Rudd to go out with a thud?
So over the weekend the mystery contestant for who would fill the Robert Yates Racing #88 ride seems to have a winner. Based on 1 report so far, unconfirmed as of this writing, it is former RYR driver Ricky Rudd. Rudd drove the #28 Texaco car from 2000-2002 before leaving for the Wood Brothers in 2003.
First let's go back. The 3 years that Rudd drove for RYR rivaled any other 3 year period in his entire career for on track success. He recorded 3 wins, 34 top 5s, 52 top 10s and 4 Bud Pole awards. The only other period in his career to rival this success was when he drove for Bud Moore from 1985 to 1987. It was a great revival for a driver that had run into tough times with his own team in the late 90s with the loss of his primary sponsor, Tide.
Rudd and Yates had a less then amicable split in 2002 at that end of Rudd's contract. Rudd wanted a hefty pay raise, RYR was unable to meet those demands due to a low ball sponsor contract that Texaco had for their Nascar entry. As early as May of 2002 Rudd spoke openly of retirement and criticized the direction the sport was going in. He also spoke about how the sport is not family friendly for him to spend time with his only child, Landon.
"I have a lot of options, one of them is retirement, and it's something I'll give a lot of thought too," Rudd said while testing his Robert Yates Ford at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I'm 45 years old and I certainly don't see myself doing this when I'm 50, so it's something I'll be thinking about."
Ricky is 50 now. That same day Rudd said he did not know what he wanted to do.
A month later at Pocono he said again he had not decided what he wanted to do and expected to decide something in July.
"Things sort of force your hand," he said. "I figured we'd just kind of wander into the season, kind of move along and see how the season progresses, see how I felt, you know? Get to about July and make some decisions, whether I'm coming back or I'm not coming back. And at that time, there wouldn't be any build-up, you know?"
There also seemed clarification from Rudd that communication between he and Yates was open and clear.
"Robert and I sat down probably for two or three hours, just chatting," Rudd said. "Just covering a lot of areas. No scheduled meeting. Just kind of a casual meeting. So it went pretty good."
But two weeks later things started to unravel as rumors of a rift between Rudd and crewchief Fatback McSwain over a victory party became public. At that time both owner and driver stated Rudd's return to RYR was slim. Owner and driver both went public, disagreeing on the source of their disagreement. Rudd said it was over the makeup of the team, Yates said it was over driver compensation.
Things went quickly downhill from there with RYR employee clocking Rudd for comments made about the engine over the radio during a race in Richmond. McSwain left RYR completely to take a crew chief position at Joe Gibbs Racing. Texaco left RYR, even though they had 1 year left on their contract, and moved to Chip Ganassi Racing. The assumption was Rudd would go with them but when Ganassi and Rudd could not agree on a deal they settled on Jamie McMurray as their driver.
Rudd went to the Wood Brothers signing a 3 year deal, even though insisting he wanted to work on a 1 year deal during the 2002 season. He also had made it clear that he wanted to drive for a championship contender, not be part of a rebuilding process as he had in the 28 when he came to RYR. The Wood Brothers were anything but a title contender, having won a grand total of 2 races in the previous 10 years.
So with a year off, rumored rides in a 4th Gibbs car or a limited schedule for Wyler Racing in a Toyota, it appears Mars will sponsor the 88 with Rudd in it. Moving back to the 28 number is a possibility.
Question is, what is Rudd's expectations? Is he looking to contend for a title right away? If so he had been spending too much time racing go carts and not enough following the sport. RYR is a shell of the multi car team it was when he was there in its glory years of a 2 car operation. No wins in 2006 broke a string of 17 years with a win for the organization. It's only championship driver, Dale Jarrett left for Toyota.
Will Rudd be able to co-exist with crew chief Butch Hylton? A source of friction for his first 1 1/2 years with the Wood Brothers was the inability for Rudd and crew chiefs Ben Leslie and Pat Tryson to get on the same page. Results improved slightly with the return of Fatback to the pit box but still no victories. Will Rudd be speaking English while the crew chief se habla espanol? Will Rudd throw Hylton under the bus on national TV in an effort to get Fatback to work with him as he did with the Woods?
And how long is this for? Ricky is 50. 2 years max? Then what for RYR? No drivers of note will consider driving for them today. Brian Vickers flat out turned down the 88 ride this year. They have Stephen Leicht in the pipeline in the Busch series but he has yet to prove that he can compete on a regular basis on that circuit. To be fair he has never run a full season or had a stable crew chief situation, so this year will be a true indicator of what he can do. Maybe adding Rudd is the building block to stability at RYR and stop taking on water like the Titanic.
I just don't see it. RYR's equipment is behind the power teams more so then any other time in it's history. 2 team organizations have a very hard time competing in this sport. Look at what happened at Penske racing this year, and they have good drivers. RYR refuses to admit that having an army of engineers is essential in today's nascar. Losses in their ranks such as Kevin Buskirk, Mike Ford and Jimmy Elledge cannot be replaced with others. This will be vital for the organization to attract the best and brightest to return RYR to it's premier status.
First let's go back. The 3 years that Rudd drove for RYR rivaled any other 3 year period in his entire career for on track success. He recorded 3 wins, 34 top 5s, 52 top 10s and 4 Bud Pole awards. The only other period in his career to rival this success was when he drove for Bud Moore from 1985 to 1987. It was a great revival for a driver that had run into tough times with his own team in the late 90s with the loss of his primary sponsor, Tide.
