Ricky Rudd Bought His Old NASCAR Road Course Car Back! (Bonus IROC Dodge Daytona)

by the time I found out about it it was about 45 minutes left before the auction ended I never said I was proud of what I did but it worked on the road course really surprised that NASCAR at that time didn't have a rule I didn't realize that these bodies are they're nonexistent you know when I look at this car I I drove for Robert uh I think three years there but I I always Associated this 28 as being Davey Allison's car or you know and then Ernie Irving I think of Ernie Irving I don't really associate really my name with this car uh I liked it it was a fast car I W some races with it but uh and I think of Davey Allison but you know Davey wouldn't have driven this car this car uh it's got some sort of unique history about it it was again it won at somoma in 2002 I was driving a car we want it was my last win as a driver but it was also it was also Robert yates's last win with a 28 number uh that's kind of unique and it all came about I had a a good friend of mine who happens to watch websites bring a trailer and this car came across the auction block and and but by the time I found out about it it was about 45 minutes left before the auction ended so and it was really neat deal they had a lot of information the previous owner um again they put it on Bring a trailer but the information had was unbelievable I think it was like 200 photographs of this car and even had the setup sheets uh our engineer ho overball at the time always kept all the the the sheets on these cars set up sheets chassis sheets and the detailed information was unbelievable and the chassis sheets were part of the auction it was you could go and look at the setup sheets so really you know again this is 30 minutes now before the auction is getting ready to end and and I'm calling people I'm on the phone I'm calling Hoy the the engineer I'm calling fat ma main I'm calling Doug Yates to find out you know what they knew about this car cuz it was being bit up it was a lot of activity on it and I don't want to do something stupid and buy a car that it wasn't what I thought it was so we quickly figured out uh how this car came to be the uniqueness about it when I had fatback main on the line the car is being advertised as a Robert sh uh car with the uh a Hopkins chassis and the reason Hopkins is because Yates just that's what they used extensively before I got there well fatback main had taken all the time he could before the auction ran out he looked at all these photos he said Ricky I think this is the car he said but but uh let me let me he was looking more and he came across one more picture he said no that's not the car and what he what he saw was there was a chassis number on the dashboard on this car and it was like chassis 24 uh which would have been uh and they said it was a Yates chassis well it wasn't a yat chassis because it actually had a got digging farther and the photo showed that it was a a Laughlin Mike Laughlin built chassis this is a chassis that Mike Laughlin built stamped in the roll cage from late 98 so when I came over to drive I'm probably doing a great job screwing the story up CU it's all rambling together but a lot happened in a short period of time I'm trying to debrief my what what I what I remember about the transaction is about six months ago I end up with this car but uh the reason it uh mcain said it wasn't originally a Yates car because it had a Laughlin chassis number on it and Yates always used Hopkins extensively so doing a little checking fatback and sway reminded me says Ricky do you remember when you shut down your operation and then you we all went uh uh myself fat M Main and like 10 of our mechanics and Engineers went over and helped Shore up the 2018 team at the time they're needing some more employees and so anyway I brought our some 10 really good guys from our team but also brought Robert one of two of two of the cars that we thought were unique and really good and one of the cars that he wanted was a Speedway car that we built in our shop RPM shop that we finished third or fourth with it at Talladega my last year as as an owner driver and it was with the Yates engine in the car Robert I don't know if Robert charges for us this is after we signed on to drive for Robert so Talladega have been in August I guess late August Robert sent a motor over to the shop to put it in the car we go to Talladega and we finish third and and the race at Talladega with the tide 10 car so Robert knew that car was pretty quick so he wanted to buy that chassis we had about 20 cars he wanted that chassis and he wanted a road course car that I had so the road course car ended up 90% sure a little more 90% sure that that's this car right here so that car had a short life at RPM or Tide car but it went over to the Yates operation and that's kind of what to me made it unique it was uh a car that you know was combination built in our shop and yates's Shop combined and then the history on this car I thing was unbelievably fast I didn't realize it and I got looking in the data they had they had actually provided in the auction when would practice and qualify when you go to racetracks you know the NASCAR would always give you a print out of the qualifying sheets they gave you a print out of the practice sheets well this car went to Watkins Glenn and uh we we were the fastest in practice according to the NASCAR time sheet that was provided and I remember the car was good I don't remember you know maybe being that good but you so it it it was at the top of the list and practice we go into qualifying and we qualify second on the front row and uh and Dale Jarrett ends up being on the poll that day at Watkins Glenn but I remember this car was extremely fast that day and I think it was very capable could have could have would have won the race that day but it was a freak thing and I remembered it we had a rock uh over in the chicane and they had the the dog leg to slow everybody down on the backstretch at the Glenn and a rock had somebody been off the track and some gravel was on the track or a rocket didn't know it at the time but all I knew is it got hung up in second gear I was downshifted for the dog leg at the Glenn and I couldn't get it to shift so I had to run all the way from the backstretch at the Glenn underg Green in second gear all the way back around you know at least half the track back to Pit Road and they put it up on the jack and they pretty much quickly figured out what was while it was hung on gear they went underneath and it was a rock trapped in the ship trapped up in the shifter wouldn't let