Auto Club 500 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Auto Club 500
‘Two races at California is what we need’

Ken Schrader and the #49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge head to the two-mile California Speedway this week for Sunday’s Auto Club 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.

Driver of the #49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge, the 48-year-old Schrader is a native of Fenton, Mo., and 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 California:

“My feelings on NASCAR’s realignment is no secret, and California Speedway is a great example of the positives expansion will bring to the sport. The facility is top-notch, it has well over 100,000 seats that are always filled, and it’s right beside one of the nation’s largest markets. The larger markets are better for television and for our sponsors. You give any sponsor out here a choice of going of Rockingham or to Los Angeles and I guarantee you the sponsor will pick L.A. every time… and they should.

“It’s like we’ve said before, like for most teams it’s hard for us to explain to a Schwan’s, which is sitting there in Marshall, Minnesota, why we’re running three races in the rural Carolinas, at tracks separated by about 90 miles, with 60,000 seat facilities that can’t sell out. Meanwhile there are tracks in much larger markets, with larger and newer facilities that are sitting there with only one date. Plus, we don’t really come close to Minnesota at all. That’s why it’s a positive step for the sport to bring the NASCAR Cup series to California Speedway twice a year. Yeah, it’s sad to see some of NASCAR’s traditional tracks become casualties in this whole deal. But, it’s a necessary step if we’re committed to making NASCAR a truly national sport.

“The track itself is wide and fast, so you better have good horsepower and an aero package to boot. Since it’s so big and wide it does allow for other factors such as fuel mileage to come into play. Usually there aren’t many cautions at California, so it allows a team and crew chief to figure the ‘pit-windows’ and pit the least amount of times. Some teams got really good at that last year. We were fortunate enough to work it out to our advantage on several occasions. Anytime you can pit the least amount of times, and if the race will stay caution-free down the stretch, then you can come away with a pretty good finish.

“As a team, we’re excited about coming to California. Right now we’re excited about everywhere we go. For the last four or five races… really all season, this Schwan’s Home Service Dodge team has had good, competitive race cars. The results haven’t always been quite like we want, but for the most part the cars have been good. Last season we had a top ten finish, eighth to be exact, at California’s sister track, Michigan. We believe we can produce the same result this week at California.”