Fontana Review

Ricky Rudd, driver of the #21 Motorcraft Ford Taurus described his day at California as follows: “We were way off on the first pit stop, but they changed the car so drastically overnight. That first run we were terrible and got ourselves in a hole. It seemed to be real inconsistent. We’d make a little adjustment and, all of a sudden, we’d go way overboard. The car would go from being severe push to severe loose. We were just off. These guys tried awful hard all day to try to adjust us into the race. I guess we were only a lap down, so at least it didn’t turn out any worse. We’ll just keep our chins up and keep digging. Eventually, it will happen.”

Unfortunately, the car wasn’t really right the entire weekend from the first time out on the track through the checkered flag on Sunday. Ricky and the team had gone to California with high hopes for a good weekend. The car was new. The hauler stopped off in Kentucky on the way west so that Ricky and the Wood Brothers crew could shake down the car before it ever got to the West Coast.

Rudd ended up 32nd in the first practice on Friday and then went on to qualify 35th. He told the media, “We just can’t seem to get qualified. It seems like everywhere we go, we don’t really qualify that well but we race well. This is a track that traditionally I haven’t done well at, but I always race well. I finished third here last time and ran in the top five. I’m not really sure. We just can’t get it to roll through the middle of the corners like we need to. It’s a brand new car and I’m real optimistic. We haven’t given up yet, I think it’s gonna race well, I just wish we could figure this qualifying thing out.” HOW KEY IS TRACK POSITION HERE? “I like California because you can run inside and outside. You’ve got two grooves so it’s a lot like Michigan in that respect. If you happen to have a poor qualifying effort you can come back, it just takes you about 100 or 200 miles into the race before you show up when you have a good race car. It just makes it a little tougher and puts you in a hole a little bit, but it’s something you can overcome, that’s for sure.”

Saturday morning’s first practice round showed improvement in position with Ricky 14th on the speed chart. Then during the final practice he dropped back to 37th as the team struggled to find the right setup for the Motorcraft Taurus.

Kurt Busch won the hotly contested event that was slowed for 34 laps of the 250 by eight cautions. The lead was exchanged 19 times among nine drivers.

Ricky finished one lap down in 24th place. The one bright spot of the weekend was the advancement of one position in points from 19th to 18th in a tie with Terry Labonte. He is only one point behind Dale Jarrett, who currently ranks 17th, and is now 111 out of 10th.

The Winston Cup teams return to Virginia for next week’s race at Richmond. The Pontiac Excitement 400 is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, May 3 under the lights and will be televised live on FX and broadcast on the Motor Racing Network of radio affiliates.

The top 10 finishers were: 1. Kurt Busch 2. Bobby Labonte 3. Rusty Wallace 4. Bill Elliott 5. Jamie McMurray 6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 7. Michael Waltrip 8. John Andretti 9. Matt Kenseth 10. Sterling Marlin 24. Ricky Rudd

Current to 10 in points: 1. Matt Kenseth 1473 2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 1429 3. Jeff Gordon 1321 4. Kurt Busch 1305 5. Jimmie Johnson 1266 6. Michael Waltrip 1234 7. Ricky Craven 1205 8. Bobby Labonte 1201 9. Kevin Harvick 1173 10. Elliott Sadler 1149 18. Ricky Rudd 1038