NASCAR's Biggest Bada** - DJD Classics w/ Ricky Rudd

Summary

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The Dale Jr. Download – "NASCAR's Biggest Bada** – DJD Classics w/ Ricky Rudd"

Release Date: December 4, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM)
Guest: Ricky Rudd
Episode Theme:
A deep-dive, classic conversation with NASCAR legend Ricky Rudd, exploring his raw beginnings, rise through stock car racing, unforgettable rivalries (notably with Dale Earnhardt Sr.), family roots, "badass" reputation, and the personal and physical trials that defined his storied career.

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Episode Overview

In this fan-requested "DJD Classics" episode, Dale Jr. catches up with Ricky Rudd ("The Rooster") for an honest, high-energy walk through Rudd's path from go-karts and grassroots racing to battling the biggest names in NASCAR. The two cover Ricky’s early days, his family-powered climb, transitions between legendary teams, adrenaline-fueled incidents both on and off track, infamous rivalries and reconciliations, his perspective on NASCAR toughness, and enduring lessons from decades in the sport.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins – The Making of "The Rooster" (01:46–03:12)

• Nickname Origins:
  • Rudd is frequently called "The Rooster," a nickname given by crew chief Richard Broome for his feisty, never-back-down attitude behind the wheel.
  • “He says, ‘Man, if I can work and get you fired up on that steering wheel—you’ll attack anything. You're just a little guy, but you'll go after anything.’”—Ricky Rudd (02:21)
• Name Story:
  • Born “Richard Lee Rudd,” he’s unsure how he ended up with "Ricky," and notes the coincidental match to Richard Lee Petty.

2. Post-Retirement Lifestyle (03:38–08:24)

• Rudd enjoys life off-schedule, relishing a newfound freedom from the rigidity of the racing calendar.
• Hobbies include mountain biking and go-karting for adrenaline, though he admits he often takes things that are fun and turns them too competitive or intense.
• “I took something that was fun and made it more complex... I'm an adrenaline junkie.”—Ricky Rudd (05:22, 04:41)
• He and his son are now into small airplanes: “Linda calls it our ‘putt putt’ airplane... just put around.” (08:03)

3. Early Racing Roots – From Go Karts to Stock Cars (08:31–15:46)

• Grew up in a large family with a mechanically inclined dad who built the kids replica cars. Rudd’s persistence led him from those homemade go-karts to high-speed national karting circuits.
• His first step into stock cars was driving for Bill Champion, thanks to familial connections and volunteers.
• Reflects on the terror and rush of his first Cup laps at Daytona:
  • “Probably the most scared I've ever been in my life... driving a school bus and I'm running way too fast to be going.” (15:05)
  • Quote: “How long did it take to get over the fear?”—Dale Jr.
    “About 32 years.”—Ricky Rudd (16:05)

4. Family Racing – The Financial and Emotional Reality (20:41–24:24)

• The Rudd family operation was fueled by their junkyard’s profits—living on thin margins, scraping parts, and loading up volunteer help.
• Hotel rooms sometimes meant four or five guys flipping coins for the mattress vs. box springs.
• “Everything you could take—the junkyard went into that race.”—Ricky Rudd (22:33)
• Despite hard times, the family (and especially Rudd’s father) sacrificed to keep him racing.

5. Climbing the NASCAR Ladder & Key Team Relationships (24:24–31:44)

• Transitioned to working for Juni Dunleavy, who coached Rudd through short-track racing, emphasizing the lost art of one-on-one driver coaching.
• Short reflection on Die Guard Racing, including fraught contract details (“Ten year contract. My God. It definitely was one-sided.”—34:52).
• Early brush with legends like Harry Hyde, Randy Dorton, and significant “miracle” runs with small resources but key mentorship.

6. Friendship, Fallout, and Rivalry: The Earnhardt Sr. Years (36:32–54:43)

• Rudd and Earnhardt’s Early Friendship:
  • They were close, often staying at each other’s homes to save on expenses.
• The Swap Fallout:
  • Tensions rose after the notorious team swap (Bud Moore <-> Richard Childress) that saw Earnhardt Sr. replace Rudd at RCR.
  • “That's when the relationship got bad... It was almost like a family saying, ‘Hey, we're done with you, kid.’”—Rudd (41:21)
• Rudd admits to feeling betrayed by sharing inside info with Dale, only to lose his seat shortly after.
  • Quote: “I was disappointed with Richard and pissed off that Senior was... I'm sitting there spilling my guts about what we got planned... and all of a sudden he ends up with it.”—Ricky Rudd (43:24)
• The rivalry included on-track paybacks (Wilkesboro 1988, 1989), fines, and nearly riotous scenes in the garage (50:15).
• They patched things up, finally, sharing a meal and support—“It was good. We had a real good dinner. It was just like a family squabble… eventually, you clean stuff up.” (54:04–54:36)

7. Famous Dust-Ups & NASCAR's Physicality (44:27–62:09)

• Wilkesboro '88/'89:
  • Detailed recounting of their infamous clashes—spins, paybacks, and NASCAR’s president waiting at Rudd’s car, resulting in a $10,000 fine for “conduct detrimental…”
  • “I'm really disappointed in myself... I didn't run that son…”—Ricky Rudd (46:37, 46:56)
• Garage Bust-ups:
  • Describes near riots post-race, staying low “with a blanket over me” to avoid fans, fraught physical run-ins with crew members, and being “saved” by Larry McReynolds pulling him out of confrontation.
• On the perception of being a "badass" or hothead:
  • “A lot of people say it's just a screw loose somewhere... Maybe you have to agree with them a little bit.” (57:08)

8. Empathy, Maturity, and Healing Old Rivalries (54:45–55:44, 57:53–61:31)

• Later in life, Rudd reflects on how age softened rivalries, even with Rusty Wallace and Kevin Harvick.
• He admits isolating himself after the Earnhardt fallout, never letting other drivers get too close—“That was always in the back of my mind.” (55:00)

9. The Daytona Crash & The Legend of Toughness (62:29–71:03)

• 1984 Daytona Bush Clash:
  • Rudd shares harrowing details of his horrific flip, blacking out, seeing video of his arms flailing outside the car, and the seat bottom breaking. He credits “the good lord” for surviving.
  • “My wife Linda... I had to go to the mirror... and I didn't even look like me.” (66:50)
• Taping His Eyes Open:
  • Emergency adaptation: “Some duct tape laying there... cut up some duct tape and just taped the swollen eyes up.” (67:27)
• Lingered neurological issues (vision blackouts from G-force), and the evolution of safety, mental/physical health.
• Yet, days later, he returned to win at Richmond, solidifying his ironman reputation.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On friendship and betrayal:
  • “It was almost like a family saying, ‘Hey, we're done with you, kid.’” (41:21)
• On the ferocity of short-lived friendships:
  • “I never got close to any drivers the whole time—kind of isolated myself... that was always in the back of my mind.” (55:00)
• On on-track retaliation:
  • “I'm really disappointed in myself... I'm disappointed I didn't run that son…” (46:56)
• On the Daytona crash aftermath:
  • “Some duct tape laying there... cut up some duct tape and just taped the swollen eyes up... it fixed it.” (67:27)
• Self-characterization:
  • “A lot of people say it's just a screw loose somewhere... Maybe you have to agree with them a little bit.” (57:08)
• On rivalry with Earnhardt Sr.:
  • “We had a good dinner... it was just like a family squabble...” (54:36)
• On the hardships of early racing:
  • “If we needed a piece of sheet metal, we went out in the backyard junkyard and find the biggest Cadillac with a good hood on it... that's how we built race cars back then.” (24:06)

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Important Timestamps (Selected)

• 02:21 — Origin of the "Rooster" nickname
• 03:45 — Rudd's post-retirement, no-schedule philosophy
• 08:31 — Early go-karting and family sacrifices
• 13:42 — First-ever Cup race for Bill Champion, terrified at Daytona
• 24:06 — Scrapping cars and volunteer-driven racing operations
• 41:21–43:54 — The Childress/Earnhardt swap, the pain of lost friendship and trust
• 45:54–47:11 — Bill France Jr. confrontation/fine after Wilkesboro run-in
• 50:41 — Post-Wilkesboro riot, laying low in van
• 54:04–54:36 — Reconciliation with Earnhardt Sr., dinner at P.F. Chang's
• 62:29–71:03 — Detailed recounting of the 1984 Daytona crash, taping eyes open for 500

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Final Segment – Rudd’s Reflections & Sign-Off (71:22–73:29)

• Dale Jr. notes how much ground that remains untraveled in Rudd’s rich career (owner years, Yates, Wood Brothers), with an open invitation to return for a Part II.
• Rudd, ever-humble: “If you get... negative feedback, but this guy’s rambling...”
• Behind-the-scenes laughs about tracking down Rudd, given his aversion to schedules and multiple phone numbers.
• Endearing, grateful tone from both—two generations bonding over what makes racing, and racers, unforgettable.

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Conclusion

This episode is both a tribute and a masterclass on grit, loyalty, bruising competition, and the bonds—sometimes broken, sometimes mended—that fuel NASCAR’s vibrant history. Ricky Rudd’s blend of humility, candor, and earned bravado makes this conversation a must-listen for any fan of the sport’s golden era and anyone fascinated by the realities behind the racing legend.

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[For a more detailed or specific segment, refer to the minute-marks above.]

Transcript

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[Ricky Rudd]

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Following is a production of Dirty Bone Media.

Hey, let's rewind a DJD classic.

Enjoy. Oh, damn. There he is.

All year we have had people asking for this moment right here is to have you on our show. You have been. No, seriously. Widely requested.

Yeah, a lot of fans on social media give us a lot of opinions about who they. Who we should have on our show. And you're in that conversation more often than anyone else.

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, that's a big honor. You know, fans still remember you.

[Interviewer/Host]

They do, they do. And a lot of fans remember you by the name the Rooster.

[Ricky Rudd]

Right.

