| A History of the Chesapeake Challenger By Michael Daly 7/21/02 So will he or won't he? Will Ricky Rudd bring an end to his racing career after 2002 - says Rudd, "I've got a young boy at home (Landon), seven years old, that would like to have his dad go watch him play baseball at the games and stuff."1 - or will he sign with another team? He is rumored to be driving the Jerry Jones car next year, with a possible pizza sponsor war between Dominos (a former CART sponsor, best known for its backing of Doug Shierson's #30 driven by Al Unser Jr. in the mid-80s and Arie Luyendyk at his win in the 1990 Indianapolis 500) and Pizza Hut. Whatever rumored changes occur, they will be yet another chapter in a racing career that one may be astonished to find has run as long as it has. Other than the below-freezing temperatures in which the event was conducted, the 1975 Carolina 500 was pretty much like most other Rockingham races - a four-hour marathon that saw a bevy of green-flag stops and some nifty door to door combat for the lead. Richard Petty led 78 laps but the same cracked cylinder head that knocked him out at Daytona caused the engine to overheat, and Petty spent many a long stop getting water in the radiator. Pole-sitter Buddy Baker led the first seven laps but ultimately fell out with engine failure. Darrell Waltrip led 22 laps but at Lap 300 Waltrip and Benny Parsons collided and spun in Turn Two, into the twin paths of Lennie Pond and Dave Marcis; Pond nailed Waltrip and Marcis T-boned Parsons. Cale wrestled the lead from David Pearson with 30 laps to go and cruised to a thirteen-second win. Petty was nine laps down in third. James Hylton was 37 laps down in eighth and moved to second in points. Finishing 56 laps down in 11th was an eighteen-year-old from Chesapeake, VA, driving Bill Champion's Ford. Richard Lee Rudd came from a family that had raced for many years, both in the Chesapeake area and elsewhere. Young Ricky had a goal of running open wheel cars, but "I grew up in Virginia, and we were really too far south for the Indy car racing."2 Ricky drove go-karts beginning in 1966, and in 1975 he drove a stock car for the first time - in the Grand National Series in which Ricky's father had had some experience. Wrote crewman Cliff Champion, cousin of Bill Champion, in 1992, "Bill got talked into letting Ricky Rudd drive for him. Ricky had raced go-karts and motorcycles and his dad (Al Rudd Sr.) had owned some of the cars Fireball Roberts and those guys drove." Rudd's next start in Bill Champion's Ford was the Atlanta 500. While Richard Petty was beating Buddy Baker in a one-lap shootout for the win, Ricky Rudd spun early with Bobby Allison. Bill Champion's Ford had lost a valve before the race, "and instead of putting in a racing valve, (Bill) put in a stock valve," Cliff Champion wrote, "because that's all he could get." The valve failed after 130 laps, "and they had a few words and parted company." For 1976 Ricky Rudd drove four Winston Cup races in cars owned by Al Rudd Sr., and finished tenth in the Firecracker 400. The Rudds bought an old Chevrolet from Bill Champion and Cliff helped them prepare it for the 1977 season. "I came home and taught them how to build a suspension, how to take a car apart and put it back together again, how to set the bearings so you don't burn them up.....a lot of little things you have to learn to build a stock car." Cliff Champion had spent most of 1976 with Richard Childress, but the two never clicked, and for 1977 Champion became crew chief for Al Rudd's #22 Chevrolet for Ricky. Al Rudd Jr. bought parts from Raymond Fox's engine shop, he and Champion built the engines, and then settled on distinct duties - Al Jr. did engines, Cliff Champion handled the car. For 1977 the sure bet on Rookie of the Year seemed to be Sam Sommers, a Georgia short tracker backed by construction company owner M.C. Anderson who had won Sportsman races against the likes of Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, and David Pearson. "Sommers had big people and a lot of money (backing his effort)," wrote Cliff Champion. The rookie battle came down to the season finale at Ontario, and when Sommers blew up early, Rudd was top rookie. But after the season Ricky and Al Jr. had a falling out. "They had regular brother fights," Champion wrote. "Ricky was always complaining the car didn't have enough horsepower, and his brother was always saying, 'you can't drive the thing.'" Finally, Al Jr. quit, and so did Champion. Rudd