Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9505010032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
Rudd and crew chief Bill Ingle, who was fined $250 after Sunday's race at Martinsville for punching Ted Musgrave, were hit Friday with a total of $50,000 in fines after an inspector found an unauthorized hydraulic device on his car that was designed to lower the back end.
Rudd and Ingle said they believe NASCAR was tipped off about the device. And they said it was inoperable. They said it was something they'd tried in testing here last November without success. The device was designed to lower the car to improve aerodynamics and make it faster.
``I think the fine is so ridiculous it isn't funny,'' Ingle said. ``And I think the whole thing stems from last week. Sure, it was a rules infraction and, sure, something should have been done about it. We should have been made to take it out of the car.''
But NASCAR didn't see it that way. They fined Rudd $25,000 as a car owner and $20,000 as a driver. And they fined Ingle $5,000 and put him on probation for the rest of the year.
Junior Johnson was given the previous largest fine - $40,000 - after inspectors found an altered engine manifold in his car at Daytona.
Mike Helton, NASCAR vice president of competition, said when Winston Cup director Gary Nelson ``pushed the clutch in, it moved. And it was on the car. It had to be cut out of the car.''
Helton shook his head when asked if NASCAR had been tipped off.
``One of our officials doing inspection discovered it,'' he said. It was found Friday morning during a pre-qualifying inspection before Rudd arrived at the garage.
``Sure it moved, but it wouldn't stay,'' said Ingle. ``It went right back to where it was. What was Ricky going to do, drive all day with the clutch pushed in?''
Rudd didn't even know it was in the car, either last November or Friday, according to both Rudd and Ingle.
Rudd said when he tested the car with the device, it bottomed out and scraped the track.
Said Ingle, ``Ricky said, `I don't know what you've done with this, but it sure isn't good. What did you do?'''
``I said, `You don't want to know,''' Ingle said.
Rudd said the device on Friday was ``secured in a way that it couldn't be released, but Gary Nelson's argument was it could have been made operable with about an hour's worth of work.''
Last November, after the device didn't work, ``I told the guys, `I don't like it. Put it back the way it was,''' Rudd said. ``Boom. That was the end of it. Well ... their idea was to fix it where it couldn't be used.''
Rudd said he doubted he would appeal. ``[NASCAR President] Bill France was in the meeting, so it's probably a waste of time to appeal it,'' he said. ``It was there in the car. There ain't a whole lot to argue about.''
As for the fine, Rudd said: ``It's 50,000 real dollars. It's got to come from somewhere.''
Ingle, meanwhile, was upset about the aftermath of last week's incident at Martinsville with Musgrave, whom he punched after the race was over because Musgrave spun Rudd out.
``I was standing there with my left hand on the roof of the car, asking the man to get out of the car,'' Ingle said. ``He did not want to get out of the car.
``He said, `Bill, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry,''' said Ingle.
``I said, `Ted, get out of the car. You [expletive]. After all I've done for you. I've always helped you whenever you asked for help and this is how you repay me? Get out of the car.'
``I reached in and grabbed his uniform and tried to pull him out,'' Ingle said. ``He wouldn't come. And then he got smacked.
``I made the first move to apologize,'' Ingle said. ``I wanted to leave the [NASCAR] trailer and let it die. I shook his hand first.
``And then I listened to Benny Parsons' [radio] show Monday night and [Musgrave] was on there calling me a chicken and all this stuff. He was on Benny's show and egged it on.
``Well, there's the chicken. Because I'll stand there in front of him and say what I've got to say. And where's he? Miles away, where I can't reach him.''
``If he wants a rematch, we'll get [Charlotte Motor Speedway President H.A.] Humpy [Wheeler] to put that into his little pre-qualifying show, and I'll give the man a rematch,'' Ingle said. ``No problem.''
Musgrave, who has a black eye but was in good spirits Friday after qualifying 11th, wasn't enthusiastic about a rematch, neither physically nor verbally.
``If this was the WWF, it would be fine,'' he said. ``But we don't want to stir up any more stuff. It's best to let it die.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB