Sharpie 500 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Sharpie 500
Looking to improve on March’s sixth-place finish

Ken Schrader and the #49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge team head to the .533-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway this week for Saturday night’s Sharpie 500.

BAM Racing returns to one of its most successful tracks over the past two years. In the March race, Schrader drove the Schwan’s Home Service Dodge to a sixth-place finish; the best career finish in BAM Racing’s brief NASCAR Nextel Cup career.

Driver of the #49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge, Schrader is a native of Fenton, Mo. The busiest driver in major league motorsports, Schrader has raced on virtually every type of speedway in virtually every type of race car, and continues a winning career with BAM Racing, which fields the Schwan’s Home Service team.

The team is owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau, investors from Coral Gables, Fla. Ms. Morgenthau, whose initials make up the name of the team – BAM Racing – is the only female car owner in motorsports to become involved without prior family connections. General manager Eddie Jones is a veteran of the NASCAR Nextel 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. Business manager Gus Larkin is a successful veteran motorsports marketer, and leads the corporate sponsorship activities.

The Schwan Food Company is a privately held manufacturer and marketer of fine frozen foods through its nationwide Schwan’s Home Service home-delivery service, its Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America retail grocery business, and its Schwan’s Food Service Group foodservice unit. Headquartered in Marshall, Minn., Schwan’s production and distribution activities in the United States and Europe employ 24,000 people. Among its well-known brands are Schwan’s®, Tony’s®, Red Baron®, Freschetta®, Pagoda®, Mrs. Smith’s®, and Edwards®.

The thoughts of Schwan’s Home Service Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Bristol:

“This team is looking forward to Bristol because we’ve been on top of our game on short tracks for the past couple seasons. Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond have been three tracks we’ve performed well on, so anytime we have a chance to race at one of these tracks, we want to take full advantage of it. Give credit to the team. (Crew chief) Scott Eggleston and the guys at the shop have given me a great car every time we’ve come to Bristol.

“Not that we expect to just show up and be good, we work very hard at it, and Bristol is a tough little track to race. Basically because there’s just not that much racing that goes on there. It’s just get in line and wait for the guy in front of you to mess up, slip, and get out of the groove… or just use your front bumper to help him ‘slip.’ Bristol is the most one-groove track that we race at. Seriously, when’s the last time you’ve seen someone make a clean pass at Bristol somewhere other than the bottom line? And often times that pass isn’t too clean.

“It can get real frustrating as a driver. You’re riding around, stuck really, behind a guy in front of you that you may be a little bit quicker than and he’s not moving up the track enough for you to get around. Then the guy behind you is thinking the same thing about your car. You’re hoping the guy behind doesn’t get too impatient before the guy in front of you slips enough to where you can pass him. Then repeat that process for about 500 laps... like I said, frustrating.

“But, we’re in the business of entertainment and that’s what the fans want to see… and I guess it’s a pretty good show. Bristol’s so fast for a half-mile because of it’s banking - then add 43 cars that are relatively the same speed, pack in about 150,000 thousand fans, then turn on the lights… it’s quite a spectacle.

“The difference between a good finish and just a finish at Bristol is the nose of your race car. If you can keep your front end together, stay off the fence, and stay on the lead lap, then you can probably come away with a nice finish. The problem is: there are plenty of chances to get involved in something, tear up your front end, if not your entire race car, load up early, and watch the end of the race from your house.

“We’ve been on both sides of that. Hopefully Saturday night we’ll be in position at the end of the race to bring home a great finish and maybe improve on our spring finish at Bristol. We are capable. Everyone on the Schwan’s Home Service team is excited about this weekend… hopefully will be even more excited late Saturday night.”