u/WENDING0

I feel a little guilty about posting this car because it doesn't really represent Rudd in any significant sense despite having gis name on it; however, when I weigh that against how cool it looks, common sense goes out the window. I am honestly uncertain if this is my favorite Wood Bros car or not, but there is still one other Wood Bros scheme I cannot get out of my mind, so for now it is a close 2nd among the 21 cars.

This is from the Ford 100 Years Promotion that can best be described as a flash in the pan. Over a period of five days, from June 12-16 in 2003, the Ford World Headquarters (aka - the Glass House) was transformed into an entertainment venue complete with Ford racing exhibits, past production and prototype cars on display and for some reason Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, and Mark Martin were signing autographs at one point.

NASCAR wasn't the center stage of the event (since Ford put that 100 years logo on anything that stayed still for seconds), but there was a significant amount of collaboration between the two, culminating (for NASCAR fans at least) with the race on June 15, 2003. That day, Kurt Busch won the Sirius 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Driving the No. 97 Ford for Roush Racing, Busch passed Jeff Gordon on lap 177 and held off Bobby Labonte to secure his third victory of the 2003 season. Rudd wasn't really a factor that day. Ken Schrader collected Rudd on lap 2 when 3 wide racing went wrong. Rudd's car was hauled back to the garage area with the help of a wrecker.

While 2003 marked Ford's centennial as a functional company, it is often confused the 100th anniversary of Henry Ford’s historic 1901 Sweepstakes race which funded the company's launch.

As for the schemes, I got the base model from a sale by mod u/RowdyMatt51 (check out his stuff) and the dark chrome version from ebay. The dark chrome might be one of the most ridiculous purchases I ever made, but man I am wondering if I have another car in my collection that looks this good. For the record, they only made about 250 of the dark chrome and I have #17.

I was waiting for and dreading this day of the festivities at the same time. This car represents a beautiful moment, but I still find sorrow in the fact that Rudd would never get to see victory lane at a Cup event after this.

The 2002 Dodge/Save Mart 350 was the 16th race of the 2002 Cup Season. For Rudd it was also an advantage. Victory is never guaranteed in the cup series, but Rudd is a pretty successful Cup series road course driver regardless of the composition of the rest of the field. Rudd had also been doing pretty well for RYR since he arrived, and proved behond a doubt that he could be competitive. He finished 5th in points (right behind Jarrett) in 2000. In 2001 he finished 4th in points (right in front of Jarrett), and in 2002 he would end up 10th but with a win to his name (that is the win we are talking about today specifically).

That day, Jeff Gordon lead most of the race, with the normal cast of characters normally filling out the top 10 of a 2002 cup weries event. Rudd was usually hovering between 5th and 10th for most of the race. Jerry Nadeau took the lead by not pitting under caution with 19 laps to go. Nadeau led 22 laps that day, driving for Petty Enterprises; however, with 2 laps to go his engine blew and he pulled off the track just past the start/finish line to avoid causing a caution. Ricky Rudd, had been the focus of the broadcast for the previous 10 laps since he had been slowly catching the Petty car a little more each each lap. Nadeau, relinquished the lead that day just as Darrell Waltrip commentated on the air, "Finally, it goes the other way for Rudd." Stewart moved into 2nd but was never closed enough with Rudd to try anything. Rudd crossed the finish line first and this time he got to keep his victory (see the previous 31 days of Rudd cars entry focusing on the Hendrick 5 cars for more details). The sad part is that this was also his final Cup win of his career. Not his final win in a race car, but we can all agree that a Cup win is special.

Rudd holds 23 career wins in the Cup series; twenty were done in the span from 1983 to 1998, where he won at least one race a season for sixteen consecutive seasons. The other 3 came from his time in the Havoline Machine and this is the final of those wins.

For me, it is obviously a bittersweet memory I replay often. Especially since I have a framed photo of Rudd driving the Sonoma win car (chassis number RYR24) on my (dog's) rec room wall, but remember it is not the destination that matters the most. Instead it is all about the Rudd's we collect along the way.

As for the scheme itself, between the 28 Red and Yellow Havoline machines, my personal loyalty will always be red. In fact, this car should have been red as well, if not for some corporate buggary that happened behind the scenes. The oil and gas giant Chevron had completed a take over of Texaco in 2001 and had no interest in Texaco as it competed with one of their main brand. They did want to keep Havoline going though, so for the 2002 season Texaco was removed from all 28 cars, and they ran as yellow Havoline machines for the season before leaving RYR altogether for the newly formed Everham stables.