[Interviewer/Host]

And I remember hearing that. But I don't know how you got that nickname. Do you even know how you got that nickname?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, sort of in a roundabout way. We had a Crew chief Richard Broome, years ago. Matter of fact, he worked at Hendricks for many years, and we were lucky. Fortunate enough when I had my own race team, that Richard came on and was crew chief for a while. And Richard, he was just a character. He was. I don't know how he came up on the subject, but he said, anybody ever told you you're like a rooster, a bantam rooster? I said, what the heck? What are you talking about? He says, man, because I get you. If I can work and get you fired up on that steering wheel. He says, you'll attack anything. You're just a little guy, but you'll go after anything. And that's kind of how it got started. That's one of those deals. I mean, it could be named a lot worse. So I gu.

[Interviewer/Host]

Oh, yeah. You don't mind it?

[Ricky Rudd]

No, it doesn't bother me. It's kind of neat.

[Interviewer/Host]

Do people still call you that, like, at first reference?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. I mean, I'll see people I'd seen or they hadn't seen me for years, and the first thing they'll say is, hey, there's the rooster, you know. Okay.

[Interviewer/Host]

So you were born Richard Lee Rudd. How did you. How did you get Ricky.

[Ricky Rudd]

I'm not really sure where that came from. Just early on it was kind of funny because once I. Once I started racing and learning about all the different drivers, and I guess I don't. I was named after him, or I think I was named after a great grandfather, but Richard Lee, and it's Richard Lee Petty. So it's kind of odd that ended up with that name. Erase the name when I was born, I guess so.

[Interviewer/Host]

You said it, man. You'll run into people who hadn't seen you in years. I hadn't seen you in forever. So what have you been doing?

[Ricky Rudd]

Man, I wish I could tell you all these great, exciting things, but kind of doing exactly what I want to do now and not on a schedule and that I know as far as booking things in advance and I'm probably getting labeled. Hard to get along with. But it's nothing personal. I don't want to be on a schedule anymore. I live schedule forever. I just. I don't want to do a schedule anymore. So if somebody calls up this morning and says, hey, I need you in California to go do something, and I look around and Linda's sitting around and she didn't have anything to do, and she goes with me, well, we'll hop on an airplane, go out to California, and that's kind of how we Live life now, we don't really live on a schedule. We just sort of live day to day and just sort of, you know, all the years that you didn't have control of your schedule, now we're taking advantage of having control of it. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And you've been doing that for over 10 years now.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. Yes. It's added up. You know, you look back at it, you say, man, where do those 10 years go? But it's a, it's neat. I mean, it takes you a while to sort of get racing out of your blood. You never get it totally out of your blood.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Ricky Rudd]

And. And you'll never do anything the rest of your life that compares adrenaline wise to what you did in a race car. And I guess I figured out finally after I retired, I'm just, I'm an adrenaline junkie. And, and nothing fulfills that like driving. Driving a race car.

[Interviewer/Host]

What are some of your hobbies, though?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, it changes. It tends to change. Tend to get bored with things. So for a long time I was riding mountain bikes pretty aggressively.

[Interviewer/Host]

Really?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, I was doing that for a long time. I was riding about four or five days a week.

[Interviewer/Host]

Okay.

[Ricky Rudd]

And decided I want to be a mountain bike racer maybe at one time. And ran my first mountain bike race. And I said, that's not necessarily such a good idea. That's more training. These guys are very serious about doing that. And this was just on a local level.

[Interviewer/Host]

It was just more than what you anticipated.

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, it was going to be a lot of work. You know, I was taking something that I had fun at and I, and I'll do that. I mean, that's just character flaw. I'll take something that's usually pretty simple that most people have fun at and I'll turn it into something complicated and make it more than it is. And I was working out, training, eating right and stuff. And I just said, you know, I went mountain biking just to get away and have fun. Now I'm right back, just like driving a race car again. I've taken something that was fun and made it more complex. So now I haven't been mountain biking. When I do, it's just, you know, a pleasure ride. And I, I can't ride the miles like I used to. But.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did you ever ride road?

[Ricky Rudd]

No, I, I liked road to ride on the road, but I'm scared of that. You know, it just scares me having my back to traffic and guys do it all the time. I understand. Now it's kind of neat because you go to the racetrack now. I Understand that most of the crew guys have their bikes and whenever they have days off, they just. Or afternoon off from probably five o' clock on, they hop on their bikes. They could do a ride. That's right. And they just have a blast with. I think it's great.

[Interviewer/Host]

I think, yeah, Jimmy got me. Jimmy Johnson got me into it. And I rode 2400 miles in 2017 and I've fallen off quite a bit. I don't ride as much at all, but I miss it. But I feel the same way. Like, I go. I bounce between being nervous about riding because I don't like riding alone.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Versus, you know, if there's a big group, then you're kind of intimidated by the, by the speed of those guys and not doing it enough.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, you got to do it. I mean, you got to live it, really.

[Interviewer/Host]

You do, you do. You'll fall off like I would. I. When I was riding 2400 miles in 2015, I'd worked my way up from 15 mile an hour average over 20, 20 miles to 19. I was real happy with that. And then I quit riding for about three months and I was back down to 16 and a half mile an hour. So, I mean, you got to keep doing it to stay strong enough.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, you got me beat. I was doing my two years. I was riding hard. I did 5,000 miles in the wood, in the woods.

[Interviewer/Host]

That's a lot.

[Ricky Rudd]

That's a lot.

[Interviewer/Host]

The woods is harder because you got. You're going a little slower and you're climbing a lot.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

It's more work on your leg.

[Ricky Rudd]

The only thing I know is when a guy shows up, it's never ridden a mountain bike, but he's a road bike guy. You know good and well that, that cardio wise, you can't keep up with a road guy.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

But then you sort of ride the trails and if you sort of learn how to outmaneuver them, you know.

[Interviewer/Host]

Exactly. Yes.

Well, if you were looking for adrenal to, or you know, to something, a hobby to replace that adrenaline, did that.

[Ricky Rudd]

Give it to you?

[Interviewer/Host]

And if not, what? Have you still been seeking that to try to fix that adrenaline rush?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, the older I'm getting at, that's finally starting to calm down. I'm 63 years old now, so it's not a big deal. It's like it was. I keep a go kart. I've got a stall up at GoPro Motorplex. I keep a couple of go carts. Yeah. And I, I ran, I raced two seasons up there. What See, now we're getting.

[Interviewer/Host]

We knew he had to be doing some racing, right?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. No. So I got a garage full of the latest. Well, I say latest, Grace. I haven't opened the garage door in a year and a half, so I think it's still there.

But, you know, and I'll do that a while. And I got bored of that, and I'm piddling with airplanes. I like to fly airplanes. I have my pilot's license in the 80s. Yeah. So I. So anyway, my son came along and he's got interested in flying, so we went and bought a little small airplane. After 10 years of not having an airplane, we bought just. Linda calls it our putt putt airplane. So it's just nothing fancy, you know, and that's what it's for. Put around. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

That's awesome. All right, man. Well, let's get back, dive into your. Your career a little bit.

I know you started out as a go kart racer and racing motocross, right?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. All right.

[Interviewer/Host]

How. How did that get going?

[Ricky Rudd]

Why?

[Interviewer/Host]

What was the. What was the catalyst? What was the one thing that got you interested in racing?

[Ricky Rudd]

I'd have to say there's five kids in our family, first of all, really. And yeah, there's a lot of kids. And I was next to the youngest, and my dad was a body shop guy. He built. He was a body man. He could build stuff. And he built a replica small car for all the kids in the family. Not me. I was four years old. Five. Four. Five years old. So it really wasn't built for me. It was built for my older brothers and sisters. And it wasn't a fast one. It's just a miniature car, had headlights and all kind of stuff, but they kind of lost interest in it. And then, you know, I came along, four or five years old, and I'd wear my dad out. Hey, let's go out and run a go kart. Let's go run it. And I just wear him out. And so I was myself and I think my. I'm trying to think. My. My older brother, he liked to run it some, but we would do that almost all the weekends we just had. He spent time. We go out and ride. Ride it. And we lived in a residential neighborhood in a cul de sac. It wasn't very big, but we'd go out there and we'd probably run 100 laps around that little cul de sac, and that was fun. And then. Then it. It wasn't really fast enough. And then that's kind of how it started, it went from there. That was fun, but I want to do something faster and that's kind of how it just kind of snowballed from there. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And so you got into go kart racing and motocross and what was the, what was. Connect that to racing stock cars. You jumped in a stock car in 1975 at Rockingham. What was the bridge?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, that's, that's a good question. I'm, I, I really don't know. It just sort of happened, you know, it's not like I'd have to, I was, I'm not smart enough to made a long term plan. It just sort of unfolded and the go kart racing was great. It advanced to the point where going all over the United States, eastern half the United States, running all the national races, and found out that I could do pretty good in that. You know, I won a lot of races doing that. But these were not the kind of go kart tracks that you see around town. It's like Road, Atlanta, Watkins, Glista, Vir. You know, I was 9, 10 years old driving 100 mile an hour at Vir. Laying down, laying down on your back, lay down, go karts.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did you go to Daytona?

[Ricky Rudd]

Daytona was just starting when I went car racing.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

So we did that and man, I love the speed. I found out I was.

[Interviewer/Host]

You went to Daytona on a go car?

[Ricky Rudd]

No, did run go karts, but the year I sort of retired, moved on out of the go kart racing. That was the first year they went there that I did race at Charlotte Rockingham.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right? They ran Charlotte Rockingham.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And they, they eventually got to dago.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, those things, I mean, they're very fast. People don't realize, you know, how was.

[Interviewer/Host]

How was that running around Charlotte MO Speedway at 100 mile an hour, 120 mile an hour on a go kart, laying down flat.

[Ricky Rudd]

You know, you didn't, you didn't have anything to compare it to. It was fun. I mean, it's fun as heck. You know, just being a kid, you know, and, and laying on your back, I mean literally you would, the cart would bump the ground every now and then. That way you had to. If you didn't bump the ground, you weren't low enough. So you just kind of scraped the ground a little bit and. But running 100 some mile an hour, I mean, at that young age, it was just unbelievable because the area that I grew up in, it wasn't really so much a race town as it was, if you went farther north to Richmond that was big stock car country where I grew up.

[Interviewer/Host]

What town?

