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NASCAR WCUP/Trucks: This Week in Ford Racing

10 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

NASCAR Winston Cup

Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 28 Texaco Havoline Taurus, is recognized as one of the top road racers on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. He has two career victories at Watkins Glen and goes into this weekend's Global Crossing at the Glen fresh off his pole-winning run at the Brickyard 400 last weekend. Rudd, along with crew chief Michael McSwain, were guests on this week's NASCAR Winston Cup teleconference.

RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus -- YOU WON THE POLE LAST WEEK BUT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN OVERSHADOWED BY DARRELL WALTRIP. "Darrell had one of his best days he's had in many, many years and, I guess, rightfully so deserves some attention. That was quite a feat that he was able to do. It would have been nice to a little more attention to the guys that work so hard on this race car for us, but I understand that was definitely the story with Darrell doing so well."

CAN YOU COMPARE LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME TO WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW? "Really, there's no comparison. A few races back somebody gave me a stat that said we were 1,000 points ahead of where we were a year ago, so that in itself is quite remarkable. The last two races have not been very good to us. Two races ago we were just getting ready to sneak into fourth place in the points and we cut a tire and wrecked at Pocono and finished nearly last there and then this past week we had a lot of things go wrong at Indy. We ended up having to pit at the very end for a splash of fuel and knocked us back to 21st, so we've had two bad weekends -- not as bad as what Mark Martin has had -- but we've had two bad weeks in a row and actually moved up one in points because of Mark finishing last in both those races. But as far as the team situation, I couldn't be happier right now. It's coming together very well."

WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AT THE GLEN? "I'm not really sure. I would say based on our test we were pretty pleased with it. I think you're gonna see another track record broken for sure. Every one that tested up there, which I would say was at least 15 Winston Cup competitors were up there a couple of weeks ago when we were there, and Goodyear has introduced a new tire there that is gonna be a remarkable tire to race on. It's fast and it also stays fast the entire run, which is gonna make a different Watkins Glen race. Normally, you end up with a lot of fade away on your tires there and generally when it comes time to pit strategy it's not even an issue, you come in and get four tires. Well, pit strategy will probably play more of a major factor now than at any other time we've run at Watkins Glen before because the tire is so good it stays good the entire run. It stays very, very fast, so it's gonna change the outlook that a lot of crew chiefs are gonna have to make pit strategy a little bit different now."

WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ON SAFETY RIGHT NOW? "I can definitely understand why it's one of the major topics week-in and week-out when we go to the race tracks because of obviously the two major tragedies that we've had just in the last couple of months, so safety does become the number one issue now it seems like. I think maybe too much responsibility is put back in NASCAR's hands to make a safer race car. I think the best way to describe it is it's probably more of a wake-up call to everybody -- at least the drivers. For so many years, and you'd have to put me in that category, you just take for granted that these race cars are so safe that they can withstand anything. Then with the two recent tragedies it just goes to show that these things are not indestructible, you can get injured or killed in one of these things and I think it's put a little more focus, not only from a media standpoint, but back to the competitors -- the guys turning the wrenches on these cars -- that 'hey, we can make a little safer mouse trap if we put a little more thought towards it' -- and I think that's what's going on right now. I think that's one reason why you see the ignition cut off switches being introduced. I know our team has been working on one similar to NASCAR's, but it will probably be located in a different position, probably on the throttle pedal. We also have one on the steering wheel, which is mandatory, but we might even have another one on the throttle switch so the driver can turn it off if he needs to."

DOES SOME OF THIS TALK ABOUT SOFT WALLS GET TOO FAR-FETCHED? "Well, I think everyone is looking in the direction. How can you make these walls to where, if you do have a problem -- hopefully it never happens again, but you can end up with a similar situation. If it's not a hung throttle what happens if you rupture a brake line.. I've done that before at Watkins Glen at a bad spot on the race track. I'm not sure exactly which corner you call it, but you're coming back towards the pits on the next-longest straightaway they have there and I went to hit the brake pedal a couple of years ago and the brake pedal went to the floorboard and there just wasn't any slowing it down. I went off the track and I was able enough to swing the car to go into the wall backwards, but I hit the wall head-on backwards and, luckily, there was a Styrofoam block where I hit it and I didn't even get a scratch -- didn't even feel the impact, really. It destroyed the car, but the wall did what it was supposed to do. So, from that standpoint, it sounds like it would be simple -- put Styrofoam at every race track, but that's not really the answer. Let's go back a couple of weeks ago, I hit the fence at Pocono. I cut a tire right as I went into turn one and I hit that wall, I'm not sure of the exact angle but probably a 30 degree or 20 degree sheer angle. Had it simply been the same situation with Styrofoam blocks attached along that wall, what ended up being a relatively minor blow for me could have ended up being a major blow if the car stuck into that Styrofoam, which I've seen them do that. If the block doesn't explode it sticks and, if all that 200 mile an hour energy is stopped right there, I'm sure I wouldn't be here talking to you today. So, I think it sounds simple -- put Styrofoam and make walls soft. I'm not saying give up on the idea, but I think there needs to be more theory going in behind that other than just putting a Styrofoam block there. They need to have some type of a guard rail, a plastic guard rail system or something to go along with that. But, simply to put a Styrofoam block in all the race track corners is not the answer."

