Ricky Rudd doesn’t know exactly what he wants to do in the future, but he knows that it’s not racing full time. A few days after announcing plans to leave Robert Yates Racing and retire from full-time racing at the end of this season, Rudd was asked what he’s looking for in the future and if he could be lured into racing on a part-time basis. “I’m not looking for anything, to be honest with you,” the 50-year-old driver said Tuesday at Michigan International Speedway. “I decided I wanted to call it quits, and the only way I would get out of a rocking chair would be for a limited schedule, competitive, winning operation, ready to go and for some unique situations they needed someone to help fill in the gaps. I’ve heard mention in the past of taking, like, three senior guys, or maybe two senior guys and a rookie. If that was with the right situation where you weren’t committed to running an entire schedule, you can kind of pick and choose your own races, and, again, it was a team that would be running for the full year, I would take a look at that. I’m not out looking for a job right now, and I don’t see that happening, to be honest with you.” Rudd said he wouldn’t want to “look like an idiot” coming back after he said he retired and said that the only way he would even look at the situation would be if he felt it could be competitive and that he could run well. “I think using the word ‘retirement’ would be the right thing to do, and it would be a rare situation that I would come back,” he said. “So I think ‘retirement’ would be the proper way to list me for next year. Retired.”(SceneDaily.com)(8-22-2007)
