November 17th - November 21st, 2008
Thursday: Editor's Note: This column has been postponed until Monday due to technical issues for Matt McLaughlin. NASCAR's testing ban for 2009 has race teams and fans up in arms. Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off and puts the ban under the microscope, dissecting the pros and cons of cutting costs in this way.
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Ricky Rudd
2007 Ride: No. 88 Yates Racing Ford – February to July; No. 88 Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing Ford – July to November
2007 Primary Sponsor: Snickers
2007 Owner: Robert Yates
2007 Crew Chief: Butch Hylton
Stats: 31 Races, 0 Wins, 0 Top 5s, 1 Top 10, 33rd in points.
High Point: In what turned out to be his only Top 10 finish of the season, Rudd started and finished the Coca-Cola 600 in seventh place. A big gamble on fuel mileage allowed Rudd to be in the right place at the right time to gain track position, while other drivers had to pit for a splash of gas to make it to the finish.
“I was having to save gas so much the last couple of laps,” Rudd said. “We obviously didn’t have a winning car, but we knew we had a top-12, top-15 car.”
Low Point: Ricky Rudd celebrated his 900th Nextel Cup Series start in the Sharp Aquos 500 at the California Speedway. Unfortunately, that start was marred by two different accidents. The second accident on lap 181 saw Rudd caught up in a six-car pile-up that took him out of the race. Rudd separated his shoulder in that crash, and ended up missing five races before returning to the No. 88 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in mid-October.
Ricky Rudd, the driver known as Rooster, came back in 2007 to race full time after taking the 2006 season off. But a disappointing year ended once again with Rudd heading off into the sunset…for now.
Summary: While Rudd didn’t have a spectacular season, he started on the outside pole for the Daytona 500, and in a race that was slowed by seven cautions, he still finished on the lead lap in 26th. He led just 11 laps on the season, one at Lowe’s in May and ten at Texas in November; however, he did finish 96.6% of the laps run in his 31 starts. In all, though, his experience was a disappointment after rejoining a Yates team he took to three consecutive Top 10 finishes in the point standings from 2000-02.
2008 Outlook: Ricky Rudd will not be returning to the No. 88 in 2008. Instead, Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing will field the No. 28 for Travis Kvapil, who is moving up from the Craftsman Truck Series. While Rudd has not ruled out the possibility of racing part-time, he says he has no plans to race full-time again.
2006 Frontstretch.com Grade: N/A.
2007 Grade: C-.
Editor's Note : The 2007 season is over, and even the Final Chase exam has come to a close - which means it's time to give each driver their annual year-end evaluation. For the second straight year, your favorite Frontstretch staff members are giving driver reviews for every full-time wheelman on the circuit, giving you insight into the seasons of anyone from A.J. Allmendinger to J.J. Yeley. Want to know when your favorite driver's getting featured? Check out this link for our writing schedule, and be sure to keep coming in every weekday this offseason for even more original content by the Frontstretch!
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How does Jimmie Johnson compare to Cale Yarborough?
Ten things we hated about the 2008 season
Ten things we loved about the 2008 season
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