CONSIDERING THE RISKS INVOLVED, DO YOU THINK WINSTON CUP DRIVERS ARE UNDERPAID COMPARED TO OTHER PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES? "I think if you look at them compared to other athletes, I would say yes, they're definitely underpaid. If you look at it in the whole scheme of things -- the amount of money that comes into the sport, the amount of money that comes from the sponsors, from the race purses -- I think for the amount of available money they're compensated fairly. I think it has to be based on some type of a percentage of what's coming in the door. The percentages that drivers receive today are fair. Are they fair compared to other sports? Ten years ago that balance scale would have been tipped heavily to a disadvantage to a Winston Cup driver. Today, that scale is starting to catch up quite a bit, but I don't know where the revenue is gonna come from. I've been on it from both sides and a car owner, when you look at all the funds that come in the door, certainly he'd love to give his driver a lot more money, but I'm telling you, there's just not enough money to go around."

HAS THE YATES TEAM PICKED YOU BRAIN AS FAR AS SUBTLE CHANGES FOR THIS WEEKEND? "I'll be honest, our road course performance seemed to be a lot better. You go back four, five, six years ago we'd seem to do a lot better. Back then it was more about, I think, driver finesse. The equipment that we had back then was a lot cruder than what we have today. The introduction of the Jerico transmission really, I know there were certain guys that just used to win all the road courses and I think 90 percent of that was because they knew how to use the transmission correctly. The transmission that they have today is available to everybody and everybody uses it. It's the Jerico type or the T-101, basically they're copies of one another. That transmission has made it easy for anybody basically to become a road course driver and do well, so, from a competitors standpoint, I hate to have seen that introduced. But from a fan's standpoint, I think it's made better and more exciting road races from it. As far as anything magical about cars and chassis that I could bring to the table to Yates Racing, I don't really think there's anything there. I think what I have is pretty much basic race cars. We've done an OK job. We haven't been a dominating force like we were maybe back in the late 80s or early 90s."

IS THE JERICO TRANSMISSION LIKE DRIVING AN AUTOMATIC? "That's basically what it does. It used to be you were forced to brake with your right foot on a road course. Ninety-nine percent of the drivers that are out on the Winston Cup circuit today brake with their left foot. It's very awkward, it's like trying to write left-handed if you're a right-handed person. So you'd go to the road courses like we used to and, all of a sudden, now you have to start to brake with your right. I wouldn't say it was comical, but you had a lot of guys that it was sort of a disaster. I think you would have the same thing today if you went back and ran the old style Borg-Warner transmissions. You would find out that maybe there's not necessarily a lot of good road course drivers like it appears today. Right now it's exciting because there are so many good drivers on the road course, but, again, taking the transmission out of that element and you would go back and it would probably separate the drivers a little more."

DO YOU THINK THE DAYS OF THE OWNER-DRIVER ARE OVER? "I think the trend, when the multiple-car teams started being the way of the future that almost ruled out the owner-driver because it becomes such a full plate. It was a full plate just running one team and then that owner-driver also needs to be managing and running the second team or third team, if you will. There's just not enough of that guy to go around and something is gonna suffer. That's sort of what we got into. In the time era when I was an owner-driver, at least in '94, '95 and '96 we had tremendous success with it. We won a lot of races and did everything right, but what happened was I became spread thinner and thinner. I wasn't able to go out and promote the money, wasn't smart enough to go hire a marketing company to go out and promote it, so really what happened is everything got neglected a little bit. I wasn't able to be on a workout program as a driver, so my driver skills suffered probably a little bit and I didn't realize it. Also, at the same time, in the ownership role even though I was working ridiculous hours I was still leaving those things on the table I should have been doing. So, the more increasing demands on the Winston Cup schedule and the business side of the sport, I'm not gonna say you won't ever see a successful owner-driver in the future, but if there is one the ownership role will have to be not a day-to-day management role like I tried to do it. It simply won't work."

