RICKY RUDD, SNICKERS® RACING
CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY
FEBRUARY 25, 2007
RUDD AND TEAM LOOK TO CONTINUE THE SUCCESS IN CAR DEVELOPMENT BEGAN DURING TESTING
CHARLOTTE, NC (February 20, 2007) – This weekend the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to California Speedway for Sunday’s Auto Club 500. Coming off a front row starting position for the Daytona 500, Snickers® driver Ricky Rudd and the #88 team are looking forward to racing at California this weekend.
Rudd who has three Top 5 finishes in Fontana hopes to add another to his career stats this Sunday. After a successful testing session at Las Vegas in February, Rudd feels that the team learned a lot of valuable information that will help them in California this weekend.
Quoting Snickers Driver Ricky Rudd:
Feelings heading into California:
“I’m actually looking forward to it after our Las Vegas test. California seems to be very similar to this brand new configuration that we tested in Vegas. If we can pick up where we left off with the testing we had in February, then I’ll be really happy with the outcome.”
Looking back at Daytona results from this past weekend
“I have mixed emotions, but besides the crash and finish of the race, it was a mainly positive experience. The car was competitive and ran up front for a majority of the race and the pit stops were great! I was really satisfied with the car and our team’s strategy on Sunday. The long green flag racing really allowed us to showcase our great handling car, it was just after the incident that we got caught up in that eliminated our chances for the win.”
Quoting Snickers Crew Chief Butch Hylton:
Feelings heading into California:
“It’s imperative for us to have a strong Top 10 finish this weekend in California in order to start the season off being a contender for the Chase. Daytona was a great weekend for us as far as examining how the car handled and ran. Our team did tremendous work heading into Daytona and we look forward to having another successful weekend with our Snickers Ford qualifying well and running up front.”
NOTES OF INTEREST:
Ricky Rudd has competed in 11 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series events that have taken place at California Speedway since the series started racing there in 1997. Rudd finished third in the track’s inaugural race in 1997.
Rudd’s best finish at California to date is a third-place finish he scored twice; 1997 in the #10 Tide Ford and 2002 in the #28 Texaco Havoline Ford).
Rudd’s best start at California to date is when he qualified third for the event in 2000.
Rudd has completed 2526 of the 2754 of his laps in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races at California since 1997 for a lap completion rate of 91.7 percent.
There are ten tracks on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule at which Rudd has yet to win a race. California Speedway is one of those ten tracks.
Seven out of the last thirteen NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races at California Speedway have been won by a Ford.
CHASSIS 69
Chassis 69 is the car that the #88 Snickers team will race this weekend in California. This car’s nickname is “Maverick” and was run many times (9 or 10) in the 2006 season and is also the car that all the Research and Development was run on. The car itself has been entirely rebuilt for the 2007 season.
