NASCAR Cup

Daytona II: Rudd qualifying press conference

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Keep It Genuine/Motorcraft Taurus (Qualified 3rd) "I'm really pleased with this new Coca-Cola C2 Taurus. The guys did a really good job. This is the car that qualified on the pole at Talladega. We got a fender knocked off ...

Published: Jul 3, 2004, 2:51 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Keep It Genuine/Motorcraft Taurus (Qualified 3rd)

"I'm really pleased with this new Coca-Cola C2 Taurus. The guys did a really good job. This is the car that qualified on the pole at Talladega. We got a fender knocked off of it and were a little bit concerned that it maybe wouldn't come back and be as good as it was before, but went out two different times in practice - not very much - and the guys just worked on it to get it ready to go for a lap. I was real happy with it. We made a few mistakes on it at Talladega. We had a fast car, but it didn't drive particularly well in the race and they worked on that a little bit while they were at the wind tunnel the other week, so I think we'll have something that's gonna race pretty good."

IS THIS THE SAME CAR FROM DAYTONA?

"I'm not really sure. This might be a different car. We ran this one at Talladega for sure and sat on the pole there."

BUT THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN STRONG ALL YEAR.

"Our speedway program has been, especially in qualifying, has been pretty strong. Our other program is something we've definitely been searching around a lot this year. We're not very pleased. Nobody has really been happy with some of the results that we've been able to get. It's sort of a constant battle every week. Every week we have a different race car, something different and sooner or later we're blindly gonna stumble onto something that works here before the year is out I feel confident."

WHO HAS THE NEW ENGINE THIS WEEK?

"I was watching television, but I think they said Jeff Burton has the motor this week. I'm not really sure. I usually find out when we get ready to get in the race car and start the race somebody tips me off on who has got what. Usually you guys know before I do. I can't honestly tell you, but just by listening to the commentators they say Burton has one this week. I think he's the only car that has one. That's what they're saying. I've heard by Chicago that all the Fords will have them, so we're kind of optimistic and looking forward to that if that's the case. I think it's kind of supply and demand. As the pieces come in and they get motors built, they spit 'em out the door. There's definitely a pecking order or a priority over there and it's usually points related on who gets what. Obviously, we're probably the worst car in the points and we're not even a Roush car so we don't usually get first choice. We did run one in Charlotte. We were one of the guys that raced one in the 600 and I think it was more of a durability run than anything, but from what I've seen the motor should be pretty good. We're looking forward to getting a chance to run it week in and week out."

-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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Daytona II: Dodge teams qualifying quotes

Next article Daytona II: Pole winner press conference

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

24 min

GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend

Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 1 h

Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

5 h

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

5 h

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

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