I will say as a final side note. I miss the clear plastic "diecasts" and wish they made more. I really love this 2002 clear car and wish I had more.

On the 19th Day of this glorious festival, we remember Ricky Rudd's final season in NASCAR, although, he did not drive the full schedule due to an injury I will discuss at the end of this post. After the final 2007 race in Florida, he retired from the sport with 33 seasons under his belt. In '07, Rudd had one top-10 finish, the outside pole for the Daytona 500 with his teammate on pole (the same as his first year with RYR), and numerous low to mid-teen finishes across the season.

In what turned out to be his only top-10 finish of the season, Rudd started and finished the Coca-Cola 600 in seventh place. A big gamble on fuel mileage allowed Rudd to pit at the perfect time to gain track position, while other drivers had to pit after Rudd and were not able to catch up in time. “I was having to save gas so much the last couple of laps,” Rudd said of his 7th place finish. “We obviously didn’t have a winning car, but we knew we had a top-12, top-15 car.”

The injury I mentioned before was his worse injury since that time he had to tape his eyes open to race, without telling NASCAR, thus accidentally creating the mandatory after crash examination rule. Rudd suffered from a separated shoulder in a multi-car crash during the Sharp Aquos 500, raced at California Speedway. It kept him out of the seat for 5 races that year, until he returned for the Charlotte fall race. The crash occurred on lap 181 when Jeff Gordon clipped the rear of Rudd's car. Rudd was reportedly knocked unconscious during the incident. "It knocked me out for just a little bit, but not real bad," Rudd said. "It was one of those deals that sort of stunned me. It happened so quick I'm not sure what happened, but I was out for a second."

Unfortunately, even if he was only out for a second, and seemingly free of any cranial damage, Rudd wasn't going to shrug this wreck off like he had in the past; many because he has lost the ability to shrug. "If you try to raise your arm at all, you can't do it," Rudd said of his left arm the day after the crash. "It just takes your breath." The following Monday, Rudd was given an MRI by the Carolina Panthers team doctors, of all people, to determine the extent of the shoulder separation. The damage was bad enough to keep him out of the wheelman's seat for all but the last 6 races of the reason.

While he was unable to driver, men not name Rusty, but named Wallace filled in for Rudd. I am uncertain why Rusty was the only Wallace of that era not to drive the 88 in 2007. They say that Rusty and Rudd were rivals when they raced in the 80s and 90s. They are not enemies though. I saw Rusty (at least in video form) make a surprise appearance at Rudd's induction weekend event in February 2025. He was very complimentary of Rudd, while congratulating Rudd on his induction. Rudd for his part seemed touched by the gesture.

Rudd finished his final race, and a 906 race career, with a 21st-place finish in the 2007 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "I think that retirement is the word I would use to describe it,” said Rudd of his future with the sport. “If I could get a limited ride with a really competitive team and a winning organization, I’d be up for that kind of a job, that’s the only way you’d get me out of my rocking chair, but I can’t see that happening."

And it never did. Rudd spent days after that racing other vehicles, but that was the end of his NASCAR Cup career. Today's diecast represents both that final race and that final season. The flaming snicker's car was the default, most common scheme that Rudd ran that year, and my personal favorite of his time in the 88. The simple choice of flames that represent the inside of a snickers trying to burst out of the chocolate shell is a compelling but simple metaphor for a man and a car with a hidden fire inside of them, driving them toward victory.

On a side note, I am happy to announce that I have completed my dual-car program for this scheme. The 1/64 and 1/24 of each generator run in 2007 are in my display case for this scheme.

The cars in this post are my 1/18, 1/24 and 1/64 variants of the 2nd Gives Kids the World charity scheme that Rudd ran. The previous charity scheme I showed earlier in the month was from the 1998 season. Today's scheme also ended up being the final true Tide Ride as it was the car Rudd ran in the final race of 1999. It is also a sub-reddit favorite. When you guys talk to me about Tide Rides, it seems like this is the one you want to discuss.

