- Ricky Rudd, who is suffering from the flu, turned the wheel of his Tide
Ford over to Elton Sawyer for this morning's practice session.
"Ricky's a little better than he was yesterday," said Jim Long, Rudd's crew
chief. "The flu kind of puts you in a daze and you just don't make wise
decisions. He's struggling driving the car and that's why we brought Elton
over here to practice the car this morning. We're going to play it by ear.
He could be better tomorrow and he could make it all the way. Elton did a
real good job for us in practaice and I think it's going to be an easy
switch on pit road. He'll be standing by if we need him."
Sawyer finished 17th in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Busch Series event and
is more than happy to stick around an extra day to help a friend. "Ricky's
been awful helpful to me over the years so if there's anything I can do to
help him I will," said Sawyer, who, like Rudd, hails from Chesapeake, VA. "I
think we'll be fine. The seat was OK. He likes the steering wheel a little
bit lower than I do. I'll have to have it adjusted but that's a decision
we'll have to make because we'll probably lose a lap to make the driver
change. They'll have to evaluate all that and Ricky will make the call on
his health. Ricky and I have talked some in the past about doing some things
but this'll be the first."
OVER THE WEATHER
-- Despite missing the first half hour of yesterday morning's practice,
Rusty Wallace still managed a decent qualifying effort putting his Miller
Lite Thunderbird fifteenth on the grid for Sunday's TranSouth 400.
So why was Rusty late to practice? There was nowhere to land.
"I misjudged on the weather," Wallace explained. "I went to the airplane
hanger and THEN I called the weather. The weather was down (Fog). We sat for
about an hour in Concord and then took off figuring it would burn off. I had
six hours of fuel on board so I figured I had no problems. I flew over here
and it wouldn't clear up! I kept holding and holding and finally it got to
10 o'clock. I was afraid I was going to miss practice."
Rusty diverted to the closest place that was clear which happened to be
Fayetteville, NC. Nearly 90 miles from Darlington Raceway. Immediately after
landing Rusty, his brother Mike and niece Chrissie jumped into a new car
that was waiting for their arrival and beat feet to South Carolina.
"I knew Fayetteville had I-95 straight to," Rusty laughed. "(We) hauled
butt and made it here at 11:30. I think we set an all-time record from
Fayetteville to Darlington, I'll tell you that!"
