Samsung/Radio Shack 500 - Ricky Rudd Notes

Ricky Rudd on Texas: "It's all about keeping the momentum of the car going through the corner."

In 2002, the #21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus started the race at Texas Motor Speedway second. Current driver Ricky Rudd started last year's event third and finished fourth. Rudd has recorded two top-fives and three top-10s in the six events run at Texas - all good omens for team and driver at the super-fast 1.5-mile oval, the site of this week's stop on the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup schedule.

Ricky and the Motorcraft team will be taking a brand-new car to Texas, and coming off a fourth-place finish at Bristol this past Sunday are looking to capitalize on that success. Ricky describes a lap around the track.

"It is about one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. You definitely feel the sensation of speed at Texas. It is a very high g-loading race track. I would put it in the highest categories of lateral g-loads that we feel anywhere. That would even include Bristol.

"Going around Texas is pretty uneventful other than things happen pretty quickly there. Out of pit road, up the backstretch, arcing it into turn three you make a real wide entry into the corner and bring it right down to the bottom of the race track. You put your left front tire on the apron and barely crack the throttle. You roll back on the throttle, but a lot of times you don't even get out of the throttle. You roll back to about 30 percent throttle and you roll right back in it - as soon as you roll out, you roll right back into it. You aren't out of the throttle a second, two seconds max.

"Keeping the momentum at Texas is real important. It's all about keeping the momentum of the car going through the corner. So, very little RPM drop through the corner, very little speed drop through the corner.

"Down the frontstretch it has a sort of double dogleg configuration, similar to Charlotte. No big deal there other than you want to run the car as straight as possible through there so you're not turning the steering wheel and scrubbing speed.

"It is really important to exit the dogleg correctly so your car is lined up with the right pitch attitude as you get into turn one. It is similar to turn three other than it is banked a little differently. It is a little more difficult corner. If you miss the corner a little bit the car has a tendency to push up into the second lane, so the entry and the angle of the car entry into that corner is real critical to maintain a fast speed.

"If you do everything just right when you crack the throttle, you are out of the throttle just maybe a second, but out of the throttle a little more - maybe 15 percent throttle versus the 30 percent at the other end of the race track. But there is no difference in keeping up the momentum.

"You want to roll into the backstretch with a lot of speed. Exiting turn two, the track has a tendency to unload the car and it is not unusual to see people scrape the wall on the exit of turn two and the exit of turn four. When the car finally unloads from the corner and into the flatter straightaway, it has a tendency to use up race track in a hurry. You've got to be real attentive of the car using up the race track on late exits. If you are underneath somebody passing them or if you are running the race track by yourself, you have to be careful that you don't run out of track at the corner exits."

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