Waid’s World: How Ricky Rudd Went from a Babyface to 1 Tough Competitor
In the first two races of the 1984 Cup season, in immense physical pain, Rudd scored a victory and a top 10, forever changing his image in NASCAR.
Steve Waid has been in journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.
Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing. For several years, Steve was a regular on “NASCAR This Morning” on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography “Junior Johnson: Brave In Life.”
In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast.
In the first two races of the 1984 Cup season, in immense physical pain, Rudd scored a victory and a top 10, forever changing his image in NASCAR.
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After the first two races of the 1988 Cup season, a tire war was waged between Goodyear and Hoosier.
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Steve Waid recalls a Christmas parade spent with the 1980 Cup champion.
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By the end of 1986 his achievements had raised his status to that of superstar. And he relished all of it.