NASCAR WCUP: Rudd and Jarrett speak out on return to racing action
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
September 20, 2001The NASCAR Winston Cup Series will resume action this weekend after taking last Sunday off in observance of the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Ford drivers Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett spoke about returning to the race track this weekend at Dover Downs during a test session Tuesday afternoon at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus -- "There's no doubt about the fact that the country has been through some violent situations the last week. It's kind of taken our focus off racing and it's really taken the whole world's focus off of whatever it's doing to concentrate on the matters at hand. It's a terrible tragedy, but it's good to go back to racing because it kind of keeps your mind occupied."
DOES THIS CHAMPIONSHIP RACE TAKE ON A DIFFERENT MEANING NOW? "I think you tend to get caught up in your own world and right now it seems like our whole world seems to be focused on winning this championship and trying to do well. That has a way of consuming all of your energy and all of your time and thoughts. Then when you have a true tragedy pop up, it kind of puts it into perspective how important this is in comparison to those things that are really important and that's dealing with things like the tragedy at the World Trade Center."
DOES YOUR RICHMOND VICTORY SEEM LIKE A LONG TIME AGO? "It really does. To me it seems like about a month ago. We usually have such an accelerated pace of testing and other things that go on that when you slow it down a little bit it seems like the time just gets away. It seems like a month has passed since we raced the last time."
THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT SAFETY IN THE CARS THIS YEAR. DO YOU WORRY AT ALL ABOUT SAFETY AT THE TRACK IN WAKE OF THIS INCIDENT? "It doesn't concern me on the race track, but I think anytime you've got that many people in one area -- it seems like anywhere you have a large group of people could be a target point and a race track definitely fits that description, especially a Bristol or a Richmond where there are so many people in such a small area. I don't know. You could sit there and worry yourself to death about it or you kind of just pick up and go on. I think what you do is you pick up and go on and make changes along the way. The government is taking a much firmer stand and I think President Bush is definitely on a mission. His mindset is to clean all of this up."
IS IT HARD TO GET PREPARED FOR DOVER? "Well, once you get in a race car and once you pull out on pit road, race cars have a way of making you focus. It's almost like a prescription medicine in that all of your thought process is focussed strictly on driving that race car. They just have a way of demanding your utmost attention and you know that if you slip up or your mind gets distracted that you can make a mistake that will hurt you or somebody else. The race car has always been my therapy. Anytime things aren't going very well, you get in a race car and get buckled up and close that window net -- now you're in your own world. Again, it takes 120 percent of your concentration and focus to drive the race car."
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON GOING BACK TO WORK? "I can't say we're real pleased to go back to work, but in one respect we're kind of anxious to get back. We're probably like all of the rest of America, we've been sitting around our television sets watching the news and watching the events. It definitely wasn't pretty last week and New York still isn't a pretty sight, but life goes on even though we've had such a tremendous tragedy."
WHAT ABOUT THE DOVER TRACK ITSELF? "I guess what I like about it is that Dover has been a track where we've won at least four races, so it's been good to me. In that respect, we like going back. The drawback is it's a concrete race track and you slip and slide. I wish it was asphalt again like it used to be, but that's not the case. It is concrete and we deal with it, but we haven't won nearly as much on the concrete as we have the blacktop. We're not gonna give up trying. We've run second and third and even won a concrete race, but not as many as when we were on the blacktop."
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT GOING TO NEW HAMPSHIRE IN NOVEMBER? "I guess we'll worry about that when the time comes. I'm glad I'm not one of these crew members who has to work on these race cars. It's not bad from a driver's standpoint because it's still 100 degrees in these cars, but it's hard on the crew members."
DALE JARRETT --88-- UPS Taurus -- WILL IT BE GOOD TO GET BACK TO A SENSE OF NORMALCY THIS WEEKEND? "Yeah, it will be nice to get back to what we do but I'm not sure exactly how normal it's gonna be. I know there's a lot of trepidation on a lot of people's part on traveling. Even though a lot of us are in private planes, any type of travel is gonna be looked upon as being a little more dangerous than it was before. Hopefully, we can ease some of the pain so people aren't just sitting and thinking about what's taken place every single minute. Entertainment is what we provide and, hopefully, we have the fans that are ready for that again."
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT POSTPONING THE RACE LAST WEEK? "I called Mike Helton on Tuesday afternoon and I told him, 'Hey, I know I'm only one of a lot of people involved in this, but my wishes are that we would cancel this weekend.' I talked to him everyday and I was certainly glad that they made the decision that they made, along with all of the other sports and entertainment businesses. I think it was the right thing to do. What we do is provide entertainment for people and, certainly, we provide a lot of jobs -- that's the good side of our sport, but we needed to be with the rest of the nation last weekend in mourning those that lost their lives and families that lost loved ones."
THIS WEEKEND WILL NOT BE A TYPICAL RACE WEEKEND? "No it won't. There are gonna be a lot of changes and changes have to be made. I'm not sure how much these terrorists know about racing, but they obviously would know that everywhere we go there are over 100,000 people there and it would certainly be a target. I know it's gonna inconvenience fans some because they can't take coolers inside and a few other things, but I hope that everyone at some point in time will understand that this is being done for their safety and everyone's safety. We're gonna see a lot more policeman and other people around that will look out for all of our safety. It's gonna be difficult. Even though we're gonna be there racing and that's what we do, I'm sure a lot of the conversation is still gonna be based around what happened last week."
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY AS AN ATHLETE, PARTICULARLY WHEN YOU'RE IN THE GARAGE AREA? "The opportunity is there; and we certainly don't. The events that have taken place and the people that created all of this to change our sport and change our lives. Obviously, it is gonna change our lives and the opportunity is there. There have been discussions before among drivers, whether it be in a group or just a couple standing around talking, that anything could happen. We have so many people in the garage area now and 98 or 99 percent of them are in there for the enjoyment of just seeing what takes place and what is going on, but you do have your one or two percent that are carrying around the big duffel bags to get their stuff autographed. As difficult as that is in our working environment, now it brings on a whole new meaning. We've discussed before that people could bring anything in because there is no checkpoint or anything like that. They can bring in whatever they want and could create a lot of havoc. I think we're certainly looking at a lot more security there now to make sure something like this doesn't take place. It's a perfect place because it is so crowded, but I'm quite certain that NASCAR is gonna do the proper thing."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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