qualified eighteenth for the 1978 Daytona 500 but crashed in his 125, and said the accident would force him off the Winston Cup tour. Despite that, Rudd managed thirteen 1978 starts, finishing tenth at the Rebel 500, ninth at the Michigan 400, sixth at Pocono, and ninth at the Dixie 500. For 1979 Rudd got the seat of Junie Donlavey's Mercury, and in 28 starts, his highest number since 1977's 25, Rudd had a productive year, finishing fifth at Pocono, third at Talladega, third at Richmond, and fifth at North Wilkesboro. At the American 500 Rudd and Bobby Allison collided and smashed the third turn guardrail; Allison's Ford erupted in flames, while Rudd staggered out of his car and collapsed by the side. Rudd shook off the effects of that crash and finished eighth at Atlanta and tenth at Ontario, to wrap up ninth in season points. But for 1980 Jody Ridley got the Donlavey #90, and Ricky wound up managing only thirteen starts that year. He finished ninth in the World 600 in Al Sr's Chevy. He drove Nelson Malloch's #7 car at the Firecracker 400 and finished 13th, and drove the Malloch #7 in six subsequent races, with a best finish of tenth at Pocono. "Ricky is a very competitive person," Cliff Champion wrote. "A lot of people think he's stuck up, but in truth Ricky is real shy.....He doesn't even consider what he does real special.....when he gets autograph requests, he insists on signing every one of them......he doesn't live the high life......even if he's offered $5,000 to run a race, he'll turn it down to spend time with his wife." At the National 500, however, the whole chemistry of Rudd's career changed dramatically. Al Rudd Sr. hired Harry Hyde to prepare the car, and Rudd timed second to Buddy Baker. Rudd led Lap Two in a harsh battle among over seven cars for the lead, and when Waltrip got loose in Four, Rudd spun with Bobby Allison. Both recovered and Allison even led several times before being eliminated in a hard four-car melee in Four with Terry Labonte, Chuck Bown, and Neil Bonnett. Rudd kept plugging, stayed on the lead lap, and finished fourth. And amid all that, the nastiest soap opera the sport had seen to date was brewing at DiGard Racing. Darrell Waltrip, being cheated out of money owed him by the Gardner brothers, wanted out, and the feud had become so public it dominated headlines entering races in the final quarter of the season. At the end of October Waltrip got a contract buy-out that left him all but broke, and the Gardners signed Ricky Rudd. The 1981 season in the Gatorade #88 was without question the best Rudd had had to date. At the season opener at Riverside Rudd qualified third and led nineteen laps before falling out with engine failure. At the Daytona 500 he led nine laps and finished a strong third. He led five laps and finished second to Waltrip at Richmond, but crashed at Rockingham and finished a mediocre 22nd at Atlanta. Rudd finished second at Bristol to Waltrip, sixth at North Wilkesboro, 11th at Darlington, and at Martinsville he won the pole and led 24 laps, ultimately finishing third. He finished fourth in a ferocious four-car battle for the win at Talladega, and at Nashville he won the pole and led 210 laps before losing a lap and finishing fifth. He then finished fifth at Dover, fourth at the World 600, blew up at Texas, and was fifth at Riverside. But he hadn't won, and as the season wore on that fact became more of a concern for the Gardners. Rudd blew up at Michigan, slammed the tri-oval wall hard at Daytona, finished fourth at Nashville, sixth at Pocono, and limped home 55 laps down at Talladega. At Michigan the lead changed 65 times, and Rudd clawed to second on the final lap. Said race winner Richard Petty, "I figured (Rudd) would pass me, but he didn't. I guess the deal was he and Darrell got to racing." Rudd finished third in that Michigan race and was second at Bristol again. After crashing at Darlington and finishing 12th at Richmond he won the pole at Dover and led 55 laps, but finished five laps down in fifth. He timed second at Martinsville but lost 14 laps en route to eighth, then crashed with Joe Ruttman and Lake Speed at North Wilkesboro. Rudd finished a very distant third at Charlotte, and the bottom fell out - he finished 18th at Rockingham, blew up and smashed the wall with Benny Parsons at Atlanta, and blew up at the start at the season finale at Riverside. Despite all that, Rudd was sixth in final 1981 points. Before the Dixie 500 came word that Rudd would be let go from