Samsung/Radio Shack 500 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Texas 500

‘It’s fast . . . but we are race car drivers’

Ken Schrader and the #49 BAM Dodge team head to the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway this week for Sunday’s 500-mile race.

The 47-year-old Schrader, a native of Fenton, Mo., is one of just a few active Winston Cup drivers to have won races near the speeds Texas Motor Speedway projects. 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 Racing Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Texas:

"Fast. The first thing that comes to mind at Texas is ‘fast.’

"Fast isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. We are race car drivers. People expect us to go fast. We expect us to go fast. If we’re not going fast, then we’re in the garage talking things over with the crew wanting to know why. If we’re going fast and somebody else is faster, then we’re doing the same thing.

"This sport is all about speed. You are always trying to go faster. If you are running 94 miles per hour at Martinsville, you are doing everything you can to run 95. If you are running 194 miles per hour at Texas, you are doing everything you can to run 195.

"There are two ways around this race track - the qualifying way and the racing way.

"The qualifying way is obviously the fastest but you don’t have to deal with other cars or traffic or anything like that. You spend all day Friday in that first practice trying to find the fastest line around the race track, the line that works with your engine and your car. How you come across the start-finish line depends on how you came out of the fourth turn, and how you came out of the fourth turn depends on how you got through the middle of the turn and when you got back on the gas; how you got through the middle of the turn depends on how you went into Turn Three. It goes on back. How you went into Turn Three depends on what line you took down the backstretch, and that depends on how you came out of Turn Two, and that depends on the middle of that turn, and that depends on how you went into Turn One.

"Racing? Different story. That dependency on what you did earlier is still there but the other 42 cars mess that up nine times out of 10. You come out of Four the best you can because somebody might have run you high in the middle, and that’s because they got under you - or you caught them - going into Three. Do that 334 times. In fact, you make 334 trips around Texas during the race and maybe five laps - on your very best day - you were able to hit all your marks and take a really good lap around the place.

"OK, now the trick is to do that where you average 194 miles around the track. You’re over 200 down the backstretch, and running side by side with somebody else. Yeah, there is definitely a trick to it.

"It’s exciting and once you get that side-by-side stuff, it can get real exciting. This race could easily come down to something like we saw at Darlington, maybe without the beating and banging at the end. Or, if somebody gets hooked up right, they could pull away. There’s just enough draft in the place to keep you from pulling out too far a lot of lots, but there is enough horsepower to help you get a good lead on the car behind you if you are good.

"Texas has all the ingredients for their to be a really good race, and a really good finish. We’re just hoping to get this BAM Dodge in the mix for that."

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