Ricky Rudd thinks the old age might be getting to him.

He heard his crew talking in his ear and he could clearly see the cars around him, but for the life of him -- with certain groups of drivers pitting at different times -- he couldn't figure out the running order.

Heck, he wasn't even sure what place he was in.

"I was confused," he said. "It was one of those things (where you say) 'Just shut up and drive,' because it was one of those deals where your ears get to ringing at the end of the race. They start talking or it's just old age -- I'm not figuring out which one it is, but I couldn't hear what they were saying."

So you're an old man now, are you?

"I think Harvick said I'm 60, so I must be getting close to that," Rudd joked.

In fact, Rudd turned 47 on Friday. He's one of the older active racers, but he has shown the youngsters a thing or two the last couple of weeks. Rudd has turned in consecutive top-three performances while battling physical pain during recent races and the threat of physical pain after last weekend's.

Rudd has gone through so much recently, including the late-race accident with Kevin Harvick last weekend that blew Harvick's shot at a second-place finish and prompted him to let Rudd know just what he thought of that after the race, this Sunday's race at New Hampshire was a walk in the park. A walk that ended with a runner-up finish.

"I guess it was pretty uneventful compared to last week," he said. "It was pretty calm the whole race. I saw some wrecks happening around me, but I was fortunate we weren't in them."

Last weekend, Harvick said he thought Rudd wrecked him on purpose. After Harvick wrecked and Rudd went on to finish third, Harvick pulled up beside Rudd and the two started yelling at each other. There was some hood stomping and some threats, which resulted in Harvick getting a $35,000 fine, two of Harvick's crewmen getting suspended and two other crewmen getting fined, and Rudd's crew chief Pat Tryson taking a blow to the wallet, as well.

	Ricky Rudd has four top-10s in 2003 and is currently 23rd in points.

On Friday, the day Rudd turned 47, Harvick said that he thought Rudd should have apologized by that point but that the two hadn't spoken. On Saturday, they did. Rudd said he told Harvick he hadn't wrecked him intentionally and hoped Harvick believed him, but from that point on the incident was out of his mind.

He said Saturday that he felt good things coming on for his team. Rudd said the short-track program of his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford has been on point all season long. The car he brought to New Hampshire was relatively new. The motor under the hood was stout.

"I felt pretty darn good," Rudd said.

And he was getting ready to feel better.

Several weeks ago in Sonoma (Calif.), Rudd's gear shifter broke, and it made for a long day: "The ball broke off the top of the shifter at the start of the race, and I got several blisters there. That didn't make things easy."

Three races ago at Darlington (S.C.), Rudd had another on-track setback when his power steering went out with 134 laps to go. On a steamy day where even the fans needed medical treatment for the heat, Rudd stayed in the kitchen and finished 16th: "That's why they call him the Iron Man," Wood Brothers co-owner Eddie Wood said. "To run here with no power steering for the last (134) laps is just unheard of. You're not supposed to be able to do that. But he did it. The steering wheel, the grip, it's down to the plastic or metal or whatever the thing's made out of. It's used up."

Then came last weekend, when Rudd almost made it to the end of the race without any problems -- finally -- before, according to him, accidentally wrecking Harvick. Rudd said he felt worse about that than he did about the physical pain he endured at either Sonoma or Darlington.

So coming into Sunday's race at New Hampshire, he was hoping for a calm day. Indeed, Rudd was able to keep his car together and avoid the wrecks, timing his final pit stop in order to coast home at the end of the race and end up second.

Of course, it wasn't exactly the calm day Rudd was hoping for. With several drivers, even the leaders, pitting at different times, it was tough for Rudd to keep track of the running order. In fact, at the end it took him awhile to figure out he was second.

And he didn't even bother trying to figure out when he should pit or how the strategy should go.

"To be honest with you, I haven't got a clue on how that strategy was playing out," Rudd said. "A lot of times, I'll question that. I'll say, 'Are you sure about that? Are you sure you want to come in and top off now?' You don't have the whole picture as a driver. You don't see the whole outcome and I don't add too good anyway, so I let those guys do that."

	"	To be honest with you, I haven't got a clue on how that strategy was playing out. ...You don't have the whole picture as a driver. You don't see the whole outcome and I don't add too good anyway, so I let (my crew) do that. "
		— Ricky Rudd

They did it pretty well and gave Rudd a chance to contend. And though he believed his car was about equal to winner Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevy, he thinks he threw all he could at Johnson and came out right about where he deserved.

"He had a little bit of a lead on us, and we got real tight," Rudd said. "We put on two tires and got too tight to race too hard at the end, so we just tried to hang on and protect the spot because Joe (Nemechek, who finished third) was coming pretty hard."

Rudd is hoping to make it three top-threes in a row as the series heads to Dover, Del. And he's optimistic about his chances -- not just next weekend, but beyond.

"We're getting into a whole host of tracks where handling is real critical and air doesn't mean anything," he said. "Those are our kind of tracks."

Old school tracks, old school racing. Figures.

Rupen Fofaria is a freelance writer living in Chicago and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@espnspecial.com.