DiGard and Bobby Allison, whom the Gardners had been courting almost from their debut in 1973, would drive the car. Meanwhile Richard Childress had managed to acquire Piedmont Airlines sponsorship and hired Rudd as his driver. Kirk Shelmerdine was the crew chief, and in 1982 the team began working on development of the chassis, working new ideas to make it run better. Wrote Shelmerdine in 1992, "Ricky Rudd really has a knack for that kind of innovation.....Rudd would rather work with the car and do the details.....we made a lot of headway on the cars with Ricky that, looking back, we wouldn't have done had Dale (Earnhardt) stayed in the car (after his brief stint in 1981)." Because the Childress team was less well-funded than some of the others, Rudd's 1982 season wasn't as strong as 1981. Rudd failed to finish most of the first six races that year and didn't score a top ten until North Wilkesboro. He then finished fourth at Martinsville, then at Talladega Darrell Waltrip and Benny Parsons raced side by side for the lead for the entirety of the first two laps, and Rudd swept past them both to lead Lap Two, but lost 72 laps and finished 24th. More DNFs followed until Rudd finished sixth in the rain-soaked Pocono 500. After losing oil at Riverside Rudd finished fifth at Michigan and seventh at Daytona, fourth at Nashville, blew up at Pocono, finished ninth at Talladega, and seventh at Bristol. He won the pole at Dover and crashed near the end with Harry Gant, then won the pole and finished second at Martinsville. At Riverside in November he finished second to Tim Richmond, and wound up ninth in points. In 1983 Childress switched to Chevrolet and hired Lou Larosa as his chief engine builder. Chevrolet returned to backing racecars and Childress was a team that got some backing. Rudd won the pole at Daytona but smacked the wall a couple of times before falling out with a broken cam, then won the pole at Richmond and blew up, then won his third straight pole at Rockingham and finished sixth. At Martinsville a heretofore unseen intemperate side of Rudd came out. After the checkered flag Rudd slammed several times into Joe Ruttman, including in the pits. "I guess I'm the villain," Rudd admitted afterward. NASCAR fined him $1,500 and placed him on a ten-race probation. The whole affair left Buddy Parrott of Ruttman's team naturally displeased: "That boy has got a lot to learn. He might lose his ride over it." Kirk Shelmerdine had to apologize to Parrott and the Ron Benfield team over the spat. Nonetheless, Rudd and the Childress team were now finishing in the top ten with greater frequency, but at Talladega Phil Parsons punched the first turn wall and landed on Rudd's trunk; despite that Rudd still finished the Winston 500 eighth. At Riverside Rudd slid off course and kicked up a cloud of sand into the groove; Trevor Boys spun and was rammed by Tim Richmond and Terry Labonte. Despite that Rudd led the final 41 laps and had his first career Winston Cup win. After another up-and-down stretch, Rudd led the final 330 laps to win at Martinsville. "It's great to win in front of a Virgina crowd," Rudd said. "Joe Weatherly was the last Virginia driver to win here, and it's an honor to have my name listed with his." Little Joe, a neighbor of the Rudd family, would have been proud. Rudd wrapped up 1983 ninth in points, and was involved in an interesting trade and cross-promotion - Dale Earnhardt was driving for Bud Moore but wanted to return to Childress. Rudd talked to Rahmoc Racing about driving in 1984 and had reached a verbal agreement to drive the #75, but Bud Moore sought Rudd's services, and had Wrangler Jeans sponsorship, so Rudd signed with Moore. As Dale Earnhardt also had Wrangler sponsorship, the two drivers were featured in cross-promo ads during the year. His first start in Bud Moore's Ford was the Busch Clash, and on the fifteenth lap he slid off the eastern short chute, took off high in the air, almost slammed the UNION 76 stand at the pit entrance, and tumbled to the tri-oval grass. He was badly bruised and his faced had to be taped up, but he finished seventh in the 500 a week later, then at Richmond Rudd overhauled Darrell Waltrip for the win. "It's great to win a race at home....It's also a great relief to win one early in the year. It kind of takes the pressure off later on." It also was a harbinger of his best season since 1981. Rudd led 290 laps at North Wilkesboro but lost the handle and lost the race to Tim Richmond. He finished