The Ford Genuine Parts and Service team will use the same car at New Hampshire that it ran at Richmond -- a car prepared by new crew chief Michael "Fatback" McSwain, but not built by him. Fans want to know if the car will have the same setup that was used previously at Loudon, and whether McSwain can use his old notes from the 28 team. Ricky Rudd answers those questions and more this week. Submit questions to Ricky via his Web site.

Will your car have the same set-up at New Hampshire, or will you and Fatback do something different based on your previous experiences?

We ran really well there last fall, and finished second. Fatback sets the cars up in a different way than Ben Leslie set them up, but I can't say how different they are from the way Pat Tryson set them up. I don't know the differences. I guess there are notes to look at. Fatback is sort of a short-track ace, so he probably has his own notebook.

Are your old notes from the No. 28 more relevant today now that you, Fatback and Hoyt are back together?

Those notebooks nowadays change pretty quickly. And a lot of what determines the changes is that the NASCAR rules get tweaked a little bit. The tire probably dictates what needs to be changed more than anything. The tire construction changes all your spring rates and shocks. I'm pretty sure the tire we will be running this weekend is different than the one we used when we finished second. That alone, would dictate that you would not run your same setup.

I was at Bristol and listened to you and Fatback as you were taking the parade laps. Fatback said, "I put a little something in there for ya," and you came back and said, "Yeah, I haven't seen that in awhile". What was the little something?

Fatback raises up the bumper really, really good. That does two things. If you have to move somebody, it's there. Also, the check-up tight fender-bender accidents that you have there can sometimes tear up the radiator pretty good. It saved us a number of times with the 28 car when we ran bumpers like that. That is what he was talking about.

What incentive do teams that are not in the top 10 for the NEXTEL championship have for racing in the final 10 races? Will these teams be able to accumulate points?

I can't speak for everybody. Every team has their own objectives right now. If you are locked out of the top 10 because you didn't perform well, you need to perform better. So now you see a lot of crew chief changes because teams are trying to get their act together and use the last 10 races, not necessarily as a test, but to try to get the program strengthened for next season. You've got to come out of the box prepared next year. That is what we are trying to do right now, just get our program together. We need to run better. We need top-10s, top-fives. We need wins. We weren't headed in that direction, so it was time to make adjustments. 

Do you think the other NASCAR series will change their points systems?

I don't know. If the other series, such as Busch and Craftsman Truck, feels the change is a success, they will probably make the switch.

Do you feel that you and the Wood Brothers can improve to the point where you can become a championship-caliber team, or do multi-car teams still have the upper hand?

I think Fatback can provide that leadership to turn this into a top-caliber team. For the last five or six years, his teams have finished in the top 10 in points. When we working together at Yates, we challenged for the championship. We were second in points in 2001 up until September. We had some parts failures that knocked us out. And the following year we were in contention up to the halfway point. So he knows how to prepare cars for a championship run.

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