[Ricky Rudd]

I grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia beach area, Norfolk. So I grew up there. But you know, you ask what happened after I had to get the motorcycles or the go kart races were about every three weeks. Well, I was getting bored in between and just end up with a little dirt bike just playing around. And then I found out I could do okay on it because I was riding with guys that were racing local. And I got so I could, I could go pretty good. I wouldn't say I could beat up on them, but I could go, I could ride with them. And then it went from there to a full bledge, full fledged dirt bike motocross. And I mean, I wasn't pro level. It was more. I could, I could compete pretty darn good on local stuff. But now and then the big boys would show up into town, the national guys. And I get. I can run with them for about 10 minutes. And I was given, I give out because our races were very short, they're long, but I liked it. But, you know, still was the car thing. Just sort of stumbled onto that.

[Interviewer/Host]

So how did you get con. How did you get in touch with Bill Champion that, that you ended up driving for?

[Ricky Rudd]

Bill Champions was the first stock car that I ever drove. He had it. And I was basically racing motorcycles. Go karts. 16, I raced them up to. I was about 16, 17, right in that area. And then my brother was a volunteer helper. My brother's a couple years older than me and he was a great mechanic. I'm not, I was opposite. I could take stuff apart, didn't know how to get it back together. But he was building motors and stuff when he was in high school. So it's him and his best friend that lived in our neighborhood, a guy named Cliff Champion. Yeah, because a Cliff. Cliff and my brother were best friends in school. And then Cliff's second cousin was Bill Champion. But they volunteer, helped Bill Champion work on his race car. So Bill was getting up in age and then. And he kept mumbling, hey, I'm, you know, I'm about ready over this stuff. I'm too old to drive this thing anymore. And then my brother and his best friend Cliff said, hey, well, you ought to get Ricky's brother try. He's, he's really good at, you know, racing and stuff. He said how much car experience he's got. He said, we've never driven a race car, but he's good on a motorcycle and he's good on a go kart. You need to give him a try. And he did. Bill gave us, you know, basically gave us a try.

[Interviewer/Host]

And you ran a cup race like that?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, I literally.

[Interviewer/Host]

Were you not scared to death?

[Ricky Rudd]

I was petrified. Because before that, what happened is it didn't happen exactly like that. What happened is Bill had a cup car that at that time they would sell the cup cars after two or three years and they'd end up in the late model, which is the bush series, nationwide series today. That's how the cars came from. They were sort of hand me down cup cars. So we bought his hand me down cup car and took it to Daytona. Never been. Now this is again, never. The only racetrack I got on was they took me over to Langley field. We ran 15 laps in a cup car around a little bull range just to see how to start it, how to work the switches. And so that's where we went from there. Went to the Daytona race to run in the race before the 500, the sportsman race. Yeah. And we didn't run quick enough. It was not 100 car. It was like 75 cars. And I was first alternate qualifying, which is the best thing that ever happened because I would have killed myself for sure if I'd have made. So I guess that was my practice time. So the next week is rocking him.

[Interviewer/Host]

And when you went out on the racetrack at Daytona in that car and pulled out there, were you just like. Yeah, I had to feel like the most incredible feeling ever, like going to the moon. Like I'm trying to remember, like the one I pulled out when I went to. I had a little bit of stock car experience. So when I got there, I kind of had. I wasn't so unfamiliar. But the visual of pulling into Daytona for the first time ever is incredible. I can't imagine going there and knowing, like, I got to drive a car around this thing.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, I mean, it was scary. Yeah. It's probably the most scared I've ever been in my life. I mean, because I get out there and just getting in and getting buckled up and getting out there knowing we're going to run at that time, I think they'd run 180 mile an hour.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And you know, again, I've never. Only time I've been in a car, I had 10 laps the week before to shake a car down. So I'm out there and I'm running and I'm like, this thing is, I can't have a 427 motor in it. You know, a big block, fast thing. But they had Restrictor plates on it, but it would get up and go. And I remember thinking, this thing is fast, but it drives like a dump truck. I mean, it reminds me because I was used to tossing go karts, flipping them around and slow. Yeah. And it was just like, I'm driving a school bus and I'm running way, way too fast to be going.

[Interviewer/Host]

Driving a school bus.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, the school bus. And it is. Anyway, I was scared as I've ever been in my life, you know, and I stayed scared for a while, you know, because I didn't have any experience. Like kids a day.

[Interviewer/Host]

But that's a good point.

[Ricky Rudd]

How long.

[Interviewer/Host]

How long did it take to get over the fear of driving these cars? Because you never got the learning curve. You never got the experience.

[Ricky Rudd]

About 32 years.

Gotcha. Right.

[Interviewer/Host]

But it did give you adrenaline, if you were looking.

[Ricky Rudd]

Oh, yeah. No, that was adrenaline. I overdosed on adrenaline that day. Yeah. You know, for a while, but. But, you know, it was some funny stories. I could go on, but the next week, I did okay. I didn't make that race, but Champ says, hey, you did okay. How'd you like to go to Rockingham, North Carolina, and drive the cup car? Well, sure. Yeah. Well, let's just try it. You know, I didn't tell him I was still scared of that Daytona experience. Yeah, Rockingham wasn't as scary, but again, I roll in there for my first cup race, and I'm trying to remember how it unfolded, but I remember getting on the racetrack and running and made the race. Qualified, qualified, like mid pack, and I finished 10th or 11th.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yep, you finished.

[Ricky Rudd]

And what people don't really. I mean, that looks good on the record, but you probably don't see it. I was 30 laps down over on the far bar. I started probably 20, 30 laps down, and Donnie Allison had lapped me. I don't know how many times he went by me that day. And I was great shape, I thought, from motocross racing and cart racing. And I was running as 500 laps. I was running with my tongue hanging out. Even as slow as I was going, I mean, I was. It was hard. And Donnie passes me for about, I don't know, the 30th time. And as he's going by, he's. I'm thinking, I'm like, up on that wheel and he's driving by me. He's waving because I always gave him. He's just wave. I said, how in the world can he be driving that fast and just driving with one hand? I've got Two hands and everything I can do to keep this thing going straight. So it was. It was. That was. It was interesting, for sure.

[Interviewer/Host]

How hot was the cockpit of those cars back then, you know, compared to you raced up into 2007? Like, what was the interior experience like for a driver back in the 70s?

[Ricky Rudd]

You know, I was 17 or 18. I mean, it was hot. But I used to. I mean, we used to go to motorcycle races, and back then we wore leather gear before they had all the stuff they've got now. We wore leather pants. We didn't wear full top, you know, leather on top, but we had a jersey and leather pants. And I remember racing motorcycles where it was just unbelievably hot. So the cars, to me, the heat didn't really. Never really bothered me. But they, you know, I guess looking back, they were. They were very hot. But I think the cars today maybe even are hotter because the cars then were way up off the ground. So a lot of air flowed under the car. And exhaust systems weren't, you know, the exhaust systems air cooled the exhaust. It didn't radiate to the floorboard. So I don't. I don't remember the heat coming till, you know, to the car started getting slicker and getting on the ground. When it started getting on the ground, then I remember them getting hot.

[Mrs. Claus's Younger Sister]

Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.

[Elf Drew Ski]

Zoe, this thing weighs a ton.

[Santa's Helper]

Drew Ski, lift with your legs, man.

[Ricky Rudd]

Santa. Santa, did you get my letter?

[Elf Drew Ski]

He's talking to you, Bridges.

[Santa's Helper]

I'm not.

[Mrs. Claus's Younger Sister]

Of course he did.

[Santa's Helper]

Right, Santa, you know my elf, Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list.

[Elf Drew Ski]

And elf, I'm six three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. Right, Mrs. Claus?

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[Santa's Helper]

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[Mrs. Claus's Younger Sister]

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[Elf Drew Ski]

Nice. My side of the tree is slipping.

[Santa's Helper]

Kimber.

[T-Mobile Announcer]

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[Interviewer/Host]

So in 1977 you won rookie of the year.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yep.

[Quince Advertiser]

Right?

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean first race, 1975. 1977 you won rookie of the year. Your crew chief was Will Cronkite.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. Which was your dad's one of his first crew chiefs. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah. Dad and Will got together in 78.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And then you got a big break to drive. Well, you run for your dad for a little bit. So what was, I guess how was that experience for you to drive family owned car?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, what we did, we actually we bought a car from your grandfather, Robert G. That was my first real, real car that we had as our our own. So my dad bought the car from Robert G. And it was a great car. In fact, the car had finished Atlanta. The last race of the year was Atlanta the previous year. And this was going back 75, 76. But anyway, the, the car was driven by Bobby Isaac at Atlanta and we bought it right off the racetrack. Basically it went back to Harrisburg and they pulled them. Ray Fox Jr. Pulled the motor out. That was his motor.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And then we took delivery of the car. It was A good car. So we had something really good to start with. We just didn't know what we were doing on how to work on it, but we learned as we went and. But that's car we won rookie of the year with. Really? Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

But how did your father become all of a sudden a team? I mean, where did this start? I mean, because. Because I don't know a whole lot about your father and, you know, if you started go kart racing at an early age, I mean, did he pass that down to you? And then how did this sort of pivot to being owning a cup car that you just bought from Robert G.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, I don't know. Things moved quickly. You know, it wasn't like there was a whole lot of thought put into it. You know, my dad was a super wealthy guy. By no means. He had a. Well, it was. I call it a junkyard, but nowadays they call them salvage arts. In their day, they did okay. They made a little bit of money. And so that money, I mean, he sacrificed a lot. I didn't do any family trips, and it was anything you could take. The junkyard went into that race.

[Interviewer/Host]

So that's what funded your racing all the way up.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, for quite a while. Yeah. That's what the money came from. My dad, I didn't have any money. I was a man. I was a delivery parts. I could call myself a manager, but there was no other people delivering parts but me. So I was in charge of deliveries.

[Interviewer/Host]

And there was a real. There was a point there near the end of that deal where y' all were. Y' all were running thin.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, it got. What happened is we had a bunch of friends. It was all volunteer help. I worked on a car. My brother built our motors.