ninth at a demo derby to end all such at Darlington, then didn't get another top ten until he finished fourth at Nashville. After blowing up at Dover Rudd struggled - even finishing dead last at Michigan - until he came home fifth at the Southern 500. Now he began getting going - second at Richmond, third at Dover, eighth at Charlotte, sixth at North Wilkesboro, and third at Atlanta. When it was over Rudd was seventh in points. "I enjoyed working with Rudd," Bud Moore wrote in 1992. "He was a real nice up-and-coming driver, and we had a lot of good years together. Ricky was the most pleasant boy we ever worked with." Rudd did even better in 1985, bagging twelve top five finishes during the season, but had not won until the season finale at Riverside. He wound up sixth in 1985 points, and in 1986 the win came sooner, at Martinsville after he led the final 149 laps. At the Summer 500 at Pocono Rudd lost a lap but got it back when a huge crash erupted in the Tunnel Turn, and in the final frantic lap swept under Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond, and came up short in a photo finish; it was so close Rudd and Richmond started to victory lane - "We looked at each other like, 'Did you win or did I win?'" Richmond said. At Talladega a week later a flu bug hit Rudd and searing heat made it worse, so Rusty Wallace relieved him at halfway and brought Rudd a third-place finish, losing second to Richmond on the final quarter-mile. Rudd got his health back, finished seventh at Watkins Glen, then at the Delaware 500 lost a lap after 122 laps. He fought back, made up the lap a hundred miles later, and led most of the remaining 154 laps. The Delaware 500 was Rudd's first superspeedway win. The season ended with Rudd fifth in points. 1987 saw a slight dip in results, as the Bud Moore Ford struggled more than the previous year, but Rudd pounced when Dale Earnhardt lost power and won the Atlanta 500, then at Dover he notified Bud Moore that he would move to another team for 1988, and the next day mopped up the field for an easy win. Rudd had become a close friend of drag racer Kenny Bernstein, both of whom raced with Motorcraft sponsorship. "Kenny and Ricky started talking in July of 1987," Larry McReynolds wrote, "(and) late in '87, Kenny hired Ricky to drive the Quaker State car for two years." Bernstein also hired Ron Armstrong, a drag racer from California, to do the engines. The Bernstein team ran Buicks, and for 1988 the GM10 body included a Buick that Bobby Allison took to like a duck to water, but which didn't quite agree with others. "In 1988 with Ron and Ricky we had a really good year," McReynolds wrote, "but we also had a really bad year......Ricky was a super-good person to work with. He can tell you what the car is doing, but he can't help you fix it." The 1988 season was the season of the first Goodyear-Hoosier tire war, and amid numerous tire problems at Richmond Rudd came home second. But the Bernstein team lost twelve engines in races that season and another dozen-plus in testing and practices. Rudd finished second at North Wilkesboro, but overall his season wasn't turning out as well as everyone involved wanted. The big blow came in The Winston. Rudd slammed the wall "and I tore the medial collateral ligament in my left knee," Rudd said.3 Doctors wanted to operate, but Rudd would "be out of commission for six weeks."4 Rudd flew to Indianapolis, saw Dr. Terry Trammell, and got "a heavy workout regimen with a specially-fitted knee brace."5 With that, Rudd entered the World 600 at Charlotte and finished seventh with relief help from Mike Alexander. At Riverside Rudd won the final pole ever at that track and finished third, then at the next road course event, at Watkins Glen, Rudd fell to 38th at Lap 20 with a cut tire, but with eight yellows waving during the day he clawed forward and pounced when Darrell Waltrip lost power with four to go. Rusty Wallace hounded him for the final lap and in the final corner "Rusty gave me a pretty good pop in the rear. I thought we were both going to wreck, or at least go across the line sideways." Rusty himself got in the grass trying to get by, and came up short. Rudd then led 237 laps at Martinsville, but blew up and completed 423 laps. "Another motor," said the increasingly frustrated Rudd. "It's not often you get a chance to whip up on a field like this." The team's short track program was competitive, and it showed at North Wilkesboro where Rudd led 154 laps. Earnhardt took the lead