“It's nice to have somebody to bounce ideas off of and it's nice to have somebody fit in the same seat and we can go out there and sort of help each other. It's not always a one-way street with me helping him. David's a pretty sharp guy when it comes to the chassis. He grew up building his own racecars and he's a smart chassis guy. That's something most guys today don't really bring to the table because they came up a different way than David did, so I'm kind of excited to have a chance to work with him."
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CAR?
RR "I don't really know. We've been to a short track half-mile and Rockingham, and I don't see where the cars are really that much different driving than what I've driven in the past. They tend to slide around a little bit more. They're very stable getting in the corner, but we have yet to get on a bigger track and I think you really need to get on a mile-and-a-half track before you can really evaluate those things. Certainly we got a good feel of it at Talladega. We tested that Toyota down at Talladega several months ago and it was very stable. It's just a little bit different animal. A lot of the things that used to work on cars say a few years back, now you can kind of dig up some of the old notebooks and start applying some of that to it because the cars are different. They don't corner quite as good as the old cars, but yet everyone is gonna be equal. They're a little bit bigger car.
“I was telling Robert earlier, I said, 'We need to bring a lot of extra right side decals,' because I still catch myself feeling for the wall on the straightaways. You want to get out there as close as you can, but yet it is a bigger, wider car and you're sort of trying to feel your way along. I think we're gonna put some curb feelers on it so we can feel the wall and won't tear all the decals off."
IS THIS JUST A ONE YEAR DEAL FOR RICKY?
RY "One thing that we didn't want to do is run a one-car team, so we looked for different sponsors. The Snickers brand and what the Mars family and Masterfoods are doing for us is putting us where we can be in position to have both worlds. We've got the driver that's got the experience. We've got a young driver that needs and will have experience, and they can work together. Like Ricky said, they're the same size. They can swap cars and work together, so I think we have the best of both worlds all wrapped up in one great company."
YOU AND WARD BURTON ARE BACK SO DOES THIS SHOW THERE IS ROOM FOR OLDER GUYS IN THIS SPORT?
RR "I think we're just gonna sort of take it a year at a time. If we come out of the box and we pick up the pace and we're competitive, I don't think there is a time limit on this. I think it's more about being open-minded and let's take it a year at a time. As far as can an older driver compete, I think racing is different than a lot of sports. Obviously, I probably couldn't go out there and compete in the NFL because of how physical it is and with all the hits your body just couldn't take it. In these racecars, a lot of it is mental. I really don't think age is a handicap. I'm just very happy that we've got sponsors that happen to fit in with their brand and you're not considered over-the-hill from a marketing standpoint at the age of 35.
![Ricky Rudd was the top Ford in qualifying at Daytona. Rudd posted the 5th fastest time [Photo: autostock].](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/49363.jpg )