And then we end up taking everything we could. Will Cronkite came in the picture to get us organized later on. He was a smart, smart guy during that time period. But, you know, there wasn't a whole lot extra money. I mean, we go to the hotels, and I'm talking like it was rough times. I was tickled to death that the opportunity. Yeah. But the people before us, the generations before us, roughed it even more. We get to a hotel room, we had a bunch of volunteer help that would show up from all over. We were fortunate about that. But the hotel room, we'd have four or five guys in a hotel room, and we flip a coin to see who got the sleep on the box springs and who had to sleep on the mattress. We take the Benz and you flip a Cord and see who got the masters of the box springs. But that's how it went. But we even doing that, you know, ridiculous hours we worked because there wasn't enough of us to go around. But we were able to do great things. But I don't think people realized, you know, the hardships we had overcome. If we needed a piece of sheet metal, we went out in the backyard junkyard and find the biggest Cadillac out there with a good hood on it. It couldn't be good because my dad could sell it. So we had to find what's crumpled a little bit, take the torch out, cut a big piece of square steel out, bring and clean it up with a grinder. And that's how we built race cars back then.

[Interviewer/Host]

Wow.

[Ricky Rudd]

So. But anyway, that kind of wore thin. Everybody was physically wore out. They did that for. They did this for a couple of years, and they just couldn't. Even though we won Rookie of the Year, I mean, everybody almost needed to be in a rest home somewhere recouping, because it just about killed everybody, and nobody wanted to do it anymore. So that's kind of how that came to an end. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah. I mean, you almost. Your career almost came to an end.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. Real close to coming to an end. You know, technically, it basically, it pretty much was ended with a family operation. Like in 77, we run the Rookie of the Year, but we only ran a few races in 78.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Ricky Rudd]

And in 79, I get a call from Jenny Dunleavy out of Richmond, said, hey, you're interested in coming to work?

[Interviewer/Host]

Just like that?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. Bring yourself. You know, you don't need any nothing. Just bring yourself. Maybe bring your helmet or driver's suit. And that's kind of how that started. And hardest thing for me to do is when I went to work with Juni and we go to the racetrack. First time I came in off the racetrack, I, you know, I got my driver's suit on. Well, I get on a creeper and start going on, you know, I think, changing the gear, whatever we needed to do. And Junior said, oh, hold on there, Bubba. It ain't gonna work this way. He said, you just go over there and sit on the back of that truck and relax and enjoy this. And you're not gonna touch this race car. Because they probably knew how bad a mechanic it was really. So that's why he told me to go over there and sit down. But that's kind of. I learned how to be real lazy after that. I learned how to be a driver.

[Interviewer/Host]

Then, you know what Was that like driving for Jeannie Don Libby, man, just.

[Ricky Rudd]

Like, what a neat guy. I mean, just full of life experiences and just, just. He just had a unique way of talking to everybody. And that was an amazing team for the amount of. They only had a handful of paid guys, but the volunteer guys he had could have gone in any cup shop and gone to work and been one of the top guys in the. In a cup shop then. But they were volunteer. Most of them worked like they were a machinist from one industry. And then, you know, shipyard builders, they could do everything. And they're all. Most. 90% of them were volunteers. So. But Junior was a smooth talker, but he was a good person, you know. So when I came worked for Juni, I'd only run two or three short tracks in my life. So Juni. I had the fortune of working with Juni. And he's the one that really coached me and taught me how to drive a short trap. You know, it's supposed to be the other way around. I was supposed to be a hired guy to drive his car, but he was a great coach. And I sort of missed that later on having a coach. I never had anybody that could tell me, hey, have you thought about dragging that brake a little longer in a corner or give it a couple of taps and then let go of it and get the car to rotate? Junior was full of that because he had got through working with Ray Hendricks and Sonny Hutchins and, you know, all the great legend short track racers.

[Interviewer/Host]

My goodness, did you ever know him, Junior?

Well, I mean, I didn't know him know him. I was. But I was around.

I've always, you know, in these conversations, Juni's name comes up a good bit and. And I only know him just of what I've heard. I mean, and I've never had an opportunity to hear people expand on who Juni Dunleavy was. And you know, what made him so special? What did make him so special?

[Ricky Rudd]

I think, first of all, he was a great mechanic. Knew everything about race cars. But the biggest point about Junior, he was just a great person. You know, you put him in a category of a Bud Moore. I mean, just in a different way. Juni was just really smooth, polished. But you need. You didn't have a contract. You shook hands on a deal, and he just did what he said he was going to do. And he was. He just had a way with working with anybody's personalities. He could adjust and get the best out of everybody and make everybody feel like part of A team sounds like a good leader. Great leader. Yeah. That's the best way to categorize. Juni.

[Interviewer/Host]

You ran 1981 with Die Guard. Pretty awesome race team and in its own right. Jake Elder was crew chief for the first few races. Then he left, like he tends to do.

So that really would happen with him, huh?

[Ricky Rudd]

He just take off?

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah. He does not show up.

[Ricky Rudd]

Suitcase, Jake? Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. That's that. When I went to work for Dagar Gatorade, Darrell Waltrip had just left. So it was a great honor. What led up to that, prior to that, that got me the job is we had an old family car, Monte Carlo, that we had built at our shop back in Chesapeake. And basically nobody wanted to. It was a great car. It got built. I think we raced it once or twice. Hardly ever raced it. So that Monte Carlo was sitting there and nobody wanted to go work on race cars. Nobody wanted to race anymore. So Linda, who I've been married to for 39 years, we all grew up together. Same high schools, everything dated through high schools. She packed up. We got married in 79. So anyway, she packed up everything and we moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. We lived in Kannapolis in an apartment building right off the main strip in Kannapolis. We went there. She got a job selling tickets in the ticket office at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And my sister was married at the time to DK Ulrich, who had a shop at Charlotte Motor Speedway. So he said, if you want to come down here, I'll let you have a stall and you can get your race car ready to go and come over here and run Charlotte. So that's kind of what happened. Went down, moved down to Charlotte temporarily, three or four months. Getting ready for that one race. Kind of all your eggs in, you know, everything in that one basket. My brother had built an engine for it way back, and it didn't get used. So we took that motor and went down to Charlotte Motor Speedway and we tested there. Just me and I think had a couple of volunteers help me get the equipment over into the infield to go practice. So went over there, and it was a kind of the week before the big event. And we ran good. We ran maybe I was about 15th fastest in practice and looking forward to coming back. And a guy comes through the garage. I knew who he was. He was a legend. Harry Hyde came up to my car, hung out a little bit. He kind of looked around the race car. And it was just me and some volunteers that I had to help me. It wasn't many people at the track. So he looks at the car, says. He said, boy, if you. If you want to. He said, I can help you a little bit on this car. I think. I see it's good like it is, but I think I can help you a little bit, and if you're interested. I said, well, yeah. Heck, yeah. I'm beat to death trying to get this thing ready to go. So we took it across the street where Hendrix's shops are today, and Harry had. I don't know if it's still there or not. It was one long strip garage over there, long building. So we bring it over there. And so I go to work the next day at Harry's shop. And he's got Jimmy macar, who was a young guy at the time who runs Joe Gibbs race, and now Jimmy Macar. Randy Dorton was this engine builder at the time who went on to be Hendrix's engine builder. So they. Harry and Randy get our motor out of the car, and they go to work on it. They put it. Take it over to dyno, and they start working on it. Me and Jimmy are working on the car. Harry comes by, son, you need to put these lowering blocks in. That'll help you. And it came by. And just one thing after the other. We go back to Charlotte motor speedway about a week later and qualify on the outside pole.

Same car, and we raced. We probably could have won that race. I got wrecked on, like, black six. Buddy Baker spins out, and I hit him and knocked the fender off our car. And we still ran. Finished third, but wow, but what a. You know, that's really. That was the miracle and the whole thing. That was the moment to make it all happen and still owe those guys a ton of favor. My brother's motor. Funny story, later, my brother shows at the racetrack. Harry's in the dino room. They're running that motor, and Harry's on top. This motor, it's running full blast, you know, at that time turn about 8,000 rpm. Harry's up there with a flashlight. He's looking down at a carburetor while the thing. He's on the motor while it's running, and he's looking in the carburetor, watching. Watching the fuel flow. And he says. So he comes back a little later on. I said, I changed some carburetors around. My brother shows up, says, harry, I understand you've been hanging over that motor, Looking down in there and stuff, Watching the fuel flow. And that thing was running on the dyno. He said, Yeah, I have. We found a little something. We changed the manifold, made it better. My brother said, you know, I wish that I told you the crankshaft in that motor's got about 4,000 miles on it. And back then the cranks were good for about a race, right? And this Crankshaft had like 4,000 miles and Harrison. And because Harry used to brag about his bulletproof glass in his Dino room. And that got to be a funny deal that Harry don't realize he was sitting on that ticking time bomb looking in that motor.

Oh, man.

[Interviewer/Host]

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[Mrs. Claus's Younger Sister]

Carry my Christmas tree.

[Elf Drew Ski]

Zoe. This thing weighs a ton.

[Santa's Helper]

Drew Ski, lift with your legs, man.

[Ricky Rudd]

Santa. Santa, did you get my letter?

[Elf Drew Ski]

He's talking to you, Bridges.

[Santa's Helper]

I'm not.

[Mrs. Claus's Younger Sister]

Of course he did.

[Santa's Helper]

Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list.

[Elf Drew Ski]

And elf. I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T mobile you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. Right, Mrs. Claus?

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[Santa's Helper]

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[Mrs. Claus's Younger Sister]

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[Elf Drew Ski]

Nice. My side of the tree is slipping.

[Ricky Rudd]

Kimber.

