Full Throttle

The pressure to excel in the first race of the ‘05 season has already seen tempers rise above the tepid level. And it was only practice Casey Mears and Ricky Rudd were competing in the second practice session under the lights at the 2 1/2-mile oval when they collided on the backstretch. The damage to Mears’ Dodge Charger was minor, but when the young driver approached Rudd in the garage area to ask what happened, emotions boiled over.

Michael “Fatback” McSwain, Rudd’s crew chief, stepped between the drivers and got in Mears’ face. The two were quickly separated, but it was obvious that just two hours into the official start of the season, the pressure to perform already is at a fever pitch.

“Ricky was cool when I went to apologize, but he [McSwain] needs to calm down a little bit,” Mears said. “Stuff happens. You don’t try to make mistakes, and you need to calm down when stuff like that happens. I came over to apologize and he decided to be all upset about it.”

“I thought I was clear and I wasn’t. I came down on him,” Mears said. “Fortunately, nothing bad happened. His car has a little ding and our car is OK. It was just a timing error on my part. I had the momentum to go by and I thought I got cleared to go back and pick up the draft. It was my fault, and it was my mistake, but everybody is OK.

McSwain did not comment on the situation, but Rudd accepted Mears’ apology and is ready to move on.

“Casey came over and apologized,” Rudd said. “I guess he made a mistake, and it’s very easy to make a mistake when you’re running three-wide like that. It’s pretty intense. I’d say he slipped up and made a mistake and I guess we’re lucky the damage isn’t worse than what it is. These front fenders are so sensitive. We did get our right front fender banged a little bit.”

I bet Rudd and “Fatback” have had a little sit down over the matter. Rudd has never had a history of confrontations and I doubt if he appreciates this one occured.