Daytona 500 2000 - Daily Dish: Rudd has time to enjoy the ride

Daily Dish: Rudd has time to enjoy the ride
by Ron Buck, ESPN.com


	Ricky Rudd is enjoying his Daytona experience as just a driver.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ricky Rudd never won a Daytona 500 as a car owner. He hopes to finally find Victory Lane in the Great American Race as just a driver.

Rudd was considered a darkhorse when he arrived for Speedweeks. But after qualifying second for Sunday's race and then running out front for much of the Bud Shootout before his wild crash on the final lap, Rudd has been installed in the garage as the second betting choice behind Robert Yates Racing teammate Dale Jarrett.

And better yet, he has time to enjoy the ride.

"Taking the ownership role off and having such a good run down here, it's been nice," Rudd said Monday after practice under cloudy skies that opened up and forced the cancellation of IROC practice later in the day. "The cars have been fast, although I can't take any credit for that. But better yet, I don't have to worry about all the responsibilities and paying the bills to get here. It's really the best of both worlds."

Robert and Richard Yates have taken over for Rudd when it comes to the off-track distractions of owning a team. Rudd held a public auction during the offseason, selling everything one needs to run a team. Rudd, however, was finished as an owner/driver after six years of mixed results.

"I don't have those owner responsibilities anymore, But on the same token, I have people who can do it much better than I ever could," said Rudd, who had his 16-season winning streak end in 1999. "(The Yates family) runs it very professionally.

"I thought I could (do both), but evidentially, looking at my past few years, it was becoming harder and harder. You end up taking on a lot of headaches. Even though you try to leave them behind once you get in the race car, they still wear on you. I can already see that it affects your mental attitude on how you drive a car. I'm much more refreshed this week."

Rudd wasn't a "free agent" for long. Yates quickly signed him to a contract to drive his struggling No. 28 Texaco Ford. And if four days in Daytona are any indication, the No. 28 is a contender once again.

"It's kid of nice to hear in the garage area that we are one of the cars to beat," Rudd said. "It means quite a bit to win this year. But honestly, I've never really had the chance that I'll have this weekend. So, I've got a lot of race car under me. I've just got to be sure to use it right and don't get too anxious."

Rudd was down in 30th on the speed charts Monday, but that was due to a cautious approach to the pack-drafting most teams did during practice. With teams hooking up in 10- to 15-car drafts, Rudd kept his drafting to three or four cars. You see, Rudd doesn't have a backup car for the 500 after his harrowing crash Sunday in the Bud Shootout. But while the final-lap crash was spectacular -- with Rudd going airborne before skidding down the front straight's apron on his roof -- he came out of it "in great shape."

He'll start Thursday's second Gatorade Twin 125 on the pole. Jarrett starts the first Twin 125 on the pole. Together in the Shootout, the teammates showed they can help each other run up front in the draft. "If we can hook those two cars up together (in the 500), we can go somewhere," Rudd said.

Victory Lane, perhaps?

"THEY SAID IT"
Dale Earnhardt "(The ESPYs) is a new deal for me. We won four championships in the 90s, so maybe we've got a pretty good chance to win it." Earnhardt won the ESPY as ESPN's Driver of the Decade.	John Andretti "We had a Ford pushing us pretty good (in practice) that was running good. I don't know which Ford it was, but I know it had a Yates motor in it." Joe Nemechek had the fastest practice speed on Monday, 192.872 mph	Scott Pruett "Here, as a driver, you just don't have that much control of the speed. You go out of the pits, put your foot down flat, and it stays there until you come in. Any driver in the pits will tell you that. Now, racing is a whole different game with the draft."

Ruining the moment
Less than an hour into practice, Jeff Fuller and Greg Sacks tangled in Turn 2. Fuller's No. 27 Viagara Pontiac took the brunt of the crash, leaving the team in danger of missing the Daytona 500.

Fuller, a rookie, was running in a pack of drafting cars when Sacks seemed to get loose and hit Fuller. The impact forced Fuller into the wall, and his car caught fire and was totaled. The team was scrambling all afternoon to get the backup car ready for the Twin 125s.

"I guess it's a black valentine, not red," said Fuller's crew chief, Barry Dodson. "What is sad is I just picked up my time sheet, and we were 13th overall in that session at 191 mph. We knew the primary car would run well in the draft."

Fuller was 44th in qualifying Saturday.

Inquiring minds want to know
Who cares about drafting, qualifying and racing. At least one camera crew wanted to know what goes on off the track between Jeff Gordon and wife Brooke.

After all the normal queries about the day's practice session, the $1 million question came up: "Hey Jeff, what are you giving Brooke for Valentine's Day?"

"That's private, between me and my wife," blushed Gordon. "But we are going to have a nice special evening. I'm leaving here as soon as I can to spend as much time as I can with her."

No rainbow or Man in Black
Still can't seem to find Gordon and Dale Earnhardt? Well, they're here, just wearing a different color for a few days.

That silver car is indeed Gordon's No. 24. The new scheme won't be around long, however. Nor will the red covering Earnhardt's No. 3. Both cars have special paint schemes for Speedweeks only.

After the 500, Gordon's blue and red, rainbow-warrior scheme will return, and Earnhardt will be back in black.

Second-day qualifying
Four drivers tried Monday to better the speeds they posted Saturday during qualifying. Two succeeded. Andy Hillenburg went from 185.468 mph to 186.556. Carl Long went from 179.806 to 182.205. Kyle Petty went from 187.852 to 187.180. Dan Pardus went from 181.675 to 179.791.

Giving up first-day qualifying speeds automatically pushed each driver to the back of the grids for Thursday's twin 125 races. The trade-off: Better speeds could help secure the six Daytona 500 starting spots that are determined by speed.

DAYTONA SPOTLIGHT
Jeff Gordon \| No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet No harm, no foul. That was the ruling of NASCAR's director of operations Kevin Triplett on Monday after a section of spoiler on Jeff Gordon's car was improperly angled officials said after Saturday's Daytona 500 qualifying run. But NASCAR ruled the violation did not provide a competitive advantage and did not penalize him. The left-middle of the spoiler was measured "a couple of degrees" lower than the mandated 45. Less spoiler angle means less drag, which can affect speed. But in this case, Gordon's qualifying effort of 188.166 mph was slower than his average practice speed of 188.241. Triplett said the spoiler passed a four-point inspection before qualifying, and a post-qualifying inspection found three measuring points still at 45 degrees.

ESPN.com news services contributed to this report.

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