DATE: Monday, August 4, 1997                TAG: 9708040096

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS                      LENGTH:   70 lines

SLOWEST LAP OF THE DAY IS ONE RUDD WILL SAVOR HIS INDY WIN WAS MAJOR IN EVERY WAY

Most of the 160 laps Ricky Rudd ran around Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday on the way to the biggest win of his career were completed in less than 60 seconds each.

But the lap that took 10 minutes may be the one he remembers the best.

It came not in his No. 10 Tide Ford Thunderbird, but in the back seat of a white convertible - a victory lap to celebrate his two-car-length win over Bobby Labonte in the Brickyard 400.

The ceremonial lap at Indy is like no other rite of celebration in the NASCAR Winston Cup series. Grandstands line the old track on both sides in many places, and the legacy of almost 90 years of automobile racing oozes out of the stands as the applause showers the winner.

It gave Rudd time to relax and soak up the atmosphere, and to reflect back on a life of racing and the meaning of an ambition fulfilled.

``That was the neatest thing we've ever done,'' Linda Rudd said. ``You just can't imagine what it's like.''

Ricky Rudd now has won a major - the NASCAR equivalent of the Masters or Wimbledon. And a place that has always been special to him became even more special.

``When I was a kid, I raced go-karts and my dream was to go on and run Indy cars, because I was really too far north for stock-car racing. I won the national championship here in go-carts in 1971 at Indianapolis Raceway Park on the road course.

``During that trip, we came a little early and our registration was right over here at the Speedway Motel (now Brickyard Crossing). We took the tour. We went to the museum and everything.''

Ten years later, after he had become a NASCAR driver, Rudd was part of a press conference in the golf lounge of the same motel to announce a sponsorship from Indianapolis-based Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., for his DiGard Buick.

``I thought one day I would race here, but I had no idea it would be in a stock car,'' he said. ``I had no idea I would come and win here. It's hard to really put in words.''

Rudd carries himself like the fighter pilots he so admires. He is independent, efficient, consistent. He has nerves of steel. Lately, he's seen himself more and more in the role of the underdog - a lone wolf battling the combined might of the multicar juggernauts fielded by Hendrick, Roush, Yates, Childress and Sabates.

And both of Rudd's victories this year have been models of resourcefulness.

At Dover in June, he was right there waiting to inherit the lead after the big guns fell by the wayside one by one in the late stages of the Miller 500.

At Indy, his car was never the quickest, but Rudd showed his usual skill at lurking not too far behind the leaders. More importantly, his team plotted a gas-mileage strategy that called for one less pit stop than most others planned.

With the help of a couple of late yellow flags, the strategy worked.

``It was really a borderline, iffy situation if we could make it, but it was just close enough that we said we were going to roll the dice and go for it,'' Rudd said. ``As it turned out, those caution flags came out. We ended up making it without much of a problem. We didn't even run out.''

As much as Rudd loved basking in the limelight Saturday, he's not looking to raise his profile in the Winston Cup scene.

``I kinda like the low profile,'' he said. ``I wouldn't want to be in Jeff Gordon's shoes right now for anything.''

Now, however, at least Rudd knows what it felt like to be in Gordon's shoes when Gordon took that ceremonial lap after winning the first Brickyard 400 here four years ago. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Ricky Rudd added his name to those of the legends of the Brickyard

on Sunday.

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