Ford drivers Hermie Sadler and Ricky Rudd are on different sides of the fence going into todday's Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races. Sadler needs to finish first or second among cars not already qualified for Sunday's Daytona 500 while Rudd is already assured of a spot in the 43-car field.
Hermie Sadler, driver of the No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus, is in a situation where he has to finish first or second among the cars not already guaranteed spots in Sunday’s Daytona 500 in his Gatorade Duel 150 race on Thursday. Sadler spoke about his situation while veteran Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus, gave his impressions of what to expect in both events.
HERMIE SADLER – No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus –
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO TOMORROW? “We wish it wasn’t quite like it is. We would have liked to have gotten it done on Sunday, but the fact of the matter is that we didn’t. But our whole team is taking a good attitude about it. Our attitude is that it’s an opportunity to get in through the race and get a race under our belts at the same time to better prepare ourselves for Sunday. That’s the only attitude we can take and go from there. Luckily, the 38 and 88 are both in my race. Hopefully, if we can get ourselves in position, we’ll have a little help to get us pushed to where we need to get. We need to get our car driving good and give ourselves an opportunity. That’s all we can ask for.”
DID TWO DAYS OFF HELP YOU AND YOUR TEAM? YOU HAD SOME DRIVE TRAIN ISSUES LAST WEEKEND? “It helped me personally because I was not feeling well anyway, so I went home for a couple of days and went home and saw my kids. That took my mind off things a little bit because it is a letdown. Even though we’ve only been at it about six weeks, everybody comes here with really, really high expectations and high hopes, so it was a little bit of a kick in the stomach last Sunday. But I’ve had a couple of days to refresh and get back, and they’ve had a couple of days to go through and make changes. We’ve changed everything we know to change on the car to eliminate the problems that we’ve been having with the vibration. Luckily, how you run by yourself in qualifying is not always a good indication of how your car is gonna run in traffic and in the draft. Historically, James has had cars that draft good and hopefully we can lean on some of our other Ford partners to give us some information to get us to where we need to get. All we’re working for on Thursday is to get in a position to where we have a chance and then I should have enough friends to help me seal it once we get up there.”
YOU’VE GOT TWO DISTINCT GROUP OF CARS IN THE DUEL – THOSE THAT ARE IN AND THOSE THAT AREN’T. HOW DO YOU SEE IT? “We definitely have to be aware of who we’re racing. There are gonna be eight or nine cars in our race going for two spots. That’s the reality of what it is, so we’ve got to be really, really smart about getting where we need to get as far as track position. In a perfect world, whether it be through sheer speed getting through there or pit strategy, we need to get in front of the cars we’re racing against. Then it would be nice to have the 38 and the 88 and some of the other Ford cars, like the 16, that can hopefully help us stay there.”
WILL THIS RACE BE ALL OUT FROM THE START OR WILL IT JUST BE THE LAST FIVE LAPS THAT GET HECTIC? “I think there will be different strategies for different people. We have to start in the back because we changed our transmission, so we’ll probably give the race 15-20 laps to settle out. There are a lot of people with experience, but there are also a lot of people without a lot of experience with these rules and new tires, so we’ll probably want to give it 15-20 laps to settle in and see who is going to do what. Handling is such a factor here. It’s so much different than Talladega. Everybody says Daytona and Talladega, but Daytona – especially on these tires after 15 laps – your tires really start going away and it really becomes a handling race track. So we’ll find out which cars are handling good and who is working good in which line. It’s no secret. The fact is we have to outrun the guys that we’re racing – those other seven or eight guys – so we’ll have to adjust our strategy based on what our car is doing. We might have to take some chances, especially with that last pit stop. It’s unlikely that we’re gonna drive by everybody with where we’re starting. I hope that’s the case, but the fact of the matter is we’re probably gonna have to do something different than what the other guys do to give ourselves a chance. A lot of that is based on how your car is driving and how it’s running with old tires, so we’ll adjust some of our strategy based on how our car is running.”
YOU HAVE A CREW CHIEF IN JAMES INCE WHO HAS BEEN KNOWN TO TAKE A GAMBLE OR TWO. “That’s what we’re gonna have to have here. If we finish third out of our cars, it doesn’t matter. We have to do whatever we have to do to finish in the top two of our cars. It doesn’t matter if we finish 15th, as long as we’re first or second among those cars, that’s what our focus is on. That’s one thing I do have in James. He’s my ace in the hole because he’s got a lot of experience in these type of races – a lot more than I do – so hopefully he can guide me to where I need to get.”
RICKY RUDD – No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus –
HOW DO YOU SEE THESE GATORADE DUELS PLAYING OUT TOMORROW? “I’ve seen a lot of guys going awful hard in practice and it doesn’t pay anything for that and it doesn’t really mean anything, but I’ve seen some hard racing in practice. I don’t expect anything less because it’s a 150 and everybody is locked in. If you’ve got a guy coming down to the line and he’s gonna try some crazy maneuver like make it four-wide to pull off a win or to get a good spot, I don’t think you’ll see that with the exception of the guys that are desperate and have to have it. As far as making that move and saying, ‘Man, it’s less than 50-50. If I make it, I win the race. If I don’t, I have to roll the backup out.’ I don’t think you’ll see those aggressive moves happen. Now the guys that are not in the field, you’ll see anything and everything from them, if they’ve got to make an aggressive move to make the cut.”
