HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Back on January 11, 1981, no one made a big deal when Ricky Rudd started the DiGard Gatorade car in the season-opening Winston Western 500 on the old road course in Riverside, California.
Rudd would just as soon have no one make a big deal of his start in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford in Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In fact, his original desire was to step out of the car at the end of the race, say, "Thanks guys," and then quietly step away from the sport for awhile.
Fortunately, Rudd's wishes were overruled, for good reason. Sunday will mark the 788th consecutive start for the Chesapeake, Virginia driver, the longest streak in the history of the sport. His car will be decorated with a special paint scheme to commemorate his 788 consecutive starts and 875 career races, with the hood autographed by every member of the Wood Brothers team.
Rudd will not only be stepping away from the No. 21 car at the end of Sunday's race, he's taking a break from the sport. If his plan doesn't change - never say never in racing, just ask Mark Martin - his NASCAR record for consecutive starts will come to a conclusion.
Think about it. For 25 years, Ricky Rudd has not missed a race in NASCAR's premier division - whether known as Grand National, Winston Cup or NEXTEL Cup. For a quarter-century, Rudd has been there to take the green flag. His career started in 1975. He went full-time and won rookie of the year honors in 1977, besting Janet Guthrie and Sam Sommers. Back then, Richard Petty was still the King, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and David Pearson were still running strong, Darrell Waltrip was the "young gun," and Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte and Mark Martin were breaking in.
Putting it in another perspective, Ronald Reagan began his first term as President a few weeks before Rudd embarked on his streak.
He won 23 races, finished second in the 1991 championship, won the 1992 IROC title, and placed in the top 10 in the final points 19 times.
One memory of the streak is Rudd taking a wild tumble in Bud Moore's Wrangler Ford the season-opening race for pole winners, when known as the Busch Clash. Rudd had to tape his swollen eyes open so he could compete in the Daytona 500.
"As long as there was a way to compete like that, I would do it," Rudd said. "The duct tape got me through that weekend. That wasn't fun at the time, but it's a moment that I'm proud of. It's just in my makeup. I never thought about not racing."
With the hoopla surrounding the farewell tours for Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, Rudd wanted a quieter exit, both for himself and the team.
"I didn't really have any special plans (for ending the streak)," Rudd said. "It's a unique situation. You've got Rusty and Mark, and sponsors involved backing their farewell tours, and we didn't have anything like that. It was never really discussed. The Wood Brothers knew in late July or early August, which is well early enough for them."
But Rudd had another reason for not announcing any plans early.
"I was at Yates, and we looked at making the end of our deal when I finished my three-year contract there, and I let them know about the halfway point of the season," he said. "The whole team just self-destructed at that point. It blew up. We were second in the points, we'd won a race or two, and we were second in the championship, we had a chance for the championship. I don't think it was the fault of anyone. I learned a lesson from that, and was probably the major reason I didn't want a farewell tour, and tried to hold it back until the last minute."
"I haven't really thought about it much. I'm still think it's Homestead, Florida, let's go out and try to win the race, and if we can't, try to get the best finish we can. When the race ends, this is always the off-time. I don't think it will be real different for me until January, when testing cranks up. For sure, when Daytona rolls around, there's going to be something that seems missing very much. I don't know how much of it I miss. There will be parts I'll miss, but there will be parts I'm very happy about missing."
What are the odds of seeing Rudd in a car at Daytona?
"Slim to none. I don't know if I will be back. I'll take some time off, clear my head and figure out what I'll do next. I've had offers for the Daytona 500, the Grand Am, American Le Mans. There's a lot of things coming through, but the timing is not right. I purposely want to take time off to sort of just escape from the sport that I have been a part of for 31 years. I want to clear my head and find out what I really wan t to do next.
"It may be a return to racing. It may be I never step foot in a race car of any kind anymore."
