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NASCAR WCUP: Bud Shootout Notes and Quotes, Ricky Rudd

14 February 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus (Finished 13th) -- WHAT HAPPENED? "I couldn't really tell exactly. Everybody got three-wide and got jumbled up and it was one of those deals. I couldn't tell who got into who, but all of a sudden I was off for a nice little ride."

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WITH ALL THOSE CARS COMING FROM BEHIND YOU? "That's the only thing I was thinking. It was weird because I slid on the roof a long way and it was never a hard hit. There was no violence at all inside the car and I'm sliding along and the whole time I'm thinking, I'm kind of scrunched up thinking, 'Man, I hope nobody hits me when I'm upside-down.'"

YOU HAD A NASTY WRECK 16 YEARS AGO IN THIS SAME RACE. HOW DOES IT COMPARE? "This one really looked bad, but it really wasn't nasty. I just hate to see the car get torn up. The car actually ran better than we thought it was gonna run."

ANY IDEA WHAT STARTED IT? "No, I just think five or six cars racing for the win and it was getting down to crunch time. A lot of guys did what they had to do, but, evidently, three-wide doesn't work too good at Daytona that late in the race."

WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO THE LAST LAP? "I was moving forward. I saw daylight. Really, what was happening was with three to go I thought we had a plan. I was gonna dive to the inside of Sterling and I had relayed that to Dale, and about the time I make my move to go to the inside it sort of jumbled up. All of a sudden Schrader was behind Dale and it just got all knotted up there with about three or four to go. Things didn't quite turn out like we expected them to."

Text provided by Ford

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