[T-Mobile Announcer]

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[T-Mobile Legal/Disclaimer Voice]

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[Interviewer/Host]

So you had a year with die guard and then that deal went away in a season and you ended up going driving for Richard Childers.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

What's your emotions at this particular point?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, what happened at Daggar? It was a great team. Wrong timing. I showed up. It wasn't Real hard to figure out because after the Charlotte experience I get a call, two or three calls, but one of them was from Bill Gardner from Dygard and want to know if I want to come drive his 88 the Gatorade car. I said well sure, yeah, I'd like to drive the love. Drive that car. Yeah, heck, that's opportunity. I just can't believe. You sure this is really Bill Gardner on the phone? You know, I just didn't believe it. So. And that's kind of how that thing started. But when the contract showed up, I got it. First time I ever seen a racing contract and it showed up and I think I was going to drive for 25% of the purse and it was a 10 year contract. My God. And, and I mean it was, I mean definitely was one sided. And I said man, this thing, this is not right. I said how about we don't do a contract? No, no, you got to sign this contract. And I debated real hard about it because we had another opportunity shaping up to stay with Harry Hyde. Hindsight, that had been the thing, but it was, you know, this thing was going to happen with a good die guard. The thing with Harry Hyde depended on what kind of money deal came along. So, so anyway, I took the deal with die guard and it was great. It was great until Suitcase Jake quit after the Daytona 500. And then we're sitting there, we got the small cars, they downsized from those big old cars down to those little cars and nobody in racing knew how to work on them at that time. And it was a lot of changes that happened. So I'm a young driver. I don't have the. I was dependent on those logbooks that Darrell Waltrip had developed with, you know, the big old Bertha, the Monte Carlo that was famous for them.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Ricky Rudd]

And that logbook went in the trash can. And here I'm a young driver and good equipment. I didn't know what to do. Be almost like the drivers today. They don't really know much about the cars.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Ricky Rudd]

I didn't know much about the technical side and there wasn't a guy that can straighten out these issues anyway that said that we floundered around, won a lot of polls, didn't win a race finish, finished well. But then that thing came to an end at the end of the year and then Richard Childress gives me a call. First of all, Gardner wanted to hold me to a 10 year contract. He was going to farm me out.

[Interviewer/Host]

Sounds kind of like a Roush contract.

[Ricky Rudd]

I don't know I don't know, it wasn't good. It does. It wasn't good for me is all I know. It wasn't rocket science to figure out this is not a good deal for Ricky Rudd. So anyway, I said I'm leaving. Sue me. I ain't got anything. Sue me. I'm gone. This isn't for me. This is all about you. So I'm gone. And Richard Childress calls up, says Ricky, I'm step back. I'm not driving my race car anymore. Matter of fact, your dad drove for him some six months prior to that. And Richard didn't. His equipment was kind of tired. He didn't have time to try to freshen up for your dad. They didn't have time to get it all fresh and money. Richard didn't have any money. So try to get it fresh enough. So anyway, Dale is his deal blew up. So he goes drives for Richard. End of the season my daguard deal blows up. So Richard doesn't have anything. He did have Greg Sachs was going to come in and pay him a lot of money to drive his race car. And so Greg was going to be the driver for Richard Childress. And Greg goes to Daytona testing in the winter about kills himself. Takes him a bad hit and he's in a hospital. Yeah, big crash. So then I get a call from Richard and I'm not quite sure how it came together. Matter of fact, it might have been your dad might have told me. I don't know if you noticed, we used to stay at your house on the lake. Yep, way back. You're like seven years old.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, I remember and I got that in my notes.

So you and Earnhardt were friends going way back?

[Ricky Rudd]

We used to be friends. I mean we'll get into all that.

[Interviewer/Host]

In a second but.

Yeah, but y' all started out.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, I mean Dale Senior hit it. He hit it big. And you know, think people don't realize about Dale. I mean I was worked in the junkyard. Dale, his job, he was inside a gasoline tanker trucks. His day job was he'd get down inside those gasoline tanker trucks, weld up the cracks, get out, do that all day, get out and then go work at his ex father in law's house. Robert G. Work on race cars at night. And that's about the time we got to know each other. We kind of hit it off pretty good. And when we were in town to save the hotel money, we'd stay at at Dale Senior's house. We'd stayed three weeks at his house while we're racing Wilkesboro, Charlotte, and we come hang out. He was nice enough to let us stay with him. And you remember that? Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did you ever try to talk?

Did you. I mean, you were always so quiet.

Yeah. You just kind of stayed in the corner and minded.

[Ricky Rudd]

He was always in trouble. He was always doing. He was. He was always cutting out. Nothing major. I mean, he was always like. But that's what you remember.

[Interviewer/Host]

I was a mild annoyance.

[Ricky Rudd]

I just remember as a little kid, we went out water skiing one time. I think he probably learned how to water ski. About that. But anyway, he was a neat little kid. I remember Kelly, but I remember Dale Jr. And just thinking, you know, what a neat kid. You know, look what he's turned out to be. You know, shame that happened. But, I mean, he wasn't a kid. But no. So anyway. Okay. So anyway that. So the Richard Childress deal. We got to work for Richard. And again, Richard had a chance to beef up his arsenal of cars and motors during the winter. So 82 comes along and. And Richard calls. Yeah, I'm not doing anything. Richard, I'd love to drive your car. He says, now, Ricky, I've got just enough money. If we go to Daytona and do really good, we might be able to run six more races this year.

[Interviewer/Host]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ricky Rudd]

He said, I've got enough to run six races, but we should be able to run those six races really good. So I show up at Richard. So Richard's better than anything. I don't have anything else going. So I showed up and get the cars all fitted up and adjusted, and we go to Daytona. I think we sat on the pole that year. Kerry Arbo won the pole, turned his car upside down on the second lap. So we are really second fast as we got to start on the pole for the 500. So anyway, and about the time, right, for the Daytona 500, we get a phone call from Piedmont Airlines while I was at the shop hanging out. Says, anyway, that was the beginning of the money coming in. So it just. It unfolded. It was very nice. I mean, it turned out really good.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, you. You and Richard go and won two races that year. You won Riverside, I believe.

[Ricky Rudd]

We didn't win any the first year. We won a lot of poll. We won a bunch of polls, didn't win any race. So we blew up, like, out of 30 races, we probably blew up 25 of them. What? We blew up a lot. But he was still. I'm sure Richard was just putting old pieces together parts, and he was. Instead of different engine Guys trying to help him. And I mean, cars were fast, they ran good, they blew up. And that was. Could be expected.

[Interviewer/Host]

How did you manage your expectations and your attitude and all that?

[Ricky Rudd]

It was that or I could go back and become. I could take over my delivery job delivering auto parts around Norfolk or. I can kind of see where this goes, you know.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did your wife have. Have a hand in trying to keep your mind sane?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, she was. She was always grounded, and I was. I was sort of a hothead and just, you know, you know, wanting instant results. And she really kept me grounded and focused. Really. I couldn't have done it without her. She was a. She. She grew up sort of a normal life. Her dad was. Worked in a. At the railroad. Norfolk Southern Railroad, as a brakeman on the railroad. And she had. She was really a lot more grounded than I was. And so she helped on that. So.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, I remember when. I don't remember the staying for weeks and weeks. I know that happened. I don't remember it, but I remember being out on the pier and they'd come riding up and she was always incredibly nice. And him and dad were buddies at that time.

And dad was having those lake parties. He'd have like a once a year kind of thing where he'd invite his team over and you'd come by and Tim Richmond come over. I got a picture of me and Tim Richmond in the back of that car that you could drive in the water. Remember that red car and always show up?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

I don't know who owned it.

There's just a lot you just said. There. There's a car picture with Tim Richmond in a car that drove in the water.

[Ricky Rudd]

There's a car.

[Interviewer/Host]

It's a red little car designed to.

[Ricky Rudd]

Be in the water, I guess.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah. You could drive it in the water and it turned into a boat for a little, you know, drive around and.

Almighty. What kind of GI Joe stuff.

It's still out there.

[Ricky Rudd]

I think Schrader owns one of them now.

[Interviewer/Host]

I think.

Of course he does.

[Ricky Rudd]

He ended up with. I don't know if it's the same car.

[Interviewer/Host]

It might be.

[Ricky Rudd]

Be. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

But I got a picture. Oh, picture so damn old. Half of it's drawn in.

You know, so you go and you race for. For Richard and then there's a swap. All right.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

You go to Bud Moore. Dad goes to Richard.

[Ricky Rudd]

Back to Richard.

[Interviewer/Host]

How did that happen?

[Ricky Rudd]

I'm still trying to figure that one out. Really? Yeah. No, that's kind of when the relationship. That's when the relationship Got bad, you know, so I. When we come through the neighborhood there, like Charlotte Wilkesboro weekend, you know, Dale was, you know, especially ran really good with Richard. Well, you know, how y' all running? How you. How come the cars run us so much better? I said, well, we got. Kirk Shelberdine is sort of. He's come on board, and he's taken a. You know, he's learned a lot. Richard's got this guy. He's got that guy. And I'm. We're best friends. I'm just shooting, you know, spilling my guts, you know, and, you know, they got this other guy's coming and the years out. He's got such and such coming as like, lead fabricator. And then. So we're running. Well, this was. This was at. At the end of 83, because we had won some races. We won on Riverside and Martinsville.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

So then we're staying at. Still stayed at your dad's place there. And so we're talking, and I'm sort of spilling my guts, you know, and then 83 is over, and all of a sudden find out that Dale's going to come drive for Richard, and. And that kind of hurt, you know, that's what kind of bothered me. And. But, you know, hindsight, looking back, take all the emotions out of it. I mean, I can. I can see why Richard did what he did. It was just, you know, back then, two card teams really didn't exist. But it sort of, you know, it didn't sit well because it was. It was almost like a family saying, hey, we're done with you, kid. You're done. You know, you're out the door. And that's when it turned bitter. And it wasn't until probably six months before your dad died that we actually kind of.

[Interviewer/Host]

No, kid buried.

[Ricky Rudd]

Buried Axe, you know, unreal.

[Interviewer/Host]

I didn't know that.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

I knew that y' all had. I knew. I didn't know that there was any kind of animosity over the swap.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Until I did a little research here for the show. But I know you were coming around. Y' all were friends, and then it just ended abruptly. And then y' all almost became, you know, you had a couple run ins on the racetrack over the years, but it just. There was no friendship at all.

[Ricky Rudd]

No. It was opposite of that, probably. Yeah, sure. Both sides.

[Interviewer/Host]

Why Dale Earnhardt, not Richard Childress being the one that you would be more upset with.

[Ricky Rudd]

I was disappointed with Richard and pissed off that senior was. I'm sitting there spilling my guts about what we got planned. Yeah. As if I'm, you know, part of the team. Yeah. And all of a sudden he ends up with it. You know, you think he.