with 65 to go, but Rudd passed him with 41 to go, and Earnhardt punted him into a spin. NASCAR sent both to the rear of the field, and the two locked fenders again in the final two laps. "He wrecked himself and he wrecked me," Rudd fumed afterward. Earnhardt's own feelings about Rudd were starting to boil as well. Rudd wound up 11th in points, and for 1989 Lou Larosa was hired for the team's engine chop. Larosa and McReynolds clashed almost immediately; McReynolds had blamed the team's 1988 problems on engines and started blaming Larosa almost upon his arrival, but in pre-season testing they tested with an old Ron Armstrong engine and it took considerable arguing before McReynolds acknowledged he'd rebuilt the car with higher down force - and thus higher drag. The feud between Larosa and McReynolds never really settled itself. The acrimony within the shop didn't prevent Rudd from having a better season than in 1988. At Rockingham Rudd was trying to put Earnhardt a lap down; he scraped under Earnhardt, but Earnhardt caught his rear, sent him sliding, and he slid into Harry Gant's path. "Earnhardt wrecked him, plain and simple," the normally mild-mannered Gant - who may have still been steaming over a controversial four-to-go black flag out of the lead in the Grand National race the day before - said afterward. Earnhardt denied blame, but their feud would not resolve and would take an even bigger turn later that year. Rudd's lone win of the year came at the inaugural NASCAR run at Sears Point. He held off Rusty Wallace, who remarked afterward, "Every time we race Ricky, I run out of racetrack." Rudd finished fourth at Michigan and ninth at Daytona, but at Pocono came the announcement that he would not be back with Bernstein's team. Ironically, his season really got going after that - he went on a four-race top-five streak in August-September and his short track program looked very strong entering the final bullring of the 1989 season - and final bullring of Winston Cup's 1980s decade. Dale Earnhardt led 343 laps, but a late yellow allowed Rudd to claw underneath coming to the white flag. In Turn One Earnhardt chopped down and both spun, opening the door to Geoff Bodine. Earnhardt tried to attack Rudd but was held back, and a brief scrum occurred between the two crews. "He pinched me off and tried to wreck me," Rudd said. "I really don't know what he was doing but I hate it happened." Rudd finished the year eighth in points, and was hired to drive Rick Hendrick's #5 Chevrolet with Waddell Wilson as crew chief. Hendrick Motorsports had established itself as NASCAR's super team, winning eight races in 1989 and 27 total from its 1984 debut. They hadn't won a driving title, though. Rudd began with a strong finish at the Daytona 500, coming home fourth. He finished third at Richmond, but from then on the inconsistency bit again - he split the oil pan at Rockingham, finished a distant 27th at Atlanta, and was swept into the huge crash involving Ernie Irvan and Ken Schrader at Darlington. At Bristol Rudd got into a major controversy with Sterling Marlin. Battling Davey Allison and Mark Martin for the win, both were nose-to-tail starting the final lap. Off Two Rudd punted Marlin into the inside wall and finished third, and with the end of the race backstretch patrons started bombarding Rudd's car with beer cans. Marlin waited for Rudd on the backstretch, but no further car contact ensued. The controversy, though, wasn't over - Marlin jumped into Rudd's hauler and the two got into a fight. Rudd crewmen grabbed Marlin but Marlin crewman Tony Shoemaker waded in with a sledgehammer. Order was restored and Shoemaker was suspended for three weeks. "He spun me out," Marlin said. Rudd finished fourth at North Wilkesboro but limped home 23rd at Martinsville. At Talladega he and teammate Darrell Waltrip got lapped under green and Rudd was eliminated in a crash with Rusty Wallace, Buddy Baker, Phil Parsons, and Dale Jarrett. After breaking a camshaft at Charlotte and coming home 11th at Dover, Rudd led thirteen laps at Sears Point but cut a tire; despite that he finished third. More struggle ensued with mediocre finishes seemingly every week, until at Watkins Glen he recovered from a spin and three flat tires, pounded into the lead, and never looked back. At Bristol he got into Dale Earnhardt, who cut a tire as a result. From then on top tens and fives became more frequent - except that none of it mattered after the season-ending Dixie 500. Rick Wilson had