WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Ricky Rudd is in position to join Jeff Gordon as the greatest road racer in NASCAR history.

        A victory today for polesitter Rudd at Watkins Glen International would leave the drivers tied with seven wins each on the serpentine layouts. But he won't climb out of his car with the belief he has one peer.

        “There are so many good guys throughout the field, winning is so tough,” he said. “I don't care how good of a road racer you are. If you don't have that race car underneath you, you can't get it done. It's all about the teams.”

        Where Rudd fits next year probably will be announced next weekend. He said Friday “there's no room for me at Robert Yates Racing.”

        Gordon, meanwhile, is defending his title in the race and trying for his fifth victory in the past six years on the 2.45-mile track. But he's starting 23rd in the field of 43, making his task more difficult.

        He won last year from the 13th spot on the grid.

        “Starting where we're going to be starting, we've got our work cut out for us and it stinks,” Gordon said. “I'm not really happy about it.”

        The four-time Winston Cup champion carries another burden, a 29-race losing streak. That's surpassed only by an 0-for-41 run at the beginning of his career. Once he began winning, Gordon rarely went more than a half-dozen races without a victory.

        Michael Waltrip is not as familiar with winning. His victory last month at Daytona was only the second of his career.

        But Waltrip, with road-racing star Ron Fellows as his coach, starts on the outside of the front row. Waltrip credits Fellows with reaffirming some of his own beliefs about racing on road courses.

        “Most of it at Watkins Glen is momentum because there's a lot of grip here,” Waltrip said of the turns. “You can really lay on the gas, and you just really need to make sure you don't ever wait on the gas.”

        Starting third will be Tony Stewart, placed under a season-long probation for the second year in a row and fined a total of $60,000 earlier this week for punching a photographer last Sunday at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.

        “I really hurt the people at Home Depot,” he said. “They have been so supportive.”

        Bill Elliott is driving for Evernham Motorsports the way Gordon did when Ray Evernham was his crew chief. Elliott's starting positions the past four races have been 1-1-2-4, and he has won two in a row.

        “We just keep getting better and better,” said Elliott.

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