For 9 years before the 1999 season finale, Rudd and Tide were as thick as thieves. Rudd pushed the clothing soap when he joined on with Hendricks and Tide liked it so much that they followed Rudd to Rudd Performance Motorsport for 6 more years of that sweet Rooster meat. This partnership was so popular, Proctor and Gamble made a marketing video pitching the idea of sending a Tide ride show car around to stores to push additional Tide sales. Buying at least 200 cases of Tide from P&G got you the car for the day (minus set up and pack up time). BTW, there were roughly 10 boxes of Tide in a case, so you were on the hook for 2000 individual boxes you would take home and then use it for a month to do laundry. Anyhow, Procter & Gamble liked doing this so much that they put this pitch video on VHS tapes and mailed it to grocery stores because it was the 90s. For the record, yes I have a copy, and yes I have watched it. It is boring as heck but you do see the show car a lot.

Unfortunately, after the rough 1999 season, Procter & Gamble's moved to end its Tide partnership with the Ricky Rudd owned/driven Ford. Tide decided to move to a new Cup team being formed by IndyCar team owner Cal Wells for the 2000 season. Wells swears he didn't go out trying to steal anybody's sponsor, but there was blood in the water and the predators were circling. Mike Skinner's crew chief at the time was Larry McReynolds, who was reportly also courting Procter & Gamble to sponsor a team that Larry wanted to start. For his part, Rudd was reportedly confused by Procter & Gamble's decision. He told a Charolette newspaper, "Had they gone with Robert Yates or Rick Hendrick ... I'd probably step back and say, 'You know, that was not a bad call.' But I don't understand going with a team that doesn't have a shot."

My 3rd Carney care has arrived. I call it Mk. III

I come to you now with my favorite thing in the whole world: a contrarian opinion.

I do not like this car in a bar. I do not like this car with a star. I do not like it on a boat, I do not like it with a goat. I do not like the orange number, I am not a fan of the Purple Thunder.

The overall design is great, with the regular brown and gold snickers scheme being higher on my list, but these Snicker Dark colors for the Coke 600 are just not as good IMHO. Maybe a nice Blue instead would have improved it?

I am uncertain why this particular car is so coveted by the diecast community, but it is expensive and hard to find. I paid a little over 100 USD for mine but I have seen them listed for more than that this year. Last I checked Booth34 had one in their new store.

As for my fun fact of the day, it is about me and the Coke 600. I am not sure if this is the same for all drivers, but this month I am reminded about the number of cars I have that are Coke 600 (or World 600) cars. It feels like over half at this point.

Any Snicker Dark car owners out there? What are your thoughts on this scheme?

I know we do this for fun and some people will toss something up every day for the love of the game, but Rudd month is a fair amount of work for me... I made a color-coded spreadsheet for this. Now I do not want to sound like I am complaining, I just want to demonstrate how serious I am when I say that this is my favorite car to post. To stay sane in this crazy world you must have fun, and I have tons watching people's minds unwind trying to come to terms with this car.

This car says Smoke on the name rail, but it is a Rudd car in the sense that Rudd practiced it in the days leading up to the 2006 Neighborhood Excellence 400 Presented by Bank of America (the first Dover race that year). Rudd qualified this JGR machine in 10th place for that race, and Rudd drove all but the first 40 laps of the race.

How did this happen? Well the official story is that Rudd retired in 2005, but that may just be a nice way of saying that no one wanted to give a ride to a 49 year old that finished outside the top 20 in championship points for the 3 previous seasons. Whatever the reason, Rudd took his ball and bat and went home when he no longer had a ride (Tide or otherwise).

Years later, Rudd would comment on the Dale Jr. Download that he had seen how the earlier generations of the sport were quickly forgotten. He had personally witness gaints of the sport, from the 60s and 70s, visit his assigned garage one weekend and no one from his team recognized the these behemoths of the sport but him. I guess that really hurt Rudd, and shaped his views; because when his time seemingly came he made a clean break never expecting to look back. If only he knew about every May in this sub, or SatuRUDDays even, imagine all the trouble we could have saved him.

Anyhow when Rudd had no more attachments to the sport in 2006 he disappeared, becoming the perfect mercenary candidate for JGR. You see, Tony Stewart broke his shoulder during a crash at the Coke 600 the week before, and was struggling in the car. During practice for this Dover race, Smoke managed 10 laps in total, roughly 2 or 3 laps at a time. Despite this tiny issue, Stewart still started that first Dover race of 2006, so that he would be listed as the driver of the race, thus earning championship points from whatever happened that day. Roughly 40 laps in, Stewart was literally hauled out of the car during the first caution (a Tony Raines self spin) with Rudd filling in as the substitute driver for the rest of the race.

