Ricky Rudd Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Hendrick Motorsports’ sprawling campus sits in the shadows of Charlotte Motor Speedway, so it was only fitting that Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 was the place that the four-car juggernaut surpassed Petty Enterprises to be the winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series history. Petty Enterprises had been the gold standard in the Cup Series, with 268 wins over the course of a 50-year span from 1949 to 1999, including 10 championships, but the torch now passes to Hendrick Motorsports to be the standard bearer from now into theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After the first three years of the Brickyard 400 had produced winners like Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, and Dale Jarrett, the fourth year of NASCAR at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was sure to provide another headlining driver ending the day in Victory Lane, right? Not quite. Ricky Rudd, a driver/owner piloting his own equipment, pulled a fast one on the competition and held off all comers down the stretch to take home the trophy. For most of the day, drivers like Gordon and Jarrett controlled theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer SONOMA, California — Sonoma Raceway is once again Kyle Larson’s yard after scoring his third straight pole in the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Larson’s No. 42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet Camaro ran a qualifying speed of 95.712 mph, beating out William Byron by 0.043 seconds. It’s not only the Elk Grove native’s first pole of the season, but joins Ricky Rudd (1990-92) as the only drivers to have won three straight Sonoma poles. Larson described his final round qualifying performance a bit slower than what he didRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When Riverside International Raceway was shuttered following the 1988 season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was forced to look for another road course venue to replace it on the schedule. Officials didn’t have to look far as Sonoma Raceway, a winding 12-turn, 2.52-mile course in Northern California fit the bill and was added to the 1989 schedule with the running of the Banquet Frozen Foods 300. From the start of the weekend, the track proved treacherous, with Michael Waltrip flipping in practice and theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart and the late Neil Bonnett are among the list of new nominees eligible for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Five inductees from a list of 20 nominees will be chosen for the 2020 induction class on Voting Day, Wednesday, May 22 – the list of new honorees decided on by both the NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel and a nationwide fan vote on NASCAR.com Stewart may join one of his former rivals andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Ryan Newman may have claimed the victory in the 2003 Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond Raceway, but the story of the night was the clash of Old School vs. New School in Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick that transpired in the closing laps. Before taking a dive into their incident that Saturday night in September, we have to go back in time a few years further to the 2001 running of the race, when Rudd and Harvick had their first run-in, which ended onRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads into Phoenix for the second race of the West Coast swing. In this week’s edition of “Throwback Thursday Theater”, we take a look back to the race that started it all in the Valley of the Sun, the 1988 Checker 500. As the series headed into Phoenix in November of 1988, Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace were locked in a championship battle that had seen Wallace gaining on Elliott’s lead over the last quarter of theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer When NASCAR fans think of who’s the greatest crew chief of all-time, more often than not, you’ll hear the names of Hall of Famers Ray Evernham and Dale Inman. How about the 1980s? Tim Brewer, Jeff Hammond and Gary Nelson pop into fans heads, but one that’s been ignored lately is Kirk Shelmerdine. The NASCAR Hall of Fame announced its latest nominees for the Class of 2019 on Tuesday and Shelmerdine, alongside Harry Gant, Jeff Gordon, John Holman and Ralph Moody are the newest nominees.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For all of those who participate in NASCAR, from drivers to car owners, crew chiefs, and media members, the upper echelon of the sport is earning a place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. On Tuesday, the nominating committee for the Hall of Fame announced the 20 names of those who will get their chance to be enshrined among the legends of the sport. Fifteen of the nominees are those who were carried over from last season, but there were also five new nominees lookingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The 2001 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season started off with profound loss, but also ushered in an era of unprecedented growth for the series as they made their way to new markets and new tracks later in the year. One of those new tracks/markets was Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile intermediate oval just outside of Kansas City that would make its debut in September 2001. Jason Leffler and points leader Jeff Gordon would start on the front row, but it wouldn’t take long for thingsRead More