Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Sonoma 350

‘You have to like it . . . not love it but like it’

Ken Schrader and the #49 BAM Racing Dodge team head to the first of two NASCAR Winston Cup road races this week. They will run Sunday’s 350-miler at the Infineon Motor Speedway, located in Sonoma, Calif., just north of San Francisco. The second will be in August at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

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.

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 #49 BAM Racing Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Sears Point:

“For some reason, twice a year you have a few guys whose minds start wandering and they start dreading the road courses. Twice a year - Sears Point and Watkins Glen - you start seeing that glassy-eyed look. You know it is road course time.

“Twenty years ago, there was a whole lot more of that than there is now. Twenty years ago you had maybe four or five guys who could drive the road courses, who liked running them and who did well on them. These days, the bulk of the drivers have either learned to love them or have taken one or more of the schools or something like that. There are more drivers capable of winning a stock car race on a road course now than anytime ever before.

“Where 20 years ago, you would tape over the fuel hole on one side of the car and drill a new one in the other side, take a short track car on the trip and figure you would hope for the best, teams come out to Sears Point looking for a big weekend. Twenty years ago if you concentrated on the road courses, you were just about guaranteed a top-10 finish with no mechanical problems. No guarantees these days. People are bringing some of their best stuff to the road courses, and that shows in how the competition has closed up.

“You have to like the track to be successful. You don’t have to love it, but you have to like it. If you go into any track, whether it’s a road course or whatever, and you keep telling yourself, ‘Man, I hate this place,’ then you are beat long before you get there. I don’t like Sears Point because I am trying to psyche myself; I like it because I like it. But if I went there thinking either I hated road courses or tried to convince myself I loved them, then I would have some problems.

“We have a good reason to be at Sears Point, and that’s that city sitting south of there. San Francisco is a huge market for our sport. It’s important for the fan base, and that fan base is important to our sponsors and to television. If we were running a half-mile dirt track in that same area, it would be an important race because of that market.

“The greatest challenge at Sears Point is the fact there are no passing zones. It’s a good ironic tough; the country side in Sonoma is so beautiful and relaxing, but the track can be frustrating because of the lack of passing zones. They had a few passing zones but those were lost to renovations to the speedway. There used to be three passing zones before the renovations.

“Now, there is really only one good place to pass. That’s the final turn, the 180 degree deal right before the start/finish line. You can ‘under brake’ the guy in front of you if you’re close enough going down into that turn. You can get underneath him and if you’re able to do that, you’ll beat him of that corner. You will see races won and lost in the last few laps there because someone was unable to protect their inside going into that final turn.

“The elevation changes aren’t really much. They make it fun. Going up to the top of the hill in turn one is kind of neat, definitely unique to the Winston Cup circuit. It’s the first time all year we aren’t running on a consistently flat terrain. That’s a lot of fun.

“It’s a bit of a blind right turn (turn one) but it’s not that big a deal. You are able to see fine, just as long as someone doesn’t get sideways right over the top of the hill. Again the greatest challenge is how narrow Sears Point is. It doesn’t allow many opportunities to pass.

“So the importance of qualifying can’t be understated. Any track position you can gain without having to pass someone on the track is good, whether it is gained in qualifying or in the pits. Track position there is magnified, and people are willing to do more, strategy-wise on pit road, to gain track position.”

“Kind of like Pocono, if you can catch a break and pit right before the yellow, you can gain a lot of track position. You’ll see a lot of guys doing that. You’re willing to gamble by pitting early at Sears Point because you can do so without going a lap down. Then hope for that yellow flag.

“Lay all of that aside, though - the market, the fact it is a road course - just forget all of that. The most important thing? It’s the next race on the schedule. It pays 180 points to win just like all of the rest of them. Everybody is loaded up and looking to do as well as they can do. You can’t afford to lay off for two races, even in a 36-race season. You have to go as hard as you can go every single week.

“We’re looking forward to Sears Point. For this BAM Racing team, we think we’re going to run pretty well and have some fun. Hey, I like the place!”

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