Pennsylvania 500 - Ricky Rudd Notes

Ricky Rudd
Driver, No. 21
Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus

700th Consecutive Start and career statistics

· Began his consecutive-race streak at Riverside International Speedway on January 11, 1981, where he started 3rd and finished 19th. It was his 88th career start, dating back to March 2, 1975 at North Carolina Speedway where in his first career Winston Cup race he started 26th and finished 11th.

· Rudd's consecutive start streak will extend to 700 at Pocono Raceway on July 27 for the Pennsylvania 500 - Ricky's 787th Winston Cup career start. Rusty Wallace is second at 608. Pocono will be his 609th consecutive start - over two and one third seasons behind Ricky.

· Won his first career NASCAR Winston Cup race at Riverside in 1983 driving for Richard Childress Racing. It was his 161st career start.

· Rudd's two biggest possibilities of the streak ending came in 1984 when he flipped violently while running in the Busch Clash at Daytona and in 1988 when he wrecked while competing in The Winston.

· Ricky collected at least one victory every season from 1983 to 1998 (16 seasons), a Modern Era record tied by Rusty Wallace, who recorded at least one victory from 1986 to 2001 (16 seasons).

· Rudd has amassed 23 wins, 189 top fives and 358 top tens during his career. He also has collected 28 pole positions and won over $30 million.

· Ricky is 24th on the NASCAR Winston Cup all-time win list.

· Ricky is 11th on the NASCAR Winston Cup all-time pole list.

· During his 700 consecutive start streak, Ricky has finished in the top-10 46 percent of the races and during his career 45.6 percent of the races.

· Rudd has finished inside the top-10 in points 19 times since 1981.

· Total, Rudd has acquired 787 career starts (including the Pocono 500), placing him fourth all time behind NASCAR legends Richard Petty (1,177), Dave Marcis (882) and Darrell Waltrip (809). Rudd is one of 25 drivers to total 500 or more starts in their NASCAR Winston Cup careers.

· Only two other drivers, currently competing on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit, have a career total of more than 700 starts - Terry Labonte (765 through Pocono) and Bill Elliott (715 through Pocono).

· Rudd surpassed Terry Labonte's record of 655 consecutive starts that ran from January of 1979 to August of 2000 at the 2002 Coca-Cola 600 when he made his 656th Winston Cup start.

· During his career, Rudd has competed in NASCAR Winston Cup events at 28 different racetracks around the country and won at 14. He ran at least one race at each of those tracks during the streak, except Ontario Motor Speedway.

· This is Ricky's 29th season on the NASCAR Winston Cup Circuit.

· Ricky was the NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year in 1977.

· Rudd is one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers.

Pocono Raceway Stats

His 700th consecutive start on July 27 will be his 49th career start at Pocono Raceway
Ricky has completed 8,268 laps at Pocono (not counting practice and qualifying laps)
He has 20,670 racing miles on the 2.5 mile Pennsylvania tri-oval
Of his 23 victories the only win Ricky has from the pole came in Pocono on June 17, 2001
Ricky has one pole and one win at Pocono
Rudd has nine top five finishes and 21 top tens at Pocono
Ricky has led 22 times in 14 events at Pocono
44 of his 49 Pocono starts count toward Ricky's 700th consecutive start record. His first four races there in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980 came before the streak started.

U.S. Air Force Related Stats

It would take the B-2 Stealth Bomber, tail number 0700 that will do the fly-over at Pocono, 37 hours, 36 minutes (one day, 13 hours, 36 minutes) to complete Ricky's 20,670 racing miles at Pocono at a cruising speed of 550 mph.

Ricky has completed 251,980 racing miles since January 11, 1981 through New Hampshire July 20, 2003. It would take the B-2 Stealth Bomber 458 hours, 9 minutes (19 days, 2 hours, 9 minutes) at cruising speed (550 mph) to cover that distance. It would take an U.S. Air Force Thunderbird F-16 at Mach 2 (1500 mph) 167 hours, 58 minutes (6 days, 23 hours, 58 minutes) to make the same trip.

Ricky's career total miles, since 1975 - 281,980.362 equals 511 hours, 32 minutes (21 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes) flying time in the B-2 Stealth at 550 mph or 187 hours, 34 minutes (7 days, 19 hours, 34 minutes) in the F-16 at Mach 2.

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