RICKY RUDD, SNICKERS® HALLOWEEN RACING
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
OCTOBER 28, 2007
RUDD AND THE #88 TEAM CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN AT ATLANTA
CHARLOTTE, NC (October 23, 2007) – The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for the Pep Boys Auto 500. Ricky Rudd and the #88 team will be running a special Snickers® Halloween paint scheme this weekend at Atlanta in celebration of the upcoming Halloween holiday. The team has also prepared a brand new chassis for this weekend’s Pep Boys Auto 500. The new chassis is based off of information the team has gathered throughout the 2007 season at various 1.5-mile tracks and the #88 team hopes this new car will yield a strong performance.
Quoting Snickers Halloween Driver, Ricky Rudd:
How are you feeling heading into Atlanta this weekend?
“Atlanta’s always been a tough track for me. I won there about 20 years ago, but it’s just one of those tracks that I haven’t had much luck at. We’re going to Atlanta this weekend with a brand new car. From my understanding it’s a car that is similar to the one David (Gilliland) ran the other weekend at Charlotte which turned out to be a pretty good car. We’ll see what happens this weekend but it’s encouraging to see that the guys at the shop are trying out some new things they’ve learned throughout the season and putting it together in our car for this weekend.”
What is the biggest challenge of racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway?
“Qualifying and racing at Atlanta are two different things and I think that has always been the biggest challenge. Atlanta is just a very fast track when you go to qualify. The new tires give you very good grip and the car usually has a good amount of tape on the grill when we go out for qualifying. Both of those factors combined with the fact that qualifying take place at night, really leads to some very high speeds for qualifying. In race trim the pace slows down a little bit and the groove that drivers run widens out a little more. One of the great things about Atlanta is that drivers do have a variety of grooves that they can run in during the race so a lot of times there is enough room to race each other there.”
NOTES OF INTEREST:
Rudd has 57 starts at Atlanta, which ties him with Bill Elliott for the most starts of any active NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver
Rudd has an average starting position of 19.6, and an average finish of 17.6 at Atlanta
Rudd has completed 16,791 of 18,361 laps at Atlanta (91.4 percent) and has led 94 laps
Rudd’s best starting position at Atlanta is from second which he has accomplished three times during his career: 1982, 1984, and 1995
Rudd’s best finish at Atlanta was his victory in the 1987 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500
ABOUT MARS US:
Mars US is the United States food, snack and pet care operations of Mars, Incorporated, one of the world's leading food manufacturers. With more than $7 billion in annual sales in the U.S., the combined food, snack and pet care segments are a symbol of excellence for quality brands. Headquartered in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Mars US employs more than 9,000 associates in the United States, with 52 facilities nationwide. The company owns some of the world's favorite brands, including M&M'S® Brand, SNICKERS® Brand, UNCLE BEN'S® Brand, PEDIGREE® Brand Food for Dogs, and WHISKAS® Brand Food for Cats.
CHASSIS #504
Chassis #504 is the chassis the #88 Snickers Halloween Racing team will be running this weekend for the Pep Boys Auto 500. This is a brand new chassis the team and has not been track-tested.