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE TESTED AT DAYTONA NEXT WEEK? "I'll be honest with you, I think NASCAR, Gary Nelson and all those guys have done a great job on investigating ways to make these cars dirtier aerodynamically so they'll punch a bigger hole in the wind and then, therefore, get rid of the size of the smaller-sized restrictor plates and I think that's the intention. But I think they've got enough input from the crew chiefs and all the technical people that, to be honest with you, as a driver we would just like to be able to have it where we can sort of sling-shot and pass one another a lot easier than we've been able to do in recent times. I know NASCAR has been looking at this over the years and I don't know that there is a clear-cut answer other than making the cars more dirtier aerodyanmically. But to sit here and say they need to change this or change that, I wouldn't attempt to do that."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE WITH SUCH A STRONG TEAM. YOU GUYS SEEM TO QUALIFY WELL EVEN THOUGH YOUR SUCCESS IN THE RACES HASN'T BEEN THAT STRONG. "I like to look at it a little differently. I think our qualifying effort is tremendous and our racing effort, I think if you look at the string of top fives we had I have to defend myself a little bit. I think we've been pretty good there. Obviously, we haven't won anything yet, but I think when I tell people it's a newly-formed 28 team I think they sort of say, 'Yeah, sure.' But I think you've gotta look at the amount of new people we've got on this race team. It's the only team that has a newly-formed driver-crew chief situation that is even in the top 10 in the points, so I take a little pride in that. Yes, we've got work to do obviously, but I like the way this car has been competitive on the race track. We made some mistakes at Indy. I think we sort of choked at Indy, made some major mistakes and it cost us a good top-five finish there, but, again, we're working at it and I feel pretty good. As the year continues to go on, I think the team is too good not to be able to win races when you finish in the top five as much as we have probably recently."

WHAT ABOUT BEING A DRIVER INSTEAD OF OWNER THIS YEAR? "It's just much, much simpler than it used to be. It's a lot less mentally demanding. Just being able to go to the race track and do the one job I'm hired to do and that's give the team very good feedback so they can adjust the race car and, obviously, I have to drive the race car to peak performance. I think, if anything, it has freed my mind up to really focus and stay in tuned to the suspension on the race car, instead of having to worry about business matters at a race track."

WHY DO YOU LIKE THE ROAD COURSE IN KERSHAW, S.C. TO TEST AT? "I think, first of all, whoever laid that race track out design-wise did a super job. It must have been a race car driver with heavy input as far as the lay out because I guess the best thing about it is it allows you to go there and test things for a road course, but they also thought about run-off areas. They thought about what happens if you lose your brakes testing or in a race and, all of a sudden, your brakes go out. They really put a lot of runoff room at the critical areas of the race track. I know when we were there I think Jerry Nadeau, he ran off the track seven or eight times that day, but that's not all bad. He was able to test a lot of things that he wanted to work on and, if he made a mistake, it wasn't a big deal. He just sort of ran out through the sand traps. I think by that and it being such a safe race track, we're able to lean on areas of the car that maybe we wouldn't normally do. The contrast to that would be Sears Point, where, if you end up off the race track, your day is pretty much gonna be over because you're gonna get into some type of retaining fence. So, I'd say the key there is the track is good, it's got good grip. It's a nice perfect layout for a Cup car and it also has plenty of runoff area which I like." HOW MUCH DOES IT'S PROXIMITY TO CHARLOTTE PLAY IN ITS POPULARITY? "I would say that's another key strongpoint it's got. It's only maybe an hour-and-a-half or two hours away from the Charlotte area. Maybe in the past teams would pick up and haul down to Road Atlanta and now we don't have to go that far. This is a lot more convenient."

MICHAEL MCSWAIN, Crew Chief --28-- Texaco Havoline -- CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RISE AS A CREW CHIEF? "My start was actually more of an accident than intentional. I was at Richard Jackson's and the team was kind of breaking up and Richard said, 'Hey, everybody's leaving you want to give it a shot?' So, it's something I always wanted to do and I tried it. Luckily enough, we had some limited success that year. Then I just kind of moved on. I moved to Jasper and we had some success there. I've always done it with low-funded teams and I guess that's maybe what opened some owner's eyes, that we were able to do it with fairly low funding. It's just a lot of hard work and a few years later here I am."

DOES THAT MAKE YOU APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE NOW WITH RYR? "It's unbelievable the resources. The things you always dreamed of wanting or would have liked to try is laid at your feet, so to speak, and you try them. You don't have to worry about, 'well, we can't really try that because we've got to spend our money on pieces that we need, not pieces that we'd like to try.'"