it shift so they got that cleared out anyway went back out and ran I remember the car is extremely fast but it was late in a race we couldn't make it up I'm not sure what we finished uh where where the end result was but that car went on to go to in the same year it went to somoma and I I don't remember how we qualified I it might have been on the pole I think it won the poll at Sona and we we won the race with this car and after that I lost track of it that was my last year at I think it was last year at Yates so I lost track of it after that uh but it was one of those cars you know drivers they they drive so many different cars over the years like our shop RPM shop we had 20 cars at Yates we probably had 20 it used to take so many user specific cars to run a full season because they're all sort of built unique to the track itself and of course Nascar has you know stopped that with current rules and um and that part of it is a good thing you don't have to own all these race cars uh but anyway that was kind of what made this car unique and and I'm not one to buy a bunch of race cars but uh I just said I can't let this thing go and uh not not try to uh not try to buy it so I was able able to get it and buy it it came they delivered it came from Phoenix Arizona so they brought it all the way out here to North Carolina and uh so anyway I've had a lot of people at the last minute even like the Yates everybody Yates shop they're excited about it you know because because of the uniqueness about it being the the last win for 28 at the8 shot hey let's see some of the details on this thing I just walking by it quickly I noticed it had the it looked like the Texico star be rolled into the yeah dashboard there yeah you know probably uniqueness in this car that made it a little bit unusual or what made this thing a little bit unusual you can't tell it now but the transmission tunnel um was was cut and sliced in a seat if you sit in it uh this sit in the same seat this seat's a little different than my seat uh but my seat would sit almost in the middle of the race car and really surprised that NASCAR at that time didn't have a rule and I was I was expecting we're expecting an argument and argument was well we want to get the driver's head away from the door window over there you know uh so it basically you know we wanted it for weight you know wanted to weight in the center of the car but it's very unique when you drove the car the steering column and the shift and the and your pedals were actually Offset you w you didn't have you didn't drive your leg straight out in front of you your legs were offset cuz you're sitting so much in the middle of the car huh and uh you know we would do things to try to hide that we I remember we used to have a helmet St uh bracket in there and hang the helmet well I don't see it in there now but it would hang it in the middle of the car and it would try to disguise it you know a little bit where when the car is just sitting still you couldn't tell that the seat was sitting in the middle of the car how when you say the middle of the car how far over well was it that was the same transmission tunnel but the seat itself was sort of notched up and around so my leg was my thigh and my right leg was was sort of up on the sh on the on the tunnel itself really and uh it they get really extremely hot but uh I think that's one of the things that M Swain was able to to look at and identify the car but also underneath unfortunately you don't have it on the ground but the the the center lead boxes on this car the lead boxes the way they used to put lead boxes were sort of unique at the time and and it made our cars sort of a little bit different from the competitors and and uh it it was I think it's just a combination of things that made this such a good car did you only have the seat in the middle for road course stuff well this car would only Run Road Course and um I'm trying to remember uh I think both road courses we left the seat sitting in the center we because you know P primarily you would sort of forfeit the leand corners and set up to go to the right so your chassis setups and everything uh they're a little bit goofy when you turn them to the left sometimes you know even some fairly simple Corners were sort of awkward to drive because all the chassis offset a little bit of chassis offset the NASCAR would allow you to to uh to put into the car and I'm the wrong guy to be telling you about the technical stuff I you know I don't my my claim to fame is not definitely being a chassis guy but you know I'm around it enough I'm remembering but uh but I do know that the car way it drove it was very awkward turning left it didn't it didn't want to go left but it would it would go to the right unbelievably good and uh you would just sort of average your Corners out and if there wasn't much speed to be made in the in the leanders you just sort of threw those Corners away and you just sort of got through them without wrecking and you look forward to the right-handers and that's kind of how this thing was that's the way it drove what uh what kind of engines in it uh it's a I'm not sure exactly the NASCAR they have a you would know more about it than I do they got different generations of the motor but this would have been the motor that ran up to about 2000 I think up to about 2005 or six so it's either a C3 or a D3 yeah I'm not really sure uh it was rebuilt uh you know of course it was obviously the original Yates engine but it it I saw on some of the bookkeeping they had that they this car ran at a vintage race uh somewhere around 2016 or 14 and uh it had some engine trouble and it went down to an engine builder I believe down in Georgia that refreshen the motor it's got uh eii on the brackets would be Ernie Elliot yeah yeah very very well could be and that's there's a lot of the puzzle I don't know yet I'm still trying to piece it together and it might be a D3 cuz the intake manifold looks like the runners are high up maybe it's just a different type of manifold but the C3 and the D3 are kind of like the same block that the heads are just a little bit Yeah different yeah anybody like anybody from RAC and Ford RAC would know exactly probably exactly what it is and I I've got it written down somewhere I just didn't really ring a bell one way or the other to me have you started or anything yet since you got it I'm afraid to start it I'm afraid to start it uh I heard it run before they actually had a little short video uh where they random motor and uh you know these things are so temperamental that's the only bad thing about if you're going to take it and have