NASCAR: Daytona Rudd testing notes 96-07-16

• Dave Rodman
• MNI - Motorsport News International
• Tue Jul 16 23:16:52 EDT 1996

        DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 16) -- Ricky Rudd opened a two-day test
Tuesday at Daytona International Speedway and had showed more than three
miles per hour of improvement over his performance of two weeks ago by 5
p.m. in a day that was interrupted by rain showers late in the morning and
early in the afternoon.
        Rudd's best lap to that point was unofficially about 185.567 mph --
or a great bit better than the 182.061 mph effort he turned in in Busch Pole
Award Qualifying for the Pepsi 400. That lap was only the 40th quickest out
of 43 cars on hand and Rudd had to take a provisional starting spot for the
"Mid-Summer Classic."
        His Tuesday lap would've earned him the 17th starting spot for the
Pepsi 400.
        He was scheduled to run a pair of Tide Fords until 6 p.m. Tuesday
due to the time lost to the wet track. Rudd planned to run a full day
Wednesday in preparation for the July 28 Sears DieHard 500 at Talladega
Superspeedway.
        Rudd did say the change to a 45 degree minimum rear spoiler angle
had particularly hurt his Thunderbird. The team spent much of the day
Tuesday doing various aerodynamic fixes to the car.