[Interviewer/Host]

So he used that information against you.

[Ricky Rudd]

But, you know, if Richard and dale were best friends, they hunted together. I mean, you know, they spent a lot of time in the woods and, you know, you know, things I couldn't control. But, you know, disappointment was beyond disappointment.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And, you know, anyway, so I learned. I learned a lesson.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And in our generation, though, after that. I kind of hate it, though. But never got close to any drivers the whole time. Kind of isolated myself. And it stuck with me a long time. And I'm Came from a background of go kart racing where you were, everybody was best buds. But when you went out on a racetrack, you know, you try to beat each other, but then race was over, you're best friends again. So I never really developed that, you know, I mean, it kind of. That was always in the back of my mind.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, you. So let's talk about that. You. There was the.

1988 North Wilkesboro.

Was it 1988. There was a dust up with dad.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

In North Wilsboro.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

89 is the one that remembers. Yeah, 88.

What happened at 88? I don't remember that.

[Ricky Rudd]

I'm trying to remember. There's one came before the other one. Let me see.

[Interviewer/Host]

The 89 is when Jeff. But I'm won the race. And you and dad ended up backwards for that.

[Ricky Rudd]

The 88 race. That. I remember that one. Well, the one before that was.

What's the show rated? Can I. Can I say whatever you want to say? All right. Well, the race was going on. I was at North Wilkesboro in 88. Pretty sure I was in the green car, the quaker state car. McRey as crew chief Bob Riley. I mean, that was a great little team there. But so we're racing at wilkesboro and senior was. You know, he had to deal. He. I sort of accused him. If he. If he knew he was going to be really strong that day, he'd work. He'd take that guy out early if he could, really. So he'd have to deal with him.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

So we're running along and I'm doing pretty good. And we had cars doing great. And. And I come up on Dale. I can't remember who. Who came up on who, but anyway, Dale base. He just basically spun me, you know, I mean, put his bumper on the. Spun me, turn me around. I didn't hit the fence. Almost did went up, hit, got Gathered back up. Well, then I'm working like crazy the whole rest of the race. This is halfway through the race. So I'm working the whole race to catch back up to him. So about still 100 laps to go. I catch him. We end up beside each other. And so I paid a favor and he didn't hit anything. Spun him around and then the race is over. Come on, the cars. Come on down the garage. Pull into the garage area. And Bill France Jr. Was waiting at my door in my car. When I get out of the race car, really, he's sitting there, standing at my door.

[Interviewer/Host]

President of nascar.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, the big daddy. He's standing there. He's right there. You know, him and I, we had daily conversations. I probably had three in my whole life with him. Yeah. So he's standing at my car when I go to get out and he. And he looks at me, says. He says.

What was that altercation about out there with the three car? What was that all about? I said, well, he saw it. He just took me out. He just spun me out. Oh, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about later in the race. You came out and hit him.

He said, what do you say about that? I said, I'm really disappointed in myself. And he looked at me like really puzzled. He said, yeah. I said, I'm really disappointed. He looked at me like, that's what I want to hear. Well, and then I came back and said, well, I'm disappointed I didn't run that, son.

[Interviewer/Host]

You said that.

[Ricky Rudd]

I said that.

He kind of like looked at me and kind of smirked, walked away the next morning. That was before email. That was fax machines. On my fax machine, $10,000 just like that. Conduct detrimental to the sport of auto racing.

[Interviewer/Host]

Unreal.

[Ricky Rudd]

That was it. So anyway, I mean, that's just funny little story.

[Interviewer/Host]

No, but that's.

[Ricky Rudd]

I laugh at it now. I don't think it's funny as hell now. But it wasn't funny then.

[Interviewer/Host]

And in 1989, I was there for this one boy, this one hurt. You and dad go down into turn one. And honestly, I'm a. I'm call it. The way I saw it, it looked like you. You and him went for the same space.

[Ricky Rudd]

That was pretty much where a lot of people say he came down on me. I went up on. Basically.

I couldn't have gotten any lower. I used to have a little flat. You could actually use that flat to help get the car to rotate.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

So I waited to. The reason I waited to that last lap because I knew he was going to come back and try to wreck me.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

So I didn't want to put myself. I wanted to do it it in a way and already made my mind up. I wasn't planning on passing him. I was going to run square to his door, and I was going to run square down the back street. I was going to run square and 3 and 4.

[Interviewer/Host]

Want him to get behind you?

[Ricky Rudd]

I didn't want him behind me, so I was going to get down and then. And then I had more car than he did at that time.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Ricky Rudd]

So it wasn't going to be a question as long as he was on my outside. So that's why I took the bottom.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And I wasn't planning on, like, doing any clear pass. You had to think a step beyond that.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Ricky Rudd]

So I, you know, I didn't thought it through and figured it all out. What I didn't figure out is that he didn't want to give that space up, you know, and how he got his car to come down as low as he did, and I couldn't go any lower. We hit, you know, we got together, we hit, spun. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

I was more mad that y' all let Jeff win than anything.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. The whole end of that thing. It was one of those deals that. Yeah, he wasn't even a factor, you know. Yeah. But our two cars. So your dad never really saw me all day because I had a flat tire, had overcome something happened. So I was never even in a picture. But the whole time, you know, McReynolds is our crew chief. He says, you know, sit tight, just don't do any stupid. We got the best car. We got the best car. So anyway, when I caught your dad at near the end of the race, he, you know, he wasn't expecting it. You know, he wasn't. Because he was the dominant car all day. And that can't. I think it shocked him that all of a sudden, in the last 10 laps, he's going to. He's going to lose this race. He knew it. Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

What point of the year was this race? And what were the ramifications on the line that I think that made this thing ratcheted up.

Dad and Rusty were in the middle of the points battle, and Rusty and Dad, you know, had had a. I don't know if Rockingham came later, but Rusty and Dad got together. Rockingham ended up ripping the back of Dad's car off. And just think, dad was so used to winning championships, and here he was in the thick of a battle with somebody that he felt like that he could beat. And he lost. You know, he lost the title to Rusty that year. And when you lose a title, you look back at days and moments in the year when. And you think, well, they went 12 points. They went 24 points. And, you know, so that the Wilkesboro deal was tough. Part of me wishes. I mean, I didn't. You know, you went down in the corner. You didn't go straight up in the side of daddy, but daddy came down a little bit.

You know, in my mind, I'm like, ah, you know, if we just could have ran second that day, even though second would have sucked, we wouldn't have went to Victory Lane. But damn, that was a lot of points we lost that day. And then a couple other events throughout the year. But. So, all right, after that, there was pretty interesting stuff happened in the garage area with. With conversations and dad, it was nearly a ride.

[Ricky Rudd]

I never come that close to seeing were you there? That you were you there?

[Interviewer/Host]

I was there.

[Ricky Rudd]

It was scary. I mean, the fans were on the fence. I mean, they were trying to, you know what little bit of security they had.

[Interviewer/Host]

It was going at you.

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, half of them were yelling against me, and half of them were yelling for me. I mean, it was like. It was like a mixed crowd. It was close thing to a riot. And I know that day McReynolds Myself, I don't know if your dad did or not. We got out of the infield, parked in the infield. We went to leave. I laid in the bottom of Larry McReynolds van with a blanket over me.

[Interviewer/Host]

Really.

[Ricky Rudd]

And I understand your dad might have done the same thing.

[Interviewer/Host]

Wow.

[Ricky Rudd]

I mean, it was. It got. It got nasty.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

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[Ricky Rudd]

Santa. Santa, did you get my letter?

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[Ricky Rudd]

I'm not.

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So after, you know. So you and dad had that. That was probably the height of yalls frustrations with each other or were there others?

[Ricky Rudd]

That's pretty much it. I think it kind of. I think it was. You know I look at it cost me a race which is. Which at that time was as important to me as his championship was. And I looked at him so he could have give a little bit. I mean I really. You know, of course I'm seeing it my way, sure. But I mean I couldn't have gone to the bottom of track anymore. And he had been. It wasn't like we were close. Those cars were on the radial tires at that time and Goodyear hadn't figured that out exactly on how to get those tires not to be treacherous getting in a corner. And that's really sort of a.

[Interviewer/Host]

They're still the same.

[Ricky Rudd]

I'm pretty sure the radial was out at that time. I could be wrong, but it was.

[Interviewer/Host]

It was.

[Ricky Rudd]

It was. It was a tricky time. And Wexbar turn one was not a. We both went in there. I didn't have to go in there hot. I mean I had it. I got my car turned and if it had been two car lengths later, I'd have had to turn. I wouldn't have. My car wouldn't have spun. But anyway, it is what it is, you know. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

You talked. You said a moment ago that you and dad worked things out. How'd that happen?

[Ricky Rudd]

I can't remember exactly. We ended up leaving a racetrack at the same time together. And as far as when it. When we kind of buried everything, it would have been whenever the last race at Rockingham was. I don't know what year that was. One of these stat guys could probably tell us but we're leaving the racetrack and we're in streetcars because we don't have far to drive. So we're leaving the racetrack and. And we're kind of back and forth into traffic flow and all of a sudden, you know, somebody's tried to crowd their way in. It was. And then you let him go. And then, you know, still trying to get out of the infield. So we get out of the infield, and then Senior pulls. That was Senior beside me. So he pulls up, rolls the window down. Hey, what are you doing? I said, we're gonna head it home. What are you doing? He said, we're gonna go get a bike. D, you want to join us? We're gonna go to PF Chang's in Charlotte. On the way home, you want to stop, go have a dinner with us? Yeah, sure. Let's do that. So we did. As a matter of fact, in that conversation, I had a piece of property I was getting ready to build, build a shop on. And your dad said, well, at the dinner, we're sitting there just shooting, catching up. He says, if you need any help. So I got a bulldozer, I got a guy bulldozing operator. I'll send over there if you need somebody to move some trees and stuff for you. So, I mean, that's kind of how thoughtful he was once you got, you know, that's if you're one on the bad side, you know.

