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Back in the saddle At 55, Joe Ruttman re-invents himself in Truck Series
Posted: Thursday February 17, 2000 10:34 PM
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- While the rest of the gentlemen were starting their engines last year at Daytona, Joe Ruttman was heating his skillet. There was no other choice for Ruttman, a veteran driver who had no ride but did need to help his wife run a catering service at the track. "It's kind of a terrible feeling to come to the speedway, to hear all the cars running around, and you're over there flipping burgers," Ruttman said. He made it back to the right side of the track -- trading in cooking oil for motor oil -- when Bobby Hamilton hired him to drive for his successful Craftsman Truck Series team late last season. The 55-year-old Ruttman will start from the pole Friday when the trucks debut at Daytona International Speedway. "He's a '10' on the grill," said Joe's wife, Peggy. "But cooking is not what Joe Ruttman is all about." Daytona is a familiar setting for Ruttman, who made nine starts here as a Winston Cup driver over a career that dates to 1963. He finished third in the Daytona 500 in 1982 and 1991. His career wound through nearly every form of stock-car racing on nearly every circuit imaginable until 1995, when he found what seemed like a permanent spot in the newly forming truck series. By 1996, he was driving for none other than Roush Racing, the multimillion-dollar conglomerate that fields cars for Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth, among others. Around Christmas 1998, owner Jack Roush flew Ruttman up to Detroit for a sit-down meeting. For reasons the driver still doesn't know, Roush fired him. The move threw the family into despair. Despite his success in the truck series -- Ruttman is the third leading career money winner -- he knew there was no hot market for 55-year-old drivers. Joe and Peggy considered selling their house and changing their lifestyle. "It was quite a Christmas present," Ruttman said. "I'm not sure whether he thought I was too old, too young, or I didn't represent his company well. But it's his money, his gold. He can do whatever he wants with it." One of the things Roush had done for years was hire Peg Ruttman's catering service to feed his crew and guests each year in Daytona. In a strange twist of fate, there Ruttman stood last year, sweating over the grill, flipping burgers and preparing meals for the guy who fired him. "I thought about poisoning him," Ruttman said. "I had such a tremendous hostility, it's amazing. I have always loved this sport. And then, when someone tries to take it from you, it's tough. Inside, it felt like someone was snatching my love." If Roush took it away, Hamilton gave it back, and did it in anything but a halfhearted manner. The multifaceted driver-owner has two trucks entered in Friday's Daytona 250. He drives the slower of the two and says he's there only to help Ruttman win. The goals are not modest. The team thinks it can win at Daytona and contend for the series championship. "Joe has been a championship contender every year, and we are going to do everything we can to get him back to that position," Hamilton said. The next question is, how long can Ruttman keep driving? Although the reflexes still seem sharp, he's more than double the age of most of his crew. "We call him 'Grandpa,' " crew chief Donny Gill said. Still, Ruttman has no immediate plans to retire. He's gained new perspective on his lifelong passion. "To me, it's not an age issue," he said. "What it all boils down to is health and how competitive you are. At some point, if I get to where I'm not competitive, I'll know to quit. It could be one year from now, it could be next week. I don't know when it will happen." It surely won't happen this weekend, thanks to those who believed he still had what it took to cook -- on the racetrack, that is.
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