Aaron’s 499 - Ricky Rudd Notes

Ricky Rudd: "Don't touch the brake, don't lift the gas pedal..."

According to Ricky Rudd, driver of the #21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus, qualifying at Talladega is "pretty uneventful." Racing there is another story. He describes both.

This week's Aaron's 499 at the largest track on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit will mark Rudd's 775th career start and his 53rd at the Alabama superspeedway. Ricky has a record of 10 top-five finishes and 13 top-10's there.

TALLADEGA: "Leave pit road, get it in high gear, lay a brick on the throttle, stay on the bottom of the race track and that's it.

"It is very similar to Daytona, but much more uneventful. The car that will handle good at Daytona will be effortless to drive at Talladega.

"The track is a little rougher. It has a lot of cracks in it where the track has been filled with sealant to try to keep water from getting in the cracks during the winter. It doesn't really create a big problem, but you've got to pay attention to the shocks on the car a little bit. It gives the shock guy a little more to work with because the race track has more high-speed chatter built into it. That is fixable or a lot of that is adjustable with the shock absorbers.

"But pretty uneventful when you are out there by yourself. That is the kind of race track where you could put anybody in it and tell them to go out there and hold the white line at the bottom of the race track. Don't touch the brake, don't lift the gas pedal and it's not a big effort.

"In race trim, that's another story. You run three-wide, four-wide and it's all about choosing the right line. It's very similar to pulling up to a toll booth and jumping into the shorter line and somebody drops their quarters. All of a sudden that line is moving slower.

"I haven't quite figured that out. I don't know if anybody has figured out when you are in the middle of the pack which line you should get into - unless you are in a DEI car and then you can make it five-wide and you don't need any help.

"That's about it. Everybody in that race at one time or another will probably find themselves up at the front of the pack either leading the race or in the top-three, and it not unusual 10 laps later to be running dead last. You'll go to the front of the pack and you'll go to the back of the pack.

"I like to find out where the strengths and weaknesses are in the first half, three-quarters of the race, even put myself in positions that I know are not the right way to go, but you are sort of testing the different lines. Is your car better inside, outside or in the middle? You want to have all that understood and know where your strong points are before you get to the end of the race. By the time you get to the last fuel stop you want to have that all figured out. Then it is time to go racing.

"There is a lot of defense played and a lot of mirror driving that goes on at Talladega that doesn't happen anywhere else with the exception of maybe Daytona."

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