Of Rudd, Stewart said, "We got a great standby driver in Ricky Rudd. For a guy who's been retired, he has not missed a lick the whole time he has been gone. He got in here and it was like putting on an old pair of shoes to him. He was really fast, so I feel real comfortable getting Ricky back in the car."

The Rudd driven Stewart machine was actually pretty competitive that day. Rudd ended up at the back of the pack due to the driver change but fought his way up the score board. Rudd broke into the top 20 before he had a some unwanted trouble with a rule change. Rudd ended up with a pit road penalty after forgetting about the somewhat unique pit road exit of that race; an exit that extended pit road speeds far beyond the actual pit road exit. As a result of serving a penalty for that illegal pit road exit, Rudd finished 2 laps down (the 1st car on that lap) in 25th place when the checkers waved. That said Rudd had done good enough work to catch someone's attention for 2007.

As for the scheme it is good but since it does not say Rudd on the name plate it is hard for it to crack the top tenm and that is if you can find one. The 1/64 is nearly impossible to find these days. I have been looking for a while now and they never show up on the Electronic Bay.

Having issues with app, today's story is in the comments.

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For today's unlucky 13th Rudd day, we're talking about the 1st of 2 Bud Moore Engineering customs I own. I have a decal sheet for the 3rd, the Wrangler car, but I still need a donor car. Today's car is also reported signed by Moore himself; however, unlike yesterday, I am uncertain of the origins of my BME machines, or the legitimacy of these claims. They were just available online until I claimed them as my own.

Rudd's time with Bud Moore Engineering (or BME for short) was pretty eventful, even from the first day. During his first race with the team, he was involved in a horrific and infamous crash during the 6th running of the Busch Clash. It happened near the entrance to pit road and involved Rudd's car rolling over many times before coming to a stop in the grass of the front stretch. A crash that, in the moment, Ned Jarrett compared to a "bucking horse." As Rudd described it during his Hall of Fame induction weekend, he suffered a concussion, a lot of bruising, and torn cartilage in the area of his ribcage. What Rudd did not know at the time was that when the safety cars found him, he was not breathing and had to be resuscitated at the track. Later that evening he woke up at the hospital, unaware of how bad the previous few hours had been. Rudd reported that he was so beat up that he did not recognize the man looking back at him when he was given a mirror in his hospital room.

Regardless of reality, Rudd simply embraced the fighter's spirit that encourages the Rudd fandom to be fans. Determined to make the Daytona 500 no matter what, he went back to the track the next day and practiced. Unfortunately, in the corners of the track he would lose vision. Rudd's eyes were so bad that they were basically unusable in the banking, at least until Rudd's team taped them open, allowing him to compete in the Daytona 500. He also wore a flak jacket to support his injured rib meat. On the day of the Daytona 500 he was pretty much taped into his seat to start the race in 14th, but to his credit he brought home a 7th place finish. After a week's rest, he would win his first race with BME in only his second start of the season. That win at Richmond, and a handful of poles, helped him finish the 1984 Cup season seventh in overall points.

But make no mistake, Rudd was in bad shape. The last picture I will post is Rudd from that year's Daytona 500. I think you will be surprised by what you see since NASCAR was surprised as well. NASCAR would only learn about this all long after the fact, and immediately instituted the policy of examining all drivers involved in wrecks at the race track to ensure that they will be able to race safely the next week. Just another example of Rudd putting his mark on the history of NASCAR in ways you would not expect.

So why is this car outside my top 15? It has nothing to do with Rudd, and everything to do with how they stopped designing this car half was through. The end result is a resulting back end that is an insulting back end.

On another wonderful day of Rudd, we review the first in a long line of Rudd tide rides. This specimen also has another distinction, it is the only custom I can track the origins of (which I did not make myself). Of the 8 customs I own, 5 were bought from randos on ebay. I do not think I bought this directly from JDK Customs directly either, but I recognized it from their social media. Just to show the difference in our skill levels, the last photo is my Hendrick #5 custom beside JDK, and clearly a solid donor car is step one.

The cars themselves represent the first few years of the 1990s, when Rudd ended up driving one of NASCAR's most coveted rides: the Hendrick 5 car. It was a ride that Rudd certainly made the most of, especially in 1991, when Rudd finished 2nd in the Cup series standings, the closest he ever got to claiming the top prize in NASCAR for himself.

