Coca-Cola 600 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Coca-Cola 600
"Racing at a Racer's Track"

Ken Schrader and the #49 Schwan's Home Service Dodge head to the 1.5-mile Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C., this week for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

Driver of the #49 Schwan's Home Service Dodge, Schrader - who will celebrate his 49th birthday Saturday - 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 Charlotte:

"The second half of the "Charlotte-swing' is much more grueling than the first. The two May races in Charlotte are two entirely different races with two entirely different strategies. In the all-star race everybody can go for broke and give it that all-or-nothing approach, but the 600 is often a war of attrition. How many times have we seen the leader after 500 miles fail to win the race?

"To be good here for the 600 you have to be on top of your game by knowing what adjustments need to be made on the car over the course of about four or five hours. It's a great challenge for driver and crew chief. Here we are at the end of May, racing at dusk, at the most weather sensitive track on the circuit.

"The track sits under the sun all day long, so by the time the green flag drops it's normally slick. Then the sun will drop low in the sky. One half of the track is in the shade and the other half is still in the sun, making the car do all sorts of things you don't really want it to do. Then it's dark and the track really starts to cool. If your car's tight before nightfall you're really going to have your hands full come sun down.

"Now that the whole realignment issue can be put to rest for at least eight more months we can all focus again on racing, and what better place to do so than Lowe's Motor Speedway. People often refer to Lowe's as the original "cookie-cutter' that all these new 1.5-mile ovals were designed after. But, I'm not sure any of these newer versions are as good as the original. Lowe's is multi-grooved. You can race high, low, middle, and depending on your car they all can get you to the front. If you want to make a driver like your track, then make it multi-grooved.

"It's been nice being home the past couple of weeks, but we're racers and we're ready to go points racing. We're about to get into the beef of the Cup schedule. A lot can happen in the months of June and July where for the first time all year we're racing every weekend for a little over two months. What better place to gain momentum than in your own backyard?

"We've enjoyed success here at Lowe's. We've won a few poles and won the October event. This Schwan's Home Service Dodge team has worked really hard at improving our program on the mile-and-a-half ovals, and we're excited about racing the 600 on Sunday evening. One of our strengths this season has been the ability to improve the car's performance throughout the race, so we're pretty confident we'll be able to do the same on Sunday."