[Interviewer/Host]

But I mean. So you had that whole ride home. I mean, you were leaving Rockingham, so you're going to go drive an hour or so to Charlotte. And were you thinking. Thinking what in the world just happened? Because you guys have been harboring this ill will for a decade.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it was time, you know, and it was good. We had a good. A real good dinner. You know, it was just, you know, it's kind of like. I mean, it almost reminds you of a family squabbles. You know, you get squabble with your brother or sisters, and if you're not careful, you let that go on way too long, you know, and then you, you know, eventually you get older, you start cleaning stuff up a little bit. So it was kind of more of that type of a situation, I'd say. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did you feel good about it?

[Ricky Rudd]

Oh, yeah, you know, it was. It was. Yeah. Felt. How do we let that, you know, fester for so long? You know, of course, by that time.

[Interviewer/Host]

You'D had bouts with Rusty and everybody else, right?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. But nothing, you know, it was. They were. They were different bouts.

[Interviewer/Host]

They were.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, they were different. How so? Well, you didn't have the personalized feelings involved, you know.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, but you didn't let. You could because you. Because of what happened with Dale back in the 80s, right? Because you say you didn't let anybody get close to you anymore.

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, I mean, you know the deal with Rusty. I mean. I mean, he stole two or three races from me, you know, just out of, you know, just being a jerk. Really no more reason for that. You know, we never really ran each other on the racetrack. I mean, had no, like, hey, I got a debt to repay. But a couple of times I had some races, one, and he's being lapped. He had a wreck or bad equipment that day and just would go from the bottom up to the top to turn me around. So, I mean, just stupid stuff. Stupid rubberhead.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

No disrespect. Now, we've actually. We do talk occasionally now, but.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did you give him that name?

[Ricky Rudd]

No. Yeah, I think his dad gave him rubber.

[Interviewer/Host]

Dad gave him rubber neck and you altered it.

I don't know. I don't know for sure, but, man.

[Ricky Rudd]

But time heals everything. Now we're a bunch of old guys and you look back and laugh at it now, but, you know, at that time, it seemed pretty serious. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Did you work out things with Kevin Harvick, or is that one still.

[Ricky Rudd]

I've not seen him since, you know, since he was standing on the roof of the. No, he wasn't on the roof. I'm sure he was on the roof. So was other people. I was concerned about him. It was his big.

Bodybuilding squad of crew guys. And no disrespect, I had the Wood Brothers, greatest people in the world. Wouldn't harm a flea. And you know, that real. How you look at where brothers are, they're 50, 60, and you look over there at the children's crew, just crew. And they're all 18, 20, and look like they've been eating a ton of steroids. They're all bulked up, you know.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And when they like to fight, it wasn't real hard to figure out. You know, Patrick came up, he wouldn't let me get out of the car. Probably saved my life that day. Probably.

[Interviewer/Host]

Rcr.

[Ricky Rudd]

I'm trying to. I was trying to get out.

[Interviewer/Host]

They're still feisty, still ready to go.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

So you know that. How do you. How do you characterize that? You. You were really emotional, you know, as a driver. I don't really. I never saw that side of you.

You think it was circumstances that just put you in those situations. But you all. You were never scared, I guess, to get out of the car and say what you wanted to say. And if it came down to having to stand up for yourself physically, you did that as well. How do you characterize that?

[Ricky Rudd]

A lot of people say it's just a screw loose somewhere along the way. And maybe you have to agree with them a little bit. I remember getting out at Wilkesboro, and I can't remember which one of those episodes, but I remember getting out in the garage area. People always. They look at me, they say, I thought you're a lot bigger than what you are when they see you in person. I'm 5, 8, 5, 9, not a real big, big guy, you know, and. But, you know, I don't know if something just, you know, clicks and I knew I had to go see your daddy.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And talk to him pretty serious. And the children's guys was all huddled around him.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And I remember running and jumping up in the crowd, and as I jumped up, McReynolds had me by the waist. Yeah. Pulled me by the waist, pulled me back. Probably. Probably saved my life another day. I mean, I was. Because I had to go.

[Interviewer/Host]

Were you ever that way in the way racing go karts or.

[Ricky Rudd]

No, not like that. Go kart racing was a different. It was, you know, you think that.

[Interviewer/Host]

Would be pretty aggressive?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, let me say this. I ran, lay down, go kart racing. And you had to draft. You had to learn how to draft and run so fast, but you didn't. You know, the short track guys, now, that was a little different story then. They run like they had fenders on them, and they're pretty aggressive.

[Interviewer/Host]

I just asked this question. We were talking about this because of the Martinsville post race incident, you know, yesterday, and I asked the question to Dale. I'm asking you to. Do drivers, when they confront each other after race, do they really want to fight, or are they expecting their crew members to actually get in there and, you know, keep it from getting, you know, physical? When you went to go talk to Dale Earnhardt, I mean, were you ever looking for a fight?

[Ricky Rudd]

I wouldn't say I was looking for a fight. I was looking to get a punch in. I wasn't necessarily looking for a major ordeal. There's times like, if I was going to ever get this daddy. I got into it with Derek Cope one day, and I wasn't going to. I mean, I was going to go up to talk to Derek. I had no intentions of getting in a fight. I go up to Derek, and he needed somebody to talk to him because he really screwed up that day. Yeah. So I got up.

And I walked up to talk to him, and I got real close to him, and he was a. I Don't know if you ever seen him. He was a. Used to. He was a semi pro catcher. Big guy, stocky guy, built low to ground, but muscle. So I go to talk to Derek and just say, Derek, you know, what the heck were you doing? And I get about 2 foot away from him and I'm still kind of walking towards him and. And as I get closer, all of a sudden he's drawing back his right hand. I mean, he's got this sucker way back here and he's ready to unload it. And my instinct that, you know, grab him, you know, I gotta, I gotta grab him and not let this thing, let that right hook kill me. So I grabbed him and tackled him. We hit the ground. Now that day I was looking. I'm glad somebody was coming to help because I end up on. I end up. We know nobody ever threw a punch. It was a wrestling match. End up falling on the floor. Look like a couple idiots wrestling around in the garage floor. And then, and then he's broken it up, you know. Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, I didn't go looking for any trouble. It just seemed to follow me a lot. I don't know, maybe looking back, maybe I was the problem, I guess. Shoe.

[Interviewer/Host]

Well, that sounds like. I mean, no, I mean, yeah, yeah. I never looked at you that way. I thought you would confront. You know, one of the things I was always impressed with you is that you always had a way. I always thought this was clever. You tell me if, if, if I was reading this right, your, your play on words is, you know, in the post race interviews and stuff is much like you said what you said to Bill France. Now I was disappointed in myself and then dot, dot, dot. Because I didn't, you know, wreck him harder or something like that. But I always thought like with you and Rusty in particular, you would just, you know, be very political about how you address the situation. You're like, no, just, you know, one of those, you know, we were racing hard for the same position. But I always thought there was something more to it.

[Ricky Rudd]

I don't know. I know you had to be careful what you said. I know that. But you were aware a lot of.

[Interviewer/Host]

Money and you were cognizant of that.

[Ricky Rudd]

I mean, well, I don't know. I mean, I just drove with emotion, you know, I did better once I got in a race car and I buckled down. I tried to be a nice guy and I didn't go look for trouble. But.

You know, if you had to, you just had to Stand your ground. Probably no different than it is now. I mean, you just gotta. You can't let everybody run over top of you. But you don't want to go out looking for trouble, either. You try to stay off each other. I mean, that's not. The intent is to go out, and I want to wreck somebody this day. My intent was I want to get to victory Lane. And there are obstacles along the way, and you try to. To minimize those issues that can keep you out of a potential victory lane on a given day, and that just the incidents with other drivers just has to be something you try to work through.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, I think I always. I mean, always. I raced you a lot, and I never once felt worried that I was going to set you off. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't categorize you as a. As a short fuse.

But hold on, though. What was he like to race against?

[Ricky Rudd]

I don't know. He was so fast, I didn't see much of him.

I look back at a race in Richmond, somebody sent me a video the other day, and I was driving the Texaco car at Richmond, and I looked back at it, and we were racing like heck for the winners. Harvick, myself. And you were right in the middle of.

[Interviewer/Host]

You behind you, too.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. You're sitting there watching all that, thinking. You're thinking, I'm gonna win this race because these guys.

[Interviewer/Host]

I was hoping y' all was gonna take each other out.

[Ricky Rudd]

We tried.

[Interviewer/Host]

That was.

[Ricky Rudd]

That.

[Interviewer/Host]

That was 2002, I believe, or 2001. And, yeah. You and Harvick traded.

[Ricky Rudd]

Of course.

[Interviewer/Host]

It didn't end bad, that one.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

He was congratulating you even after the race.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really. It was, a few years later, really heartfelt, you know, I'm sure. Oh, you gotcha.

[Interviewer/Host]

We skipped over something that. I know people are going to be upset if I don't ask you about this, but driving for Broadmoor, you go to Daytona, 1984, Bush clash.

Get turned around off turn four and flip terribly down the front straightaway. The pictures and images of that crash and you flipping violently in the dry out, you know, out the window, net comes down and your helmet's bouncing around in the door, in the door jamb. And you had to. You know, it's famous for the fact that you had to tape your eyes open to be able to run the Daytona 500.

Just tell us about that experience. How hurt were you? And, I mean, obviously, you turn around and go to Richmond and win the next race, but that sort of Set a tone or a reputation of you as a tough race car driver, one willing to do whatever it took.