To get ready for the 1991 season, some covered Rudd in detergent but they used to much. It took the rest of the decade to get it off him, but along the way we saw some crazy stuff, like one of NASCAR's top 10 craziest finishes. Rudd got the pole for the race at Sears Point, and was competitive all day. As they were to start the final lap, Rudd touched Davey Allison's car in the final turn, causing Allison to spin. When Rudd came back around to take the checkers, he was shown a black flag instead. Allison who refired, ended up in 2nd-place on the track but got the win. Rudd ended up in 2nd-place; with Hendrick, and crew chief Waddell Wilson unsuccessfully appealing the black flag.

Unfortunately, even if Rudd did get the win that day, he likely would not have gotten the championship from Dale Sr. That year Rudd only placed better than Dale in 9 of the races: including the black flag at Sears Point and a win at Darlington.

Rudd would leave Hendrick at the end of 1993 to start his own team. At the Hall of Fame event I went to 2025, Rudd actually said he regretted Rudd Performance Motorsports. He did not say specifically why, but insinuated that he missed the plentiful resources a Hendrick driver had available to them. As for why it showed up so fast in the month, it is low on the list because the Tide Ride of my youth had a 10 on the side.

One another beautiful day of Rudd month, we hit another milestone. In my opinion this is the first true RYR car of the festivities. Yes, Rudd spent the 2007 season in Dale Jarrett's old ride, but when I think about Robert Yates Racing, I think of Rudd in the r3d and black Texaco 28.

This specific variant was the only deviation from that red and black car in the 2000 season. They only took one swing but from a pure aesthetics view point it is a pretty impressive piece of work. Also, this was the dawn of digital designs becoming real wraps, but computer technology had not advanced to the levels we have today. As a result, all of the cars were a mixture of paint and print. This made running the same scheme every week more realistic in those days, but this car was run during the 2000 coke 600, and that is the race where you put on your fancy pants.

Plus Rudd was not the only one with a special theme that day. The scheme was part of a National Defence multi-team sponsorship event, and given his family friendly image, Rudd was usually looped into these mutli-car marketing events. While he carried the Marines on his car, Mike Skinner took the Army, Bobby Hamilton drove the Navy, Jerry Nadeau had the Coast Guard, and fellow RYR driver Dale Jarrett flew the Air Force logo. Kenny Irwin Jr. had FEMA on his car for some reason, but I think that was unrelated.

Rudd ended up in 17th place and one lap down that day (which ended up being Matt Kennseth's first win in cup). Unfortunately, Rudd had a tire suddenly equalize while he was running 10th on the lead lap. At roughly the 500 mile mark of the 600 mile race, Rudd was forced to pit under green for new tires and fuel. Only the top 11 cars ended the race on the lead lap that day.

On a personal note, I normally toss boxes away. In my view, my Rudd Collection will stay with me until I am dead. After that they will likely be junked by well intentioned but ignorant family so I do not sweat the small stuff; but this is one of two boxes I will keep long term because how could you toss it away?

We have finally gotten to the point in Rudd month when the cars on display might not be first in my heart; however, I feel generally positive about them all. Now it is just about why they are not number 1 in my heart. For this car that is easy to determine, it is just very busy. There is a lot going on. I always have a hard time focusing on a specific part of this car, and that is not just because there is a pretty lady on the side. I feel like this scheme designer got paid by the square inch, and so a lot was jammed in. I have this car in the normal version, and a special Pearl version where less than a few hundred units were made. I wish they had run the Pearl version in the actual race, because sometimes less is more.

That said, the only thing busier than the scheme itself is how it all came together. DC Comics, NASCAR and Mattel came together for a promotion that saw Rudd and the 6 other Cup drivers paired with characters from the Justice League cartoon, famous among fans of all ages in the mid-2000. The culmination of this work was the Justice League Racing Weekend Presented by Hot Wheels® which took place August 21 and 22, 2004, at Michigan International Speedway; although, the race was officially labeled the GFS Marketplace 400 in the history books.

What ended up becoming a side promotion centered around Rudd along with Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Greg Biffle having cars painted in a Hot Wheels style. All the drivers also had a "Just-us Leaguer" on their car, except for Ryan Newman, whose car had all the heroes on it (NEWMAN!). Now if that was the end of it, it would have been a notable footnote in Rudd month, but this promotion resulted in one of my favorite quotes of the season.

"One of the weirdest jobs I ever had was working on a Justice League/NASCAR comic book. NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series had a few JL themed cars on track in 2004, and the comic book was a free giveaway at the races. The story involved the superheros teaming up with various NASCAR drivers to defeat the injustice gang. Aside from poorly rendered likenesses of the real NASCAR drivers and their cars, I also got to draw some villains I never got to draw during my time on Justice League Adventures," noted comic artist Tim Levins in an Instagram post about the history of this promotion.

Why just carry comic book heros, when you could be a comic book hero? Well Tim Levins did just that and I am at least able to pick Rudd out in the comic. He is wearing exactly what I wear to get groceries from the store. An officially licensed 2004 NASCAR/Wood Brothers/Motorcraft flaming jacket and blue jeans. You can tell which jacket it is by the color and flames on the sleeves. Rudd also says his famous catch phrase, "whoa!" in one of the panels of the book. Rudd is a massive fan of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey after all, so he's always saying whoa, everyone knows that.

As for the race it was a bit of a grind-session with 9 cautions. Ironically, the flash ended up carrying Greg Biffle to victory that day and the cold calculations of Batman got Mark Martin 2nd place. Rudd was the last of the promotion cars to finish that day, but only because Wonder Woman got distracted by a beat down, no holds barred battle for 23rd place with her arch nemesis...

Betty Crocker?

I guess it isn't that oddest promotion when you consider the history of NASCAR merchandising. An indie comic company once did a multi-issue run of a Legends of NASCAR comic. This wasn't a superhero deal either. The drivers were all playing themselves, and the books kind of focused on being a driver in NASCAR. I will post an image of the Justice League comic to avoid confusion.

The day is July 4th, 2007 and the two RYR car haulers arrive at Daytona Superspeedway for that year's running of the Pepsi 400. The David Gilliland's hauler opens up and out comes the 38 car with its slight twist on his normal M&M's scheme. Rudd's hauler opens next, and at first glance it appears that there is a mistake. Rudd's hauler appears to be carrying a back up car for the 38 team; however, upon closer inspection, you can see that this car is carrying Rudd's 88 on the door. While similar schemes on stock cars is not a unique situation for this series (like the red Dodges), and it is a common sight in F1 racing, it does go against the norm in CUP racing. The reason for breaking this norm? Mars wanted to get out of their deal with RYR as soon as possible.

For those who are not in the know, the people who make M&M's are not the same people who made Eminem, but they are the same people who make Snickers: MARS Incorporated. They are the same company that makes pet foods like Pedigree and Whiskas, or owner foods like Ben's Original. This McLean, Virginia headquartered company also boasts over 150,000 employees globally, generates over $45 billion in annual sales, and is ranked among the largest privately held companies in the U.S.A., and big players got to play big.

In 2006, the on and off tracks actions of Elliot Sadler that ended with him in a dodge, and the performance of his replacement Gilliland was making Mars inc. want to wander. The Candy King was now eyeing a sponsorship partnership with a young Kyle Busch, and so needed out of their deal with Robert Yates Racing early. Instead of a lengthy legal battle over unused sponsorship dollars, the two groups agreed that both of the Robert Yates cars would have candy sponsorships for the 2007 season, thus using up all of the sponsorship money. This allowed Mars Inc. to get out of their deal a year early, and let Robert Yates tie up the 88 team nice and clean (since Dale Jr. would be taking over the number the next year).

For the most part, the two Yates cars ran different schemes all season. Gilliland's car was usually an M&M's scheme: although they did play with the scheme a little from time to time. Rudd's primary was a Snickers wrapper, but he also carried combos, Pedigree and a few others during the 2007 season. This car is probably the easiest customer I have ever done. All I had to do was take the 38 car and change a 3 to an 8. Given how busy I am, it still took me a week or two to complete; however, it is nice to have an easy conversion from time to time. At the end of the images, I will also post images of the real 38 and 88, so you can see how close these two cars were.

Sorry I am late (busy work day) but welcome to another day of this glorious holiday. Today we're featuring a car that technically Rudd never drove. He did drive two Combos themed cars in 2007, the first was a generation 4 car that he ran at Pocono, and then a Combos themed COT car was raced at the fall Martinsville race later that year.

What is odd, is that MARS, the company behind snickers, pedigree dog food, and Combos (just to name a few) decided to run the rather odd "Man Mom" ad campaign around this time. The driving question behind it being, what would you mom feed you if your mom was a man? Putting the unfortunate ideas behind the ad aside for a moment; the answer is Combos, at least according to the side of Rudd's car. If you examine the replica closely, you can see that this 1/24 diecast shows no hint of this existential man mom question. My guess is that this is kind of like the child version of cars sponsored by beer or cigarette companies, but it is also possible that the Mom-Man phenomena was just to last minute to change the scheme of the diecast. As it appears on the diecast, the scheme isn't horrible, just utilitarian. If there was a face of a Man-Mom on the car, like there was at the Martinsville race, I am sure it would rate higher in my opinion; however, not like this... not like this.

I found some images on jayski.com of what the cars looked like in real life, I will post them after the images of my diecast. You will also find an image of a custom diecast that someone else made (I am still working on my own version of this car so hopefully I will share it one SatuRUDDay later this summer) from Rudd's mercenary work in 2006. After the 2005 season, Rudd did not have a full time ride, so he appeared in the Cup series periodically until he got another season long ride with RYR in 2007. One of the things he did in 2006 was early COT testing, this time at the Daytona track. During this day he tested out a Toyota for the Wyler.com team, which had a one race deal in 2007. This was the only time that Rudd drove a Toyota branded stock car, and because he had the 88 car for the 2007 season, Johnny Benson ended up driving the Wyler machine in its one race appearance.

a week but we are finally leaving the cars I find middling and entering the schemes I really like. There still has to be an order though, and this car I like is low on the list because it is from an era where the best you could do was a paint bucket, decals and stencils. As a result, schemes were far more limited compared to the machine printed wraps of today.

Today's car is a custom that I made using the same techniques of that era. The frame of the donor was also extremely bent when I got it. I thought I could fix it but you can see how unsuccessful I was given the front gap. Anyhow, Rudd first jumped into the 5 car for Hendrick Motorsports (the very same seat Larson has today) at the start of the 1990 season, before it adorned the Tide Ride orange that would pretty much define Rudd as a driver. His first year with the Hendrick stable saw Rudd behind the wheel of the Levi Garrett car. Rudd finished 7th, the top Hendrick performer of that year, with 1 win at Watkins Glen, 2 poles, and half of his races being top at least top 10s. Unfortunately, this was also the year that Rudd helped make the pit road speed limit a thing for all NASCAR events.

At the Atlanta Journal 500, when Rudd was involved in a fatal pit road accident with Bill Elliot's team. Back then, pit road was a mini race with a race. Looking back at those days, it was not a matter of if something would happen, merely when. As Rudd was coming down pit road, he locked up his brakes and spun into Bill Elliot's car. Rudd ended up facing the wrong way in the wrong pit stall and accidentally hit Elliott. This accident crushed one of Elliot's tire changers, Mike Rich - who died hours later during surgery, between the two vehicles. This fatal incident was what pushed NASCAR to implement pit road speed limits, for all of their series, in the hopes that no one else would have to suffer Mr. Rich's fate again.

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This is the standard paint scheme that Rudd ran in his 2004 season. It always sticks out in my mind because of the diversity of vehicles it was on today. I have schemes that were on more actual race cars, but not more castings, see the last few images for what I mean. While this scheme is certainly a step up from the Red and Black motorcraft scheme of 2003, the season itself had a lot to be desired.

Rudd's time with the Wood Brothers was seen as some of his weakest towards the end of his career. With the far more competitive Robert Yates Racing #28 Havoline Machine, Rudd was still in the top 5 in Championship points most years, but in 2004 Rudd dropped to 24th place. The most notable accomplishment of this year was Rudd's final pole of his career being captured in this car at Talladega Superspeedway, which started with him in 1st and ended with him on the lead lap in 17th position.

This was also the year that the Cup stopped being known as the Winston Cup. From 1971 to 2003, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the owner of Winston Cigarettes, had a deal with NASCAR to name the series after their brand. Fortunately, the death sticks Winston sponsorship ended due to a combination of things like changing rules regarding the marketing of cigarettes and a downturn in the company's profits, ending a 33 year partnership between NASCAR and Winston Cigarettes. I know that it will always be a part of NASCAR history, but main f$%& tobacco companies and their B.S.! As you can see by the decals on the bumper, this was the season NASCAR's top tier became the NEXTEL Cup Series.

A lot of people ask about the Give Kids The World car... but they usually mean the other car. This is the unpopular "older brother" to the "flower power" car that moat people say is their top Tide Ride; however, Give Kids the World is a charity that Rudd worked with for a number of seasons. It is a foundation that offers extremely sick children, usually terminally, a week long vacation at a themed resort. The hope is that these kids can at least just be kids for a short time, since illnesses of that magnitude tend to rob children of a typical childhood.