crashed and the yellow flew with some 30 to go. Rudd and other cars pitted, but Rudd came in too fast, locked his brakes, and bludgeoned into Bill Elliott's car, striking crewmen Tommy Cole and Mike Rich. Cole tumbled down the pits but Rich was crushed between the two cars. "I don't know if I hit a grease spot or not," a shaken Rudd said. "There wasn't anything I could do to avoid it." Rudd's seventh in points was bittersweet. His 1991 season was similarly emotional, but in an angrier way. He finished second to Earnhardt at Richmond and fourth at Rockingham, then Michael Waltrip's blown last pit stop gave Rudd the win at Darlington. But at North Wilkesboro he fell a lap down and tagged Brett Bodine into the wall; he was penalized a lap for the contact, and a livid Bodine growled, "And he's not even on the lead lap. I used to have respect for him, but I don't anymore." Rudd earned even less respect at Sears Point - with two to go he punted Davey Allison into a spin and out of the lead - and was black flagged on the final lap, losing the race on a rare rough-driving penalty. Rudd screamed bloody murder - even suggesting he and Rick Hendrick would quit NASCAR and go to CART - but it was just wasted air, and his season never really recovered. He finished second in points and at the banquet gave Davey Allison a "crying towel" - an item more appropriate for himself that that time. 1992 was no better - he finished seventh in points and used a pit call at Dover to outlast Bill Elliott for the win - and 1993 was even worse. He threw a punch at Brett Bodine at North Wilkesboro, missed, and had to be separated from Brett; at Richmond in September he spun out Derrike Cope, then in ensuing pit stops blindsided Dale Earnhardt coming out of the pits - "Earnhardt drove into me," claimed Rudd, thought video suggested the opposite. He finished tenth in points and his emotional meltdown started to become a story in the press, but in July he made the decision that resuscitated his career and his mental well-being - he formed his own team, making his cars Fords in a very public rebuke of General Motors that led to an interesting exchange of press releases during the 1994 pre-season media tour. From then on Rudd reached the apex of his career. It wasn't entirely reflected in points, but it showed in his driving, as now he had control of his destiny, and when he won at New Hampshire his celebration was the wildest in years - almost a celebration of liberation. Rudd finished fifth in 1994 points with the NHIS win and fourteen other top tens. 1995 was even better with a clutch win at Phoenix and nine other top fives, but he surprisingly slipped to ninth in points. He stormed back up to sixth in points in 1996, winning at Rockingham by skipping a late tire change on the recently-repaved surface - his pit stops that day were so slow that crew chief Richard Broome benched his two tire changers and used Derrike Cope's. 1997 appeared to be his breakout season with a win at Dover and then victory at Indianapolis, but from the Brickyard on Rudd's finishes deteriorated, and he finished 17th in points. 1998 was even worse with only four top tens to go with a single top five - but that top five was the most heroic win of his career, shunning a relief driver despite brutal heat at Martinsville - so bad was the heat that Rudd had to be laid down in victory lane. He fell to 22nd in 1998 points and 31st in 1999, but late in '99 came the start of his salvation - Robert Yates hired him for the #28 team for 2000 and absorbed Rudd's equipment and some of his crew, including new crew chief Michael McSwain. The alliance got off to a rough start as Rudd got on his roof in the Daytona Shootout - shades of 1984 - and Rudd failed to win - a sure win at Phoenix was wiped out in a back markers' crash that caught Rudd - but Rudd bagged twelve top fives and fifth in 2000 points. Rudd made a big for the title in 2001, out dueling the field to win at Pocono, then returning a Kevin Harvick shot to win at Richmond, but a late-season collapse dropped him to fourth in points. And now it has come to his possible retirement after 2002. Whatever Rudd does in 2003, he can look back on a hall-of-fame career where he helped launch one powerhouse team, gave another some of its best moments, gave another team its first two wins, won with another powerhouse team, then did it all his way, and finally returned a beloved team and number to victory lane. That's quite a legacy for the Chesapeake Challenger. |
