NASCAR Cup
Charlotte: Rudd - Ford Saturday interview
Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion, qualified seventh for tomorrow's Coca-Cola 600 and was in the top 10 during Saturday's first practice session. He spoke about his car immediately afterwards. RICKY RUDD -- No. 88 Snickers ...
Edited: May 27, 2007, 6:30 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion, qualified seventh for tomorrow's Coca-Cola 600 and was in the top 10 during Saturday's first practice session. He spoke about his car immediately afterwards.
RICKY RUDD -- No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion
WE SAW THE 07 SPIN LIKE A LOT OF CARS HAVE THE PAST TWO WEEKS. IS IT A CASE OF JUST SURVIVING UNTIL THE RACE TOMORROW? "We talked about the fact that this race track sat with virtually no running on it since we were here on Thursday. I guess they had some sports cars run on part of it, but we figured it would be slick. It's a big deal because you've got to have your car loose to run at night, but you can't be that loose and try to run during the day. You've got to go conservative on the way you drive the race track. I went out and was running some conservative laps when I first started and my car was still slipping and was kind of unpredictable. It would be very easy for it to get out from under you, so Clint unfortunately was the guy who got bit. We're all in the same shape, he just might be trying to run a little freer in the heat of the day."
ARE YOU HAPPY WHERE YOU'RE AT AS FAR AS PREPARATIONS FOR THE RACE? "Yeah, I think we ended up top-10 on the speed chart (8th). We were just scuffing tires, but what we did, though, we were able to take advantage while we were scuffing we were able to make little chassis tweaks -- very similar to what we would be doing during the race -- just to see if I could feel the chassis changes and I think the car is really good. They were just making minor tweaks, but I could feel all the adjustments they were making."
BESIDES DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA, IS THIS THE NEXT BEST OPPORTUNITY YOU'VE HAD TO FINISH TOP-5? "A lot of work went into this effort. Actually, we had a great car at Texas and we never got a chance to show it. We got wrecked on lap one coming to take the green, so we already has some of that going. The other night in the all-star race we had one car that was really good and one that was OK, and this was the better car. Just like everybody else, we brought our best car for the 600, but the team has been steadily working. They've been to the wind tunnel and have been putting bodies on and working on the chassis and this is the first time that we've seen some really positive results that aren't sort of maybe just gonna be a flash in the pan. I feel like it's got a lot of staying power. I really like the way the car feels so it should run good the entire night, and then they'll just take this car and clone it. We need more of them."
-credit: ford racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Charlotte: Toyota teams qualifying quotes
Next article Charlotte: Johnson - Saturday media visit
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
Latest news
Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
2 h
Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors
Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
2 h
Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss
IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 2 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing
Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
2 h
Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe