Rudd, Pruett Make Record Qualifying Runs

Ricky Rudd lost his longtime sponsor last year and had to auction off what was left of his racing team to pay bills. At the time, Scott Pruett was driving open-wheel champ cars in CART.

Sunday, in the CarsDirect.Com 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Rudd and Pruett will start on the front row, each in a Ford Taurus, after qualifying at record speeds Friday. Rudd did a lap around the smooth-surfaced 1 1/2-mile oval at 172.563 mph, nearly two miles faster than Bobby Labonte’s year-old mark of 170.643. Pruett ran 172.381.

Ironic in the front-row pairing is that Pruett’s car has the Tide sponsorship that was taken from Rudd, who later signed to drive for Robert Yates’ team.

“I didn’t think so at the time, working as hard as I could to save my failing race team, but this whole thing has worked to my benefit,” said Rudd, who also started on the front row at the Daytona 500 and last week at Rockingham, N.C. “I feel like a rookie with a new toy. I haven’t had this much fun in years.”

Pruett, who moved from CART with car owner Cal Wells, is a rookie in Winston Cup, although he has won two SCCA Trans Am championships, the 24 Hours of Daytona road race and spent nine seasons driving Indy cars.

“From last row to first row, what a big change a week makes,” said Pruett, who failed to qualify at Rockingham. “I have a lot of years racing but I had zero miles at Rockingham and it showed. We practice here and that showed too.”

On a cool day ideal for speed, six other drivers also bettered Labonte’s old record, among them Labonte, who will start fourth.

One who didn’t was seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, who said after Dale Jr. qualified third at 172.216, “Junior just gave me some tips. I’m gonna see how good they are.”

Not very good, apparently. Earnhardt’s disappointing 168.324 left him 33rd in first-day qualifying.