Rudd a Wall of Famer

In his first five races at what is now Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Ricky Rudd won three poles, one race and did not finish outside the top four.
Rudd has won two races in his career at Infineon Raceway, site of Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race and one of two road courses on the Cup schedule.
His last win came in 2002. In his last race at Sonoma, in 2005, Rudd started 20th and finished second.
He will be inducted into the Infineon Raceway Wall of Fame on Friday, a testament to his stellar career at the track.
“I'm really honored and proud to be chosen for the Wall of Fame," said Rudd, driver of the No. 88 Ford for Robert Yates Racing. "It's wonderful to be a part of the history of the Cup racing out at Infineon and I'm just proud of the fact that we've had some accomplishments out there that they see worthy enough to place me on their Wall of Fame."
His frist win at Infineon came in his first Cup race there in 1989. It is still the closest marg8in of victory at the track.
“I just remember Rusty Wallace and myself out there in the final laps," Rudd said. "There was some beating and banging going on with our two cars and I just came off on the good end of it. No one got spun off onto the dirt or anything, but it was just side-by-side and two wheels in the dirt. It was just a typical old-style NASCAR finish and I remember that it was a dog fight right up until the end and even on the last lap. In all the wins I've ever had I don’t think there was one with a simple drive across the finish line to the checkered flag."
Rudd is the rare driver on the Nextel Cup Series who is a successful road course driver. Most drivers at the Cup level have little experience racing on road courses. Rudd has been able to post quality finishes almost every year he races at Infineon Raceway.
"I think the earlier days of Infineon a lot of the success that drivers had there was thanks to traditional road racing techniques to get around the race track," Rudd said. "Back when I began racing at Infineon there was only a handful of guys that you really had to focus on and deal with up at the front of the pack because a lot of the others couldn't adapt to driving cars the way we could. They were used to braking with their left foot and when they had to start braking with their right foot, it threw a lot of them off and they just couldn't do it. In recent years, Infineon is one of those tracks that's just very competitive."