Waiting game

Other teams' futures hinge on Rudd's decision

While much of the NASCAR world and its media awaits Ricky Rudd's career decision, another team that doesn't belong to Robert Yates or Chip Ganassi waits, too.

The Wood Brothers are on the outskirts of that multi-team soap opera, but they're not untouched by it. Remember that their current driver, Elliott Sadler, prompted all the silly-season hoopla by asking out of his contract several months ago, and when word leaked that he was headed for Rudd's seat -- or at least a Yates car -- the drama intensified.

It has yet to cool.

On the sidelines, Eddie and Len Wood watch, and wait. They've got a seat to fill, too, but nobody's hounding them for quotes or updates a la Ganassi or Yates.

"You know what's out there right now, but you don't know what's going to happen after that," said Eddie Wood. "I don't think you can see anything settle down until Ricky is in place. I think Ricky's the key to everything."

More than a month ago, Eddie had described the racing business as "big kids playing with expensive toys." He was being funny, and irreverent, but the longer I watch this stuff, the more I think he's right. NASCAR's no different than other major sports in the sense that someone is always moving up, or swapping out; there's just no trading deadline to squelch all the activity.

This time around, Rudd is the clear prize. He doesn't have to be babysat. He is in the championship mix. He intends to stay there, both in equipment and salary bracket for the remainder of his career, whether it's at Yates or elsewhere, and hasn't completely ruled out retirement.

He is unavailable to the Wood Brothers.

"I don't think you'll see it, one, two, three -- 'OK, I got this one,'" said Eddie Wood of the post-Rudd-decision job climate. "I don't think it'll come that quickly. Everybody's waited this long. What's the hurry?"

The Woods are living by that philosophy. They're talking to four drivers, according to Eddie, who declined to drop any hints. He was to meet this week with officials from Ford and its parts offshoot, Motorcraft, the No. 21 team's primary sponsor, to discuss their driver situation. The Woods want input from both entities, and recent personnel changes at Motorcraft means updating new folks.

"You know what everybody else is doing, but you don't know exactly what everybody is doing," said Wood of the rumor mill. "Information you hear may be a minute old, it may be two days old. If it's much more than 10 minutes old, it's old news, because it changes so quickly."

At Indianapolis, two news conferences -- Ganassi and Petty Enterprises -- were canceled because of ongoing saga: glitches, lawyer talk. Who knows? The Pettys announced Wednesday that Christian Fittipaldi will drive the 2003 Busch series for them, and eventually graduate to Winston Cup, but they're not done with job drama.

Will John Andretti return to the King's car?

Who knows?

Eddie says garage gossip is as fluid as motor oil. He got up at Indy on Saturday morning, "thinking one thing about what's going on, and I'd been [there] 30 minutes, all that's out the window. It's, 'Well, I didn't know that.' It just changes, all the time. We're just going to wait, wait and see."

Most of us media types stalked Rudd, Yates and Ganassi all weekend, not unlike covering college recruiting. (Some of you who follow recruiting think it's fun, too, don't you?) Eddie says the best way to track rumors is to stand on a hauler roof and see who's talking to whom, or who's conferencing with whom on what hauler roof; a particularly handy tactic at tests, where there's nobody around except track and team personnel.

Silly season is probably past that point, but woe to the team that panics. It's no secret Rudd's decision will spark a chain hiring reaction, and it also could spark some surprises. So the Woods, along with the rest of the NASCAR world, still wait.

"We're just not really in a big hurry," Eddie Wood said.

Denise N. Maloof covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com.

 

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