“What I gave him was a clean love tap,” Ricky Rudd said after winning the Sept. 8, 2001 Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond Int’l Raceway. “What he (Kevin Harvick) gave me was a cheap shot. I should have wrecked.”
Rudd did not wreck. The veteran driver of the No. 28 Texaco Ford recovered and paid back the favor with six laps to go in racing to his second victory of the season.
Harvick finished second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third, followed by Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace.
Wallace dominated the 400-lap event on the three-quarter-mile D-shaped oval but what appeared to be a late-race tap by Rudd knocked Wallace from the lead on lap 375.
Harvick then bumped Rudd on lap 383, taking the lead, and setting up a thrilling final duel as Rudd bumped his way back past Harvick on lap 394.
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