THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9407120414
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Even before he rose from his New Hampshire hotel bed Sunday morning, Bill Ingle had a good feeling about the Slick 50 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.
``I woke up and thought, `Man, we've got a car that can win this race if we do what we're supposed to do,' '' said the crew chief for the No. 10 Tide Ford Thunderbird. Ricky Rudd, owner and driver of the car, won Sunday's race in a thriller over Dale Earnhardt.
A thousand miles to the south, home alone at their lakeside house in North Carolina, Linda Rudd had the same sensation.
``I told Ricky when he left on Thursday that I had a funny feeling,'' she said. ``I had a feeling he might win it.''
While Linda Rudd's feeling was pure instinct, Ingle's was based on evidence.
In the final Winston Cup practice on Saturday afternoon, ``we did something very unusual that we hadn't done all year,'' Ingle said. ``We used two sets of sticker (new) tires in practice.''
``We made some changes to the car, put one brand-new set of tires on and the car was quick - I mean quick - right off the bat. But after about 10 laps, it fell off. And that's where we've been hurting ourselves - not running long enough sessions during the last practice.
``So we made some changes to the car, went back out and it was better, even on those used tires. We put on another set of sticker tires and ran that particular setup and, man, it just hung in there. It wasn't as quick as that first set of tires was for the first five laps, but it was quick after that, and it was consistently quick for 20, 30 or 40 laps, which is what I see the 2, 3, 6 and 28 cars (those of Rusty Wallace, Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Ernie Irvan) do every week.''
But Sunday afternoon, with 125 laps left in the race, if you had asked Ingle if he still had his Sunday morning feeling, he probably would have shaken his head.
In the corners, Rudd's car was pushing toward the wall - not good in light of all the gravel that was coming up from the deterioriating asphalt and collecting just outside the groove. Driver after driver got into the gravel and crashed.
``Our car was good in the beginning, but we faded,'' Rudd said. ``I was scared to make an adjustment. We had a chance to win with (adjustments), but we also had a chance to finish 10th if it didn't work out.
``But Bill started taking wedge out (of the chassis) and changing air pressure and it got better. We had a chance on the very last stop to pull some more wedge out and change air pressure again. And that turned it around.''
Even more important was Ingle's call for two tires on a late-race pit stop. Not only did it allow Rudd to gain several positions, but changing only the right-side tires also made the car work better.
After a side-by-side duel with Earnhardt, Rudd took the lead with six laps to go and won by several car lengths.
To Ingle, who had never visited Victory Lane in a Winston Cup race, the win lifted a weight off his shoulders.
``When I took this job in December, I told my wife, `This is the opportunity I've been looking for. I'm finally with a driver who can win any race, any week,' '' Ingle said. ``And I felt like if I didn't win a race this year, all those doubters were gonna say, `Well, what did I tell you.' So this is a big relief for me.''
Back home at Lake Norman, N.C., Linda Rudd didn't see her husband's orange Ford trade paint with Earnhardt's black Chevy during their side-by-side battle on lap 294. Nor did she see her husband hop on top of his car in Victory Lane, or the smile that radiated from his face.
``About halfway through the race, the cable went out,'' she said. ``It was just snow. This was when he was running about 12th.''
Only about seven weeks from delivering their first child, Linda had decided to stay home. But when the TNN telecast suddenly disappeared, she called Christie Cagle, the wife of team spotter Dale Cagle. Christie invited her over.
``Why bother?'' Linda Rudd thought to herself. Her husband wasn't doing all that well.
``Then he started running good,'' she said. ``And then I didn't want to leave the radio. So I didn't get to see it. I had MRN (the Motor Racing Network) in one ear and Christie Cagle in the other, telling me blow-by-blow what was happening.''
Thus, Ricky Rudd's 15th career was the first his wife missed.
``She hasn't missed many races since I've been racing,'' he said. ``I guess it looks like we need to have more babies.''
COPE OUT: Cale Yarborough told MRN's Allan Bestwick that he has released Derrike Cope as driver of his No. 98 Ford and replaced him with Jeremy Mayfield.
Yarborough said he has been dissatisfied with his team's back-of-the-pack performances and the number of crashes involving his cars. On Sunday, Cope, winner of the 1990 Daytona 500, crashed or spun three times and finished 35th, 54 laps back. by CNB