What is the biggest challenge of racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway?
Qualifying and racing at Atlanta are two different things and I think that has always been the biggest challenge. Atlanta is just a very fast track when you go to qualify. The new tires give you very good grip and the car usually has a good amount of tape on the grill when we go out for qualifying. Both of those factors combined with the fact that qualifying take place at night, really leads to some very high speeds for qualifying. In race trim the pace slows down a little bit and the groove that drivers run widens out a little more. One of the great things about Atlanta is that drivers do have a variety of grooves that they can run in during the race so a lot of times there is enough room to race each other there. NOTES OF INTEREST: * Rudd has 57 starts at Atlanta, which ties him with Bill Elliott for the most starts of any active NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver * Rudd has an average starting position of 19.6, and an average finish of 17.6 at Atlanta * Rudd has completed 16,791 of 18,
