Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus will be answering his fan's questions each week this season. Fans can submit questions to Ricky via his Web site at http://www.rickyrudd.com/askricky.html.

What do you think of the new points system?

My very first reaction was: Why are they trying to fix something that is not broken? Maybe tweak it a little bit; maybe do a few incentive things like additional points for the pole or a win -- bonus deals like that. But to completely overhaul the thing was pretty big. It wasn't a shock because we heard something was coming. But I kind of questioned where NASCAR's thought process was on this. But then the other part of me says there is a lot of this that we don't understand and we can't control it. So we might as well go into it being optimistic about it, and give it a try. We don't have a choice so we might as well make the best of it. And at the end of the year, we're liable to like it.

What is your strategy to make it into the top-10 in points?

I know mentally, my strategy is to treat the season as if it is only 26 races. Forget that you have 10 on the heels of that. I think Richmond is the cutoff point, the 26th race, and treat that as if it is the end of the season, and gear up for that. Don't gear up for the 10 races that are coming. And we'll see how it goes.

How do you think the new design of the Fords will perform this season?

I don't have all the answers to that yet. At this point we have tested at Daytona and we've tested at Las Vegas. We've come back to Daytona and in qualifying trim run extremely well, and we have the new Roush/Yates engine combination now. When we tested we did not have it. We had Roush motors, but we still ran extremely well. Is that because of the car? I'm looking at the fastest cars in qualifying here and four of them were Fords. And out of those four all of them had the new motor combination and the new body style. I would think the new body is helping. We haven't run enough to know what it's going to do in race trim, and we don't know what it is going to do when we go to the down force tracks.

What do you think of the Roush/Yates merger?

I think definitely we'll be more competitive. I think all the Fords will be more competitive. If I'm not mistaken, I think all of the Fords here are running the Yates/Roush combination. There's not going to be but about six to eight Fords out here this season fulltime. I think it is smart that they (Ford Racing Technology) have been able to get two of the giants together on the motor situation. I know Roush brought a lot to the table and I know Yates did, too. You know Yates has always been known for power. But Jack was able to bring some stuff that will help that even more. I think you'll see all the Fords step up this year.

Do you believe you get the same engine that the Roush/Yates get each week?

The only thing I can say is that we're in Daytona now, and we were the second fastest Ford in practice last week and fourth overall in qualifying. Four of the Roush cars are behind me and one of the Yates cars is behind me. This is a horsepower, aerodynamic track and I'm seeing no signs right now that I'm getting anything less.

Ricky Rudd drives the No. 21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus owned by Wood Brothers Racing.