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO COME OUT OF THIS TEST AT DAYTONA AND WHAT SUGGESTIONS WOULD YOU MAKE TO NASCAR? "We've worked pretty close with NASCAR on all of this new speedway testing. I think they're headed in the right direction and I also think it's to the point to where the only way we're gonna see if it works is to get some cars on the race track and do it in a pack at a real race track and see what effects it has on the car. I think it's a great idea to come off of the restrictor-plate some and do it with drag or whatever we have to do to give some throttle response back to the drivers. I think if we could see some racing at Daytona kind of like we saw in the truck series, minus the accidents, that it would make the Winston Cup Series a lot more exciting for the fans at Daytona and Talladega, and also for the drivers. Right now it's really a boring race for the drivers because they're just sitting around waiting for the big wreck to happen."

IS THERE ANY EXPLAINATION WHY YOU AND RICKY HAVE SEEMED TO BOND SO WELL? "To me, Ricky is a great person. Me and him are a lot similar. We're people who are kind of to ourselves. We enjoy 10 minutes sitting by the lake with nobody around, no people -- not that we have anything wrong with people -- but we're kind of people who like to keep to ourselves. We're not really into the big clicks, we don't really run around with a big group of people and we enjoy a lot of the same things. I think maybe that's why we've bonded a lot."

GOING TO THESE TRACKS FOR THE SECOND TIME ARE THERE ANY TRACKS YOU FEEL MORE CONFIDENT AT THAN OTHERS? "This time last year I could answer that question a little better, but now after the first half of the season we've been good at some race tracks that we've been bad at in the past. I feel real confident going into Watkins Glen. We ran good there. I feel real confident going to Michigan. We had a problem on a pit stop, but we ran in the top three all day long. Bristol, we ran third there last fall. I feel with the resources we have here at Robert's -- the engine department, the aerodynamic department -- really, any race is a good shot for us."

DO YOU THINK A 65 DEGREE SPOILER WILL MAKE A LOT OF DIFFERENCE DURING THAT DAYTONA TEST? "I know how much difference one and two degrees makes, not only in the wind tunnel but when we're at Daytona during the race and qualifying when NASCAR sets our spoiler. Sixty-five degrees is a lot of spoiler, so as long as we can do enough in the front to offset the amount of downforce we apply in the rear, I think that's the right direction."

WILL THE ONE-INCH SPOILER ON THE ROOF EFFECT HANDLING? "Well, that basically does mostly front downforce, so that's the idea behind the 65 degree spoiler. It's to kind of keep the balance the same as what we have now, but just to make downforce total on front and rear."

WILL IT MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE ON AN ENGINE IF THE RESTRICTOR-PLATE IS OPENED? "It's pretty big. Believe it or not when they change restrictor plates 1/32nd the engine department goes to work night and day. They have to make a lot of changes to accept the air flow up to a 32nd smaller, so, yeah, when we go up in plate sizes the motor department will have to go to work again."

WHAT KIND OF CARS WILL YOU BRING TO DAYTONA? "What NASCAR has requested is that we bring cars that we've run in the past at restrictor plates. We're actually bringing our Daytona 500 car, which is also the car we raced at Talladega this year. So, I think most everybody is bringing a car they have raced or that they just did race at Daytona so that you can get a true, accurate meaning of what the rule changes are doing."

WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AT WATKINS GLEN? "We tested at Watkins Glen and, once again, we feel like it's one of our better tracks just because of Ricky's talent and his past history. We took two cars up there and did a lot of different things on the chassis and we came out of there feeling like we had learned a lot. It's the same car we raced there last year -- we raced it at Sears Point last year and Sears Point this year. We had some minor problems with the car that seemed to plague us at all of the three previous races, so we concentrated on those and really feel like we've cured the problem we've been having. We were pretty happy leaving Watkins Glen."

HAS RICKY TESTED THE HANS DEVICE? "No he hasn't. He chose not to."

I UNDERSTAND FORD IS DOING A GET ACQUAINTED SESSION WITH THAT THIS WEEK. DO YOU GUYS HOPE TO ATTEND? "Yes, we have actually one person in our company who handles all the driver comfort, driver seating and mounting, all the driver stuff in the car and we're gonna send him to attend that seminar."

WHAT IS YOUR TESTING GAMEPLAN THE REST OF THE YEAR? "We have a test at Darlington. We have, of course, the Daytona test and then we have one test left. We're gonna kind of wait until closer to the end of the year -- the last four, five or six races -- if that 2000 win is still hidden from us then -- then we're gonna concentrate on a track where we feel like we've really, really got a shot to win and take it there and try to get that over with."

