is right, you want to be able to hug that white line all the way around the race track until you exit turn two.

"At the exit of turn two the centrifugal force is building, building, building, and the car will actually lunge at the wall as you are exiting the corner. You have to play tag with that wall all day long because the G-force is so great the car is trying to leave the inside of the race track by itself even though you are holding it and trying to steer it to the inside.

"Another unique thing about Bristol, it is concrete. And at concrete race tracks you get a lot of flutter, a lot of high frequency movement of the suspension, so you've got to keep that under control. And that creates more problems for the crew on developing what kind of shock combination to run and that is real critical to a concrete race track. So, you've got a lot of vibration in the car that is coming through the tires back to the steering wheel.

"Down the backstretch, there is nothing unusual there. The ends of the race track drive very similar. You crack the throttle for about a second and turn into the bottom of the race track. If your car is really right, you hug the bottom. If it's not, you end up making what they call a diamond out of the track which is not really the fast way around there. Especially in race trim, you will end up getting yourself passed if you do that. But you watch the cars go into the corner, slide up to the next lane up which would leave almost a full opening for a car to dive under you, and they will if you do not work on your car and get it driving better. You can run an okay speed there doing that, but in race trim we work hard to get that out of it. That's a natural tendency for that track, to drive it in and have the car want to slide up. The crew has to work very hard to get the car to hug that bottom.

"Anyway, you drive three and four just like you do one and two. The car goes in, you work hard to keep it on the bottom of the track, mat the throttle and if you're right, you don't lift again until you get to turn one, and if you're not right, you'll catch yourself breathing it just a little bit.

"Bristol is definitely an attention-getter for a race-car driver. I've been running there for 25 years or so, and every time I come in from my first run there I'm usually huffing and puffing and out of breath. As crazy as it sounds, it is like driving around inside of a barrel. And it's not impossible to forget where to come in off the race track. It can almost be mind-boggling to you because it is somewhat a violent ride. The second time on the track you usually get settled in to a routine and it is pretty comfortable, but it can be a little intimidating to begin with.

"Dover and Bristol are somewhat similar to roller-coaster rides, but Bristol is a lot more violent. It would be like sitting in the front seat of a roller coaster, but the only exception is that you have to steer the roller coaster and if you make a mistake and you are late, you run off the track and into the fence. That is probably the best analogy I can give."

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