[Ricky Rudd]

I mean, I remember that pretty vividly, I guess after getting turned around. And that's back when the cars were the short wheelbase cars and no one really had a handle. That was before the roof flaps on House. They, how the roof flaps now keep them on the ground. Pretty much back in that day they were doing those reverse flips. It was 200 mile an hour. I think they're unrestricted then. So anyway, the car got airborne and I remember thinking it did a slow spin and was headed right for that little jut out wall that Darrell Waltrip hit later on that you didn't want to hit there. And anyway, the car ended up going up in the air. I remember it just getting airborne and it changed directions and, and one thing I remember is I'm not going to, I'm not going to hit that wall. This is going to work out okay. But it was up in the air. It felt like much higher than what it was after looking at the video. And I really don't remember the ride. I just remember when it came down, before it came down, I remember thinking, don't get knocked out because this thing, it could knock the fuel cell out of it. And I, you know, don't, don't go to sleep.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

Hard as I was trying to not go to sleep, I went to sleep. I remember hitting the first time and it's almost like watching NFL game tapes. You know when you hear, when they have those big speakers and you can hear the feeling, you know, the, you hear the action actually on the field where they got those satellite dishes listening in because I remember hearing myself when I hit the ground, I heard this big, all the air leave my body. I remember hearing it, you know, like somebody just hit me in the stomach and I went to sleep. I'm waking up and they're, you know, all. I didn't know what was happening at that time. They're working, trying to get me to come back too. And I guess I woke up and they're all, you know, they're working. They were, you know, looking at my arms and working on my arms. I'm thinking, man, forget my arms. The rest of me is what's hurting. My arms are fine. Looking at the video, I see why they're worried about my arms because they were out of the car.

[Interviewer/Host]

They were out of the car.

[Ricky Rudd]

And every time it would roll, I mean, good lord had to be there because every time it would roll and it would start to roll over on that roof. My arm was. I mean, it was out. Looked like Buddy Baker with his arm all the way out over top of the roof. And it would come down, and I guess in Tropical Force, it would whip it back inside. They would whip again and go out again. So it looked like my arm was out, you know, it looked like I was going to rip my arm off, sure. But just very lucky, you know. I mean, I guess, matter of fact, the seat in cars, the one your dad was running before, and he used to take, like a colon van seat and dig all the foam out the center of it off. You've seen them how you did it. But I like the seat in the car. But when I hit the reason I almost. Almost came out of the window because when I hit, the whole bottom of the seat broke off. So the bottom of the seat hit the floorboard. And now you could put two people under the shoulder harness. Yeah. So only it was keeping me in the car was a lap belt.

[Interviewer/Host]

Damn.

[Ricky Rudd]

And. And that's why I moved around so much and I got banged up was because of that. But. But anyway, that's where my wife Linda came in. As far as giving me some. I wouldn't say words of encouragement, but we went to the hospital, and I was conscious at that time. I had woken up, and I was awake the rest of the time. So we go to the hospital, and that night, I'm telling Linda, she's there with me at the bedside. I said, I got to get out of here. I got to go. I got to be at racetrack tomorrow morning. And after they'd done X rays and everything, looked at everything, you don't look like anything broke. I got a lot of torn cartilage in your rib cage and stuff.

[Interviewer/Host]

Stuff.

[Ricky Rudd]

But no serious bones are broke. That's good news. Okay, I'm out of here. And so about that time, I tried to get up out of the bed, and Linda said, you ain't going anywhere. I said, I mean, I'm not feeling good, but I got to get out of this bed. And a lot of it was. I had worked my whole career to get to a place like Bud Moore. Established deal. You know, it wasn't about the money. It was just the trials and tribulations to get to that point where all of a sudden, okay, now you got a real stable deal. You got a chance to do something here first race.

And get. Get hurt really bad, where I look like I'd probably be out for a season anyway. So I'm in the Hospital room and getting ready to get up. Let us tell you what, you're gonna spend at least a night. I said, no, I'm not. She says, okay, Mr. Tough Guy, get up out of bed and walk over there looking at mirror, and you tell me what you see. So I get out of the bed, go over to the mirror, and this is like two or three hours, four hours after the wreck. I get to the mirror and I'm looking at this person. I don't know who I'm looking at. It don't even look like me. I'm mean. And I came back, said, well, maybe I'll spend the night anyway. Take a look at it. So. And that's kind of so.

[Interviewer/Host]

So your eyes swelled up and you had to tape them open. Whose idea was that?

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, I went out on a racetrack. We didn't get on the racetrack the next day. I was at the racetrack next day, but I could not have gotten on a racetrack the next day. I would have just physically couldn't do it. But it rained out everything that was going on. So I knew we had to get a backup car and get out there and get going again. So the next day was a Tuesday. So we get up, go to a racetrack, go out on a racetrack, and, I mean, it was a little bit of work to hold it down. Wide open at that time, 200 mile an hour. They didn't drive that good anyway, no spoiler on the back. So I able to. I was able to do it and. But I remember I get to the corner and I get going down the corner. I couldn't. I couldn't see. It was like lights out. I'd say, it's just go black. And I came back in and I told Bud, I said, I got a bad problem. He says, what is? I said, I can't see. When I go in the corner, everything turns out, lights go black. And he looked at me and I said, well, man, I don't. He looked at me, said, man, your face is really swollen. So I'm not really sure whose idea it was. I'd say, it's my Bud would probably say it's his, but it's one of those deals. It wasn't a lot of thinking, yeah, we got to get a next practice session, and there's some duct tape laying there. So next thing we knew, got somebody over to some scissors, cut up some duct tape and just taped the swollen eyes up, up. You know, not so much the eyelids open. It's everything above your eyelid, right. Pulled it up on My forehead stuck it. Put the helmet on. Let's go. So it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt, but it fixed it. I could.

[Interviewer/Host]

It did.

[Ricky Rudd]

I could. Yeah, I could.

[Interviewer/Host]

Wow.

[Ricky Rudd]

And I think I might have drove the race. I think I had a little fancier tape. Medical tape.

[Interviewer/Host]

Sure.

[Ricky Rudd]

But it was still taped open, so.

[Interviewer/Host]

So your face was so swollen that it basically was hindering peripheral vision and everything. So you basically just pulled it up.

[Ricky Rudd]

Pulled all the way the. Couldn't do it. You couldn't get the swelling to go down. I had ice and everything. We can go down. So they had to get. You had to do something to be able to see my eyes. But it's like a fighter that's just got the crap beat out of them. You know, your eyes are swelled shut. It was no different.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Ricky Rudd]

And just taped them, you know, taped all that excess skin up, you know.

[Interviewer/Host]

How long did you drive like that?

[Ricky Rudd]

Like just that.

[Interviewer/Host]

Just that next session.

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, we drove a couple laps, you know, drove the sessions. Finished the day out. There wasn't. I think it was just a couple of morning practices. Not much. And then might have been the next time I sat in a race was the Gatorade 125 races. And I think we.

It wasn't great. I mean, I made through it. I think we finished sixth or seventh in at 125. Does whoever it was in front of me, I just followed her bumper. That's all I did.

[Interviewer/Host]

And then you won.

[Ricky Rudd]

The next week we finished. We had to run the 500 too. So then the following week, go to Richmond and. And everything's fine. I got a flat jacket, I think. Humpy Wheeler's brother was a trainer at one of the colleges and he sent. He came up with the flat jacket all during the speed week.

Got me over to Maitland Mainland High School right next door and used their ice Jacuzzis and stuff. Got me through the 500. He came up to Richmond, got me through the Richmond race. And we end up. It was. I mean, everything was pretty normal at Richmond other than. It was a lot of physical pain from my ribs.

[Interviewer/Host]

I bet it had to hurt, right?

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah. But the scary thing after that, I think, man, I'm good. I've got. I'm all back. I'm, you know, whatever I was, I'm back. Go to Rockingham the following week and all of a sudden the lights are out again. Couldn't see anything. Going to corner. Couldn't see and figured out I ended up going to the Medical College of Virginia. Best Experts, you know, in the country on what's going on. I think what it was now is just trauma from the concussion. Yeah. And I couldn't. Couldn't see it was G force related. When I go into corner at Rock and Amy pulled a lot of lateral, vertical and lateral G, and they did all kind of tests and basically come up with it. So it's, you know, it could last a week, it could last three months. It could last the rest of your lifetime. We don't know. And anyway, end up going away. Ran Rockingham not doing so well, and then the next race after it was fine, man.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean, listen, concussions affected your vision.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Big time.

[Ricky Rudd]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean, when you look at the pictures of that wreck at Daytona and where his helmets banging around in there, you know, is tough on his. On his head.

Man. We got. So.

We'Re out of time. And I didn't.

[Santa's Helper]

So much more.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean.

Yeah. So I need you to come back.

[Ricky Rudd]

We'll do it. If you. If you. If you get. If you don't get a bunch of negative feedback, but this guy's rambling, we're.

[Interviewer/Host]

Gonna have amazing feedback because you. You had a lot to talk about, and we got on. We got some amazing stories from you, but we only. We didn't even get halfway through talking about your career. Obviously, we would love to talk to you about you as an owner. Beyond that, driving for Yates and all those years with the Wood Brothers. I was honored that you gave us your time. It meant the world to me that you came over here today to talk to us. You know, I raced against you, but you're kind of. You're from my dad's sort of, you know, generation. And I love talking to you guys and asking y' all about your careers and how you got started and learning a lot of new things about you. And I know we had to put you on a schedule today, and you don't like that, but.

I really can't thank you enough for coming out here, Ricky. And all the people that are listening to our show want to thank you as well.

[Ricky Rudd]

Well, we appreciate it. Thanks for having us on. And again, it's. Wish you'd invited me. Well, I think you did invite me. Soon. I just. I finally showed up, but I'm not normally that bad short notice, so if. Yeah, somebody cancel. Call me. I'll be there. I got you. I got you. We. Just for the record, when we were.

[Interviewer/Host]

Trying to track you down, we came up on what I think is no short of seven different phone numbers for you. And, and we were, we had a game like which one actually belongs to Ricky and I. And. And we finally made. Made Mark Martin had a number. The hall of fame had a number. Everybody has a different number for you.

[Ricky Rudd]

Just so you know. Maybe that's the way you like it. No, actually, not by design. No, it's not. You know, well, the house phone, we turn it off. We get all those damn robo calls. So we never listen to that. Yeah, so don't listen to that. And I've got the same cell phone. I've had probably. I had one when NASCAR gave you the free phone back in the series. Yeah, I had that phone number forever and it finally went obsolete. They wouldn't, wouldn't. I just went away, I guess. So I had to go out and buy me a new phone that was. That's been about 10 years ago. It's got same number.

[Interviewer/Host]

There you go. All right, buddy. Everyone else, all right.

Thank you.

[Ricky Rudd]

Thank you guys. It appreciate, appreciate it.

[Interviewer/Host]

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[Santa's Helper]

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[Ricky Rudd]

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