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Being one of the most consistent drivers on the circuit this year, Mike Wallace finds himself second in championship points behind Greg Biffle at the three-quarter point in the season. Mike and the entire Team ASE Ford F-150 team look to finish the season strong and make a run at Greg for the 2000 NCTS Championship.

Mike Wallace --2-- Team ASE/Ultra Motorsports Ford F-150 -- IN YOUR OPINION, HOW HAS THE TEAM PROGRESSED THIS YEAR? "We were an excellent team to begin the season and it has really gotten a lot better. The guys have made a real effort to improve the pit stops and I think that they are starting to shine. There have been some rough times this year where the truck was not the easiest to drive and the guys really worked hard during the race to make it better. I think that our consistency this year proves our ability to get it right and be there at the end of the race when it counts the most. We are also better able to have the truck close when we come off of the hauler. Timmy (Kohuth, Crew Chief) has done a great job at making the right decisions on the set-up. We really have been working good together and it makes things that much better and easier."

YOU ARE RUNNING THE REST OF THE SEASON IN THE #77 BUSCH SERIES CAR AS WELL AS THE NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES. IS IT TOUGH TO BE RACING SO MUCH? "I'm a race-car driver. That's what I love to do. I was given the opportunity to race the Busch car for the rest of the season after Watkins Glen. If it wasn't with a good team and a good car, I wouldn't have considered it.. But to have an opportunity to get some time in a race car, either Busch or Winston Cup can only make me better prepared for whatever is next. I am happy here in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series and am fortunate to be racing with a good team and good equipment. But I also have to be realistic. If I had the chance to go Winston Cup racing, again only with a good team and good equipment, I think that I would be crazy not to consider it."

WHAT HAS MADE THE GREATEST IMPACT ON YOUR SUCCESS THIS SEASON? CAN YOU POINT TO ONE THING OR HAS IT BEEN A COMBINATION OF THINGS? "I think it been a combination of things. We have better race trucks. Not only the way they prepared at the track, but also the way there built in the shop. The guys are working better together, they're learning a lot. I think that the team has a lot more experience this season and they are able to make the trucks more comfortable for me to drive. Our motor program has really helped us out a lot as well, having the Penske engines. These engines we get from Penske really make a great deal of power and are very reliable. I think it's a combination of more experience, good motors and trucks, and the guys working really hard."

TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR CONSISTENCY THIS YEAR? YOU LED THE POINTS RACE EARLY AND HAVE NEVER REALLY FALLEN FAR FROM THE LEAD. "Again, I think that it is a combination of things. I have become a better driver this year and the team has become better at realizing what I need in the truck to go fast. I have struggled with qualifying quite a bit, but it seems like we always get the truck set up to race good. Qualifying has never really been my forte. But once it's time to race, we're always ready to go. After winning At Daytona, I think that the team realized that we really had a good program and could win this thing. Then we had some more success and the morale got even better. Even when we were struggling a little bit in the middle of the season, the guys never gave up. I think that they realized that we were good enough to get through this and that there was always a light at the end of the tunnel. Now we're running great every week and the consistency is back. We are a contender to win every week and intend to be there fighting for what Greg (Biffle) leaves for the rest of us. If I can't be the last guy to walk up on to the stage at the banquet, I want to at least be the second to last."

AFTER LAST YEAR, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF GOING BACK TO NASHVILLE THIS WEEKEND? "Nashville is a tough little race track that is very tight. We weren't very good there last year. I had a wreck late in the race. We always kind of look forward to tracks where we didn't do well last time because I feel like I have something to prove. I know that we are a better team this year and are more capable of putting together a good race truck. My confidence level is very high every week and I know that all I have to do is go out there and do my job which is to drive the truck."

WITH SIX RACES LEFT, TELL US WHAT YOU SEE FOR THE #2 FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? "I think that we have as good a shot as any at catching Greg (Biffle) and giving him a run for the championship. He has really done a good job at increasing his points lead, but I don't think it is insurmountable. Don't forget that he has a teammate in Kurt Busch who is only a few points behind me. These guys really run great as a team and are going to be hard to beat. I think that they have proven that several times this season with their one-two finishes. My guys on the Team ASE Ford F-150 give me a good truck to race every week and I think that we legitimately have a shot at winning every race. We have excellent equipment, a good crew, and Timmy Kohuth making the calls and that's a pretty good combination in itself. I would really like to at least give Greg something to look in his rearview mirror about for the rest of the year. I think that we have a good shot at wining a couple more races this year as well."

Text provided by Ford

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