Rudd Treasures His Anonymity Steady Brickyard 400 Champion Sees Himself As Just A Survivor

Since the early 1980s, Ricky Rudd has just kept chipping away at not being sent away.

A Chesapeake, Va., native, Rudd has remained firmly in NASCAR’s door by winning regularly - at least once every season for 15 straight years.

That shares the longest such current streak in NASCAR with Dale Earnhardt, who has not won since March 1996. Rudd’s 19th career win and his second this season - he won the Miller 500 at Dover, Del., on June 1 - was easily the largest and most lucrative: Saturday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I guess it’s just a matter of survival,” said Rudd, whose win was worth a NASCAR-record prize of $571,000.

“I grew up believing where there’s a will, there’s a way. My dad (Al Rudd) worked 14-15 hours every day, and he never was afraid of work, never was afraid of a challenge. I see this as a big challenge.

“It has its days where you kind of say, ‘Why am I beating my head up against the wall? Why am I working so hard?’ But you get your rewards when you’re able to win races occasionally and compete with these guys.”

Perhaps most gratifying is that Rudd, 40, is in his fourth season as driver and owner of his Ford Thunderbird. That followed four seasons with team owner Rick Hendrick, whose current drivers are reigning Winston Cup champ Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon and Ricky Craven.

Rudd’s victory is an achievement for the single-car team, as opposed to the multi-car operations dominating NASCAR these days.

“I hope this doesn’t mean that I get too popular, because then I’d have too many obligations and I won’t be able to run the race team,” said Rudd, eighth in points through 19 of this year’s 32 races.

“I kind of like the low profile. I wouldn’t want to be in Jeff Gordon’s shoes right now. It’s tough on him.”