Pontiac Excitement 400 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Richmond 400
‘The perfect race track . . . today’

Ken Schrader and the #49 BAM Dodge team head to the .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway this week for Saturday night’s 400-mile race. The track, located virtually in the heart of the city, is considered one of the top architecturally-viable speedways on the circuit.

The 47-year-old Schrader, a native of Fenton, Mo., is one of just a few active Winston Cup drivers to have won four or more races on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit, and is the only driver with wins in five different divisions. 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 initials) 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 Racing Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Richmond:

“Richmond is a cool track. It’s fun to race. It’s fast enough to be really racy but slow enough to keep the cars close together. From a driver’s perspective it’s a great place. From a fan’s perspective it’s a great place.

“The talk now is, if you were building a brand new race track, what would you build? And the answer is a Richmond, or maybe a Bristol. No doubt this is one of the raciest places we have now and it’s great for the fans. It’s a good show on television too. And the night racing is pretty neat.

“The trends change, though. When I first came up in Winston Cup, I was hearing about Dover and how good a track it was and how good the asphalt was there. It’s still a good racing track but the asphalt has turned into concrete, and you don’t hear it as much anymore. After that it was Michigan, because it was fast and wide. The turns weren’t real steep so it made the racing better and opened up more grooves. Now you don’t hear as much about it anymore.

“Today it’s Richmond, and maybe it should be. It’s a good race track. There is a trick to it and it’s tough. But it’s fun and you can see the drivers are having fun out there because of the racing you see. But 10 years from now, it could be an entirely different track everybody talks about and for entirely different reasons.

“Good race tracks are in the eye of the beholder. What is a great track for me might not be so good for you. What is a fun race to watch for me might not be as good a track for you.

“Yeah, we need more Richmonds but, as far as I’m concerned, we need more Charlottes and Daytonas and Californias and Martinsvilles and Darlingtons . . . OK, well, maybe not any more Darlingtons but you understand what I’m getting at.

“The thing that makes Winston Cup what it is is not just the fact that these are the best stock car racing teams in the country . . . it’s the fact that these are the best stock car racing teams in the country on a different track almost every week. It’s the best stock car teams at a two-mile really fast race track last week . . . the best stock car teams on a tough little three-quarter mile this week . . . then to a mile-and-a-half double dogleg after that . . . a one-mile high-banked bowl after that . . . a triangle track, of all things, after that . . . and on down the road.

“That’s the reason the crowds are so good and the television numbers are so good, and people are not just building tracks but building tracks because we exist, and they want us to come race there. We come because it’s on the schedule but we come because this is what we do - and we do it wherever they tell us to do it - and we do it as well as we can do it when we get there.

“In a lot of ways, it doesn’t matter what they build because the trends will change. Just keeping building them cause I’m planning on racing there.”

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