Rudd and Yates had a less then amicable split in 2002 at that end of Rudd's contract. Rudd wanted a hefty pay raise, RYR was unable to meet those demands due to a low ball sponsor contract that Texaco had for their Nascar entry. As early as May of 2002 Rudd spoke openly of retirement and criticized the direction the sport was going in. He also spoke about how the sport is not family friendly for him to spend time with his only child, Landon.
"I have a lot of options, one of them is retirement, and it's something I'll give a lot of thought too," Rudd said while testing his Robert Yates Ford at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I'm 45 years old and I certainly don't see myself doing this when I'm 50, so it's something I'll be thinking about."
Ricky is 50 now. That same day Rudd said he did not know what he wanted to do.
A month later at Pocono he said again he had not decided what he wanted to do and expected to decide something in July.
"Things sort of force your hand," he said. "I figured we'd just kind of wander into the season, kind of move along and see how the season progresses, see how I felt, you know? Get to about July and make some decisions, whether I'm coming back or I'm not coming back. And at that time, there wouldn't be any build-up, you know?"
There also seemed clarification from Rudd that communication between he and Yates was open and clear.
"Robert and I sat down probably for two or three hours, just chatting," Rudd said. "Just covering a lot of areas. No scheduled meeting. Just kind of a casual meeting. So it went pretty good."
But two weeks later things started to unravel as rumors of a rift between Rudd and crewchief Fatback McSwain over a victory party became public. At that time both owner and driver stated Rudd's return to RYR was slim. Owner and driver both went public, disagreeing on the source of their disagreement. Rudd said it was over the makeup of the team, Yates said it was over driver compensation.
Things went quickly downhill from there with RYR employee clocking Rudd for comments made about the engine over the radio during a race in Richmond. McSwain left RYR completely to take a crew chief position at Joe Gibbs Racing. Texaco left RYR, even though they had 1 year left on their contract, and moved to Chip Ganassi Racing. The assumption was Rudd would go with them but when Ganassi and Rudd could not agree on a deal they settled on Jamie McMurray as their driver.
Rudd went to the Wood Brothers signing a 3 year deal, even though insisting he wanted to work on a 1 year deal during the 2002 season. He also had made it clear that he wanted to drive for a championship contender, not be part of a rebuilding process as he had in the 28 when he came to RYR. The Wood Brothers were anything but a title contender, having won a grand total of 2 races in the previous 10 years.
So with a year off, rumored rides in a 4th Gibbs car or a limited schedule for Wyler Racing in a Toyota, it appears Mars will sponsor the 88 with Rudd in it. Moving back to the 28 number is a possibility.
Question is, what is Rudd's expectations? Is he looking to contend for a title right away? If so he had been spending too much time racing go carts and not enough following the sport. RYR is a shell of the multi car team it was when he was there in its glory years of a 2 car operation. No wins in 2006 broke a string of 17 years with a win for the organization. It's only championship driver, Dale Jarrett left for Toyota.
Will Rudd be able to co-exist with crew chief Butch Hylton? A source of friction for his first 1 1/2 years with the Wood Brothers was the inability for Rudd and crew chiefs Ben Leslie and Pat Tryson to get on the same page. Results improved slightly with the return of Fatback to the pit box but still no victories. Will Rudd be speaking English while the crew chief se habla espanol? Will Rudd throw Hylton under the bus on national TV in an effort to get Fatback to work with him as he did with the Woods?
And how long is this for? Ricky is 50. 2 years max? Then what for RYR? No drivers of note will consider driving for them today. Brian Vickers flat out turned down the 88 ride this year. They have Stephen Leicht in the pipeline in the Busch series but he has yet to prove that he can compete on a regular basis on that circuit. To be fair he has never run a full season or had a stable crew chief situation, so this year will be a true indicator of what he can do. Maybe adding Rudd is the building block to stability at RYR and stop taking on water like the Titanic.
I just don't see it. RYR's equipment is behind the power teams more so then any other time in it's history. 2 team organizations have a very hard time competing in this sport. Look at what happened at Penske racing this year, and they have good drivers. RYR refuses to admit that having an army of engineers is essential in today's nascar. Losses in their ranks such as Kevin Buskirk, Mike Ford and Jimmy Elledge cannot be replaced with others. This will be vital for the organization to attract the best and brightest to return RYR to it's premier status.
posted by Jamie at 6:04 PM
3 Comments:
Excellent commentary. I didn't realize Rudd had such positive stats during his first tenure at RYR. Maybe he'll surprise us in 2007.
Very thought provoking!
Now that I think of it, Tryson worked with Sadler too! Pat seems to have done well with Roush, so it makes you want to go hmmmmmm! when you think of the struggles of two drivers at Wood Brothers. And correct me, I may be wrong, but was it Tryson who was thrown under the bus with the comments of English vs Spanish?
Yates will have a struggle. If he has not been able to hire any experienced engineers, I still don't forsee a bunch of progress. And, I hope they have gone forward with the COT, as Bristol will be here before we know it.
It does make you wonder. If the Yates-Rudd team is successful, who will be credited with the success? And who will take the blame if the Rudd car does not succeed?
Don't get me wrong. I want Yates to succeed! I just have to wonder about it all!
Ooops! My bad. Ben Leslie is the one who 'spoke a different language', and who was shown the door before Fatback came on board with the Wood Brothers!
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