There is not much information on how this partnership came together, but this particular iteration did not end service as planned. With 3 laps to go, at the back of the field of the 1998 Brickyard 400, a crash collected defending race winner Ricky Rudd. Rudd's car remained on track for the rest of the race near the start finish line, but Rudd remained on the inside of the front stretch, out of the way of the other cars, so the race was allowed to continue to its conclusion: a victory for Jeff Gordon.

Since there is not much left to say about this race, I will now add that Rudd Performance Motorsports (the Team Rudd owned when Tide sponsored his car), according to comments Rudd made during his Hall of Fame induction weekend, was supposed to be Rudd's retirement plan. Rudd was going to expand his team over time, hire young talend and transition into an ownership role. Unfortunately the final few seasons that Rudd Performance Motorsports operated were the worst for the team overall, with Rudd finishing outside the top 10 in championship points in roughly a decade.  

The scheme itself is my least favorite in the Rudd stable. The final year of Rudd Performance Motorsports had two of my favorite Tide Ride schemes of all time, but this one looks like a normal scheme with a slight fantasy vibe. It reminds me a run down theme park, sure all the elements are there but they are all run down or poor quality. They should have leaned into the fantasy more.

This is a custom I made that represents IROC XVI. The sixteenth year of IROC competition, which took place in 1992, was also the third year the Dodge Daytona was used in competition. Here are the season results for the man of the hour:

Race One, Daytona International Speedway - February 14, 1992: Rudd Placed 2nd

Race Two, Talladega Superspeedway - May 2, 1992: Rudd Placed 3rd

Race Three, Michigan International Speedway - August 1, 1992: Rudd Placed 3rd

Race Four, Michigan International Speedway - August 15, 1992: Rudd Placed 2nd

As you can see, Rudd did not win any of the races, despite being right behind the race winner in most races. During this IROC season, the racing was so close most days that that at the end of the Daytona race, the second place fight between Harry Gant and Ricky Rudd was declared a dead heat & both drivers were awarded 2nd place points. Rudd ended up winning the IROC championship the same way that Alan Kulwicki won the

1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion, with a points battle. Despite being winless, Rudd had earned 5.5 more points than Dale Earnhardt did in 2nd place, to secure the sixteenth IROC Championship.

Rudd is very proud of this championship, and included the trophy in his exhibit during the 2025 Hall of Champions Viewing. Perhaps it was because he made it so close to being a Cup Champion in 1986, 1991, 2000 and 2001 but was never able to claim the prize. His closest chance came during the 1991 season when he finished 2nd in the points total, while lagging 195 points behind Earnhardt. 17 times out of the 33 part or full time seasons that Rudd ran, Rudd finished in the top 10 in championship points, but never managed to claim the highest prize in NASCAR.

On the third day of this glorious and holy festival, I bring you Ricky Rudd's 1977 rookie of the year car. This particular version of that car was the scheme which Rudd ran at the predecessor to the Coke 600, the 1977 World 600. Rudd, for his part, finished that race one spot behind his competitor for Rookie of the Year honors: Tighe Scott (who was driving the #30 car for Walter Ballard); and two spots behind a young Bill from Dawsonville.

At the start of the year, Al Rudd managed to convince NASCAR legend Will Cronkrite to come on board as crew chief for that season, which was a big deal. Will was already an established wrench god in the NASCAR pits who helped shape the sport in many ways. For example, Cronkrite let Dale Earnhardt Sr. drive that famous red and white 96 car at the 1978 World 600, which ended up being one of Dale's early starts before he was established in NASCAR. Imagine Dale Earnhardt Sr. without a permanent ride in NASCAR. We all have to start somewhere I guess. That said, if you are unfamiliar with Will Cronkrite, Will also worked with some of NASCAR’s biggest characters like Benny Parsons, Joe Frasson, Donnie Allison and Ralph Moody (who was in the same Hall of Fame class as Rudd last year). I recommend googling the episode of the Dale Jr. Download Will was on for more details.

Anyhow, getting back to Rudd, 1977 was not Rudd best year. Between purposely missing a few races because of low funds, and missing a few races because of low speed, Rudd only started 25 races that season, including finishing 22nd in his first ever Daytona 500. Unfortunately, he was knocked out of 11 of those races early; but, Rudd still managed to beat out Tighe Scott by 128 points and 3 championship spots to finish 17th in the points standings at the end of the season. Along the way, Rudd collected 10 different top 10 finishes, made $54,956 (in 1977 money), and secured the 1977 Rookie of the Year honors.