Pennsylvania 500 - Ken Schrader/BAM Notes

BAM Racing Heads To Pocono
Car owner Beth Ann Morgenthau discusses season

BAM Racing, which fields the #49 AT&T Dodge of driver Ken Schrader, heads to the 2.5-mile, triangular-shaped Pocono (Pa.) International Raceway this week for Sunday’s 500-mile NASCAR Winston Cup race.

The past several weeks have been busy ones for the BAM team, which is working to establish primary sponsorship for the #49 car and Schrader. Beth Ann Morgenthau, who owns the team with her husband Tony, is the only female owner in motorsports who is not involved because of previous family ties. The successful Coral Gables, Fla., investors, who have fully funded the team for the complete 2003 season run, have built the BAM (Beth Ann Morgenthau’s initials) team from the ground up.

The 48-year-old Schrader, a native of Fenton, Mo., is one of just a few active Winston Cup drivers to have won races at NASCAR’s longest speedways. 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.

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 #49 BAM Racing owner Beth Ann Morgenthau heading into Pocono:

“There are a lot of ups and downs with auto racing. I knew that before we first became involved but it’s difficult to fully appreciate unless you are right in the middle of it. The last few weeks have been obviously intense ones for our race team from a sponsorship standpoint, but we’re hoping to keep working and to bring a good primary sponsor to a good race team.

“We have fully funded this race team through the 2003 season, and we’re moving forward in regards to 2004 and the years after that. We need sponsorship just like everyone else. But we feel we can give sponsors a better return at a better price than a lot of teams out there right now.

“We are making progress with our race team. We’re sitting just past the halfway point in the season and, when you look at where we were at the beginning of the year and where we are now, we are obviously making progress. We are headed in the right direction.

“Every week we get a little better. You can see it on the track, and you can see it in the attitude of the team members. We’re learning more, doing more, working harder and getting better.

“The restrictor plate tracks are a great example. We had a really good car at Daytona in February. We ran well in the Bud Shootout and had a really good car for the 500 but were wrecked in that one. We had an even better car at Talladega in May, and we had a very good car at Daytona a few weeks ago, even though a mechanical problem ended our night early. So our plate program is getting better and better every time we go out.

“That’s what we are looking to do here. This team has come an awfully long way in a pretty short period of time in racing years. We ran a limited schedule last year, and went into a full schedule this year. There have been ups and downs, sure, but there are going to be ups and downs for any team. Whoever wins the championship this year is going to have good times and bad times. That’s just the nature of the sport. When you can limit the down times and maximize the good times, then you have had a great year. I guess that sounds pretty simplistic but it is what it all boils down to.

“Every sport is the same in that respect. The team making the fewest mistakes doesn’t always win but they are usually in a really good position to win. You still have to take advantage of the strengths you have but, if you can do that and not make many mistakes, you are going to be in a good position. I feel like we’ve made big strides on both of those areas this season. As the team has grown, we’ve gotten better. When we’ve found a strength, we’ve usually been able to capitalize on it. When we make a mistake, we don’t point fingers, we just correct it and have usually been able to avoid making it again.

“I’m excited. This team is going places. Eddie (Jones, general manager) and Scott (Eggleston, crew chief) are working hard to make things work the way they should. The guys and girls on the team do everything they can to make things right, and they work hard.

“Pocono is just another step in that process.”

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