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UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 - Ken Schrader Notes
Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400
The 47-year-old Schrader, a native of Fenton, Mo., is 20th on the all-time NASCAR Winston Cup list at the Vegas track, and has a fondness for the speedway and the area. The busiest driver in major league motorsports, Schrader is looking for a “100-night” season this year, and will continue a winning Winston Cup career that has seen him win over $20 million.
BAM Racing is owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau of Coral Gables, Fla. The successful investors, who have fully funded the team for the complete 2003 season run, have built the BAM (Beth Ann Morgenthau’s initial) team from the ground up. Ms. Morgenthau is the only female in major league motorsports to start a team without becoming involved because of family connections.
General manager Eddie Jones is a veteran of the NASCAR Winston Cup wars, enjoying a championship career as a crew chief, mechanic and team leader. Crew chief Scott Eggleston is one of the few active crew chiefs in the business to have won a Daytona 500.
The thoughts of BAM Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Las Vegas:
“There were a lot of teams that tested well at Las Vegas, and a lot of times when you test well, in the back of your mind you are wondering how that will play when you get back. And I know a good test doesn’t automatically mean success when you get there and start playing for keeps.
“But I’d a whole lot rather go to a track knowing I’ve tested well - even if it might not mean a lot - than go into a track knowing I’d tested really bad - and thinking it might mean everything.
“We’re pretty pumped up about Vegas. We think we can run pretty well there. The test put us in a good position to go there this week and start from a point of success. A lot of times testing helps in that it shows you what you can’t do. If you are able to go into a track and know there are areas in setting up the car you don’t have to worry about, it saves you some time. A really good test is when you find some things that can help you a lot too. And we think we had one of those kinds of tests.
“Another thing that made that test exciting for us is that some of that can translate over to other tracks too. With testing limited as much as it is, you have to take the good things from one test and use those at other tracks. We feel our Vegas test will help us at places like Kansas City and Michigan, and other tracks too.
“Weather is going to be a factor there. For some reason it always is. It amazes me we go to places in the desert like Las Vegas and Phoenix, and run into weather problems a lot of times. If we’d scheduled Winston Cup races a couple hundred years ago, I guess there wouldn’t be any deserts. Schedule a Winston Cup race and we could turn Death Valley into an oasis.
“From what I’ve been seeing temperatures are going to be changing a lot too. That can affect the setup and what you can do with the cars. It’s fair. Everybody is going to have to work with the same weather. But take your baseline and feel pretty good about it, but throw an ice storm and some rain in there, then change the temperatures back and forth a few times - and don’t forget the humidity - and it can become a guessing game pretty quickly. Everybody has the same circumstances but you always want consistency if you can get it.
“We’re pumped up. The guys on this team are excited and think we can do pretty well, and I do too. Vegas could be a good weekend for us. If you can say that before you get to a blackjack table, that’s a pretty good feeling.”
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