some fun with this car I'd love to crank it up right now but you I don't think I've ever started an engine my brother was a motor guy when when I first got going and I was lucky I always had good motor guys working on stuff and uh but you know Common uh no one ever drve starts these motors you know you got to pull the dry something belt has to come off oil's got to be heated up to about 250° and they put a/2 in drill motor and and prebe the motor put the belt back on then crank it so uh I'll be honest with you that's the part that sort of concerns me I don't know the history on this motor so uh one of these days I'm going to pull it out and get one of these local guys to go through it you know there's a lot of race shops around that can go through it and and because I'm afraid to start it it looks like whoever did it was thorough see all the lines have a little um wax yeah markers on them but jean Felton like said I lost track of this car when I left Y which would have been 2002 and didn't know it existed until you know looking at the the trailer site bring a trailer uh and it's lived its life I don't think it's been sitting on jack stands it's been running vintage races and some things since then but the the key was Jean Felton when he took it to his shop to rebuild it he uh he just you know all the way down to Bar chassis and then everything went back on at original Yates type stuff was that like a little mount for a bump stop back there you guys have yeah I see that yeah yeah that wouldn't have been around during that time you can put the logo in the duct work yeah yeah and that see that's uh that's what main he was looking at that and also he was looking at you can't see it the duct work in this thing but somewhere the way they did the shelves he was trying to explain to me at the time uh and the way they did their brake duck it basically put a lot of front down force in the car that is interesting it's got all these diffusers in there yeah yeah and that was something that uh I'm not saying everybody didn't do it everybody probably had their own version of it what they thought worked the best but um that that was uh it was purposely designed and breake ducks and all that was designed for downforce is the you said the seat's not yours and stuff but no that wouldn't have been my seat are the pedals still how you would have used them or did they move that too no those are those are the same pedals that's yeah you kind of see the floorboard a little bit how the floor board has kind of moved over a little bit maybe at that angle where you're at yeah was there a specific way that you liked your pedals to be set up or how uh I noticed after the fact looking at this picture that the gas and the brake are on the right side of the steering shaft in Ricky's car only the clutch pedal is on the left that's different than most other pedal boxes I've seen in these types of cars usually the gas pedal is the only one on the right side of the steering shaft the clutch and the breaker on the left and the clutch pedal when depressed is almost up against where those bars meet on the firewall cuz they're all kind of built the same way you can also look at the floorboard and see that it's heavily modified to have a little bit more rightward shift yeah I I was real funny about that I spent a lot of time you know everybody I came up there in the Years where you had to learn you had to heel toe down ship if you didn't you couldn't get it to go in gear it just like a street car transmission so you had to uh I didn't know how to do it myself uh my first time I went to go road racing would have been in the early 80s ' 80s I think it was 1981 I drove for dard racing and even though my rookie year was 77 i' never been on a road course before so they uh CAU up Bob Barr and sent me out to California to learn how to drive a road course car and Bob was my instructor matter of fact it was one of the most fun times I think I had in a race car uh actually they're street cars uh they really want race cars that we drove but Cal Petty went through Road Race School uh we spent three days together out in California every day with Bob bonr telling us pretty much how stupid we were and how we had to learn how to we had to learn how to drive and shift and do you know got to do it his way but he was really really a good instructor but what I did learn is we left there and then our first race of the year in 81 was Riverside California so we timed it where we leave the road race School up in it was at Sonoma Sears Point raceway so we would leave there and we go down to Riverside California and that was the first race of the year for the cup cars well it's my first year driving uh for the Gatorade team dard team and at that time the cars hadn't been downsized and Daryl wal had been the driver of the year the previous year previous three or four years well Daryl over the winter he goes to Junior Johnson to drive and I was hired by dard to come in and drive the the famous 88 car well it happened to be uh and I got thinking about this the other day uh Daryl had a favorite car he had he called it Bera it was a Monte Carlo I was probably the last one that raced Bertha and what happened is that was the year they downsized cars from the big gigantic cars down to the 110in wheel-based uh sort of the current type platform so you could run your big car you could run your brand new experimental cars that nobody had raced at Riverside so dard says what's carry the proven stuff out there so they so I'm coming right down from Bob at driving school and I'm getting in this we've been driving little 240Z doson you know with a tricked up suspension and they're like a go-kart you can you know you feel like a hero driveing those things now we get in these gigantic old Monte Carlos those suckers are big as a van and uh everything I learned at Bob barrettes they had to go out the window because none of that worked so you had to come up with your own way to downshift I mean still the principles were the same but sports cars you lean on a brake with your toe and it stopped and you roll your heel over and you blip the gas pedal on a downshift and all that worked fine in a lightweight car but you got these things are 3,500 lb and they didn't stop so you had to figure way to get it stopped and do your heel toe down shift so I kind of I kind of improvised and came up with something it worked for me I I me threw the textbook out the window and everybody had their own way of doing it but it worked pretty good we matter of fact we qualified third at Riverside the sharp right hander it's wal followed by lard in 44 Ricky R in the 88 car really…