Richard Rudd, better known as Ricky, was born on the 12th September 1956 in Norfolk County (now known as Chesapeake), Virginia to parents Margaret and Alvin. Ricky became interested in racing at around the age of nine when he would race go-carts and later, in his teenage years he took part in motocross. He was eighteen when he first drove a stock car while practicing for his NASCAR debut at North Carolina Speedway in the spring of 1975. This was the first of four races that he competed in, driving for his uncle Bill Champion. He finished in eleventh place in his first race and had a personal best of the four at tenth place at Bristol Motor Speedway. For the next three seasons he drove for his father and in 1977, his first full time season, he had one top five and ten top ten finishes in a total of twenty five starts and was named as "Rookie of the Year".

Ricky Rudd in his 2005 #21 NEXTEL Cup car (Source:Wiki Commons)

His climb in the ranks over the next ten years, 1980 to 1989, was secured with ten victories, the first two of his career at Riverside and Martinsville respectively in 1983, eighty six top five, 138 top ten positions with sixteen pole positions, driving for some of the top owners such as Junie Donlavey, Bud Moore, Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick.

1981 saw the beginning of his incredible streak of uninterrupted race starts this led him to becoming known as stock car racing’s "Iron Man", after Ricky set an incredible Cup-record of 788 straight races between 1981 and 2005.

While driving for Hendrick Motorsports in 1991 Ricky achieved his career best ranking of second position and in 1992 he became the International Race of Champions (IROC) champion. He left Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the 1993 season to form his own race team, Rudd Performance Motorsports, at the start of the 1994 season. Ricky had his first win in his opening season of ownership by taking the victory at New Hampshire International Speedway driving the #10 Ford Thunderbird entry for long-time NASCAR sponsor, Tide before finishing in the top-five in championship point standings. He had another victory in 1995 at Phoenix in the Dura Lube 500 and again in 1996 at the North Carolina Speedway. His victory at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August 1997 made him the first owner/driver to win the Brickyard 400. When he lost the sponsorship of Tide Ricky decided to end his run as a team owner in 1999 having posted six wins for Rudd Performance Motorsports.

In 2000, Ricky joined the Robert Yates Racing team as the driver of the legendary #28 Ford. Over the next three seasons, Ricky had several impressive stats by finishing in the top-10 in championship points in all three years as well scoring three wins, twenty six top five and forty one top ten finishes. Over the course of his career Ricky went to victory lane at least once every year for sixteen successive years, a record he shares with Rusty Wallace.

Ricky left Robert Yates Racing team at the end of the 2002 season and Robert Yates changed the #28 team to #38 team, making Ricky the last driver to have driven the celebrated #28. In 2003 Ricky joined the Wood Brothers Racing team to drive the #21 Motorcraft Ford where he stayed until the end of the 2005 season, posting five top five, eight top ten positions and his final career pole position. At this point Ricky announced that he would "take a break" but not retire from racing.

The 2007 season saw Ricky return to the race track in the seat of one of NASCAR’s most legendary rides - the #88 Ford at Robert Yates Racing sponsored by Snickers® Brand. Ricky finished his career placed at twenty first at Homestead-Miami. During his illustrious career Ricky was: - Named as one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers in 1998, Virginian of the Year in 2006, Inductee into the Virginia Hall of Fame 2007 and Inductee into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame in 2010. Relaxing in his retirement, Ricky spends time with his wife, Linda and son, Landon Lee, enjoying Flying, snowmobiling, water sports and 4-wheeling. Ricky Rudd has left an unforgettable mark on the history of NASCAR racing and remains a NASCAR icon.

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Ricky Rudd - Wikipedia
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