WILL THIS BE INTENSE FROM THE START OR MAYBE JUST THE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS? “I’ve seen it go both ways. I’ve seen the lead pack get in single-file and try to breakaway, but from what I saw here the other night it’s gonna be hard to breakaway. I’m not gonna rule it out, but the other night nobody was able to really drive away and leave each other. Late in the first segment we saw a group of guys line up and start getting away because everybody behind them was racing, but once they all got in line that gap quickly got closed back up. So I don’t know. It should be interesting to find out. It could go either way, but I would suspect that you’ll see the guys who are locked in are gonna be the guys in the top five, six or seven spots. And I’d be willing to bet that everyone is gonna try to get in line and get away from that madness that’s gonna be taking place behind them. I see that scenario unfolding with those guys up front then racing each other near the end, but you don’t want to get caught in that middle to end pack.”
IS THE PRIMARY THOUGHT FOR A DRIVER TOMORROW TO BRING YOUR CAR BACK IN ONE PIECE? “It depends on your back-up situation. If your back-up is not very good, then that mindset sort of takes precedent. If you’ve got a good back-up on the truck, you sort of block that issue out. Sometimes you have a back-up that’s been here before and you say, ‘I wish I could have my back-up here,’ so all of a sudden you end up being more aggressive and if it gets bent up or beat up or wrecked, it’s not the end of the world because now you’ve got a car that you think is gonna be better for the 500 sitting on the truck. Every team is sort of different. I don’t know how many of them have great back-ups. I would say that the top 20 guys have all probably got a back-up just as good as their 500 car.”
THIS HAS BEEN A FAN’S RACE. WILL IT LOSE SOME THUNDER WITH THE TOP 35 BEING LOCKED IN? “I don’t know. There seems to be a lot of desperation with a lot of guys here when you come to these races, but you generally know going in that if you’ve got a pretty fast qualifying speed, you know if you’re secure or not. You know where you are in the points, but now you’ve got the top 35 locked in. Before, if you used to be in the top 25 in points, you could pretty much figure that you were locked into this race. So what they’ve done is they’ve gone back 10 more spots. I think you’re gonna have two different mindsets. You’re gonna have the guys that are definitely desperate and you can expect anything and everything from these guys because everything is on the line. The guys that qualified well, have good running cars and are high up in the points, you’re possibly gonna see those guys run a different race. They might be a little more conservative, but no more so than they normally are. If you watch the 125s in the past, they sort of got to be single-file racing and the group would sort of stretch out and get away from the rest of the pack. I don’t see that changing any. I think that’s gonna be the though process of the guys that are starting in the first eight spots. It will be no different than it has been in year’s past. You have to remember that those guys in the top eight, they’ve got a pretty secure speed to be starting in the top eight of the field, so they’re pretty much guaranteed a locked in spot anyway. Now that number could be six or it could be 12, but I see them probably getting nose-to-tail. I see it getting a little busy the first couple of laps, but then get nose-to-tail and try to get away from that madness that’s gonna be taking place in the middle of the pack.”
IS THERE MORE AGGRESSIVENESS ON THE TRACK SO FAR IN PRACTICE AND THE SHOOTOUT THIS YEAR? “There are 57 cars here and you’ve got some guys, for whatever circumstances, that are good drivers with good teams but don’t have a guarantee. Robby Gordon is a good example. He’s got to get in on his driving in the 150. That’s just one that comes to mind. I’m sure there are other guys in the same position. Normally you have 57-60 cars for the 500, but you seem to have a big mixture of really good cars and some cars that are sort of here just to try to make the race. But a lot of them are really good teams that just happen to be out of the top 35. Either they’re new teams or didn’t get enough points late in the season last year, so it’s gonna be an interesting deal. I’m kind of anxious to see how it plays out.”
Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus, had a couple of tire issues during the first hour of practice today. Crew chief Doug Richert explained the situation between sessions.
DOUG RICHERT, Crew Chief – No. 16 National Guard Taurus –
DID YOU HAVE TWO TIRE ISSUES THAT SESSION? “We had some blading and a little bit of a chunk with a random cord showing on the inside of the right-front, and then kind of a delaminated chunk type scenario on the right-rear. Then I’m looking at our neighbors over here (Hermie Sadler’s team) and half of their tire is gone. Whatever the problem is with these tires, it’s not like one certain thing. It’s not all the inside of the right-front, so it’s not camber related. Maybe it’s some lamination issue or something like that. I don’t know. I’m not a tire expert. Goodyear is all over it. Their guys are all in the garage area trying to figure it out too.”
DO YOU FEEL PRETTY LUCKY THAT IT WASN’T ANY WORSE? “Yeah, we only ran 17 laps.”
