Auto Club 500 - Ken Schrader Notes

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: Auto Club 500
‘Looking to start the ‘racing’ season’

Ken Schrader and the #49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge team head to the two-mile California Speedway, located in Fontana, Cal., this week for Sunday’s Auto Club 500; the second race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season.

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 and continues to race on virtually every type of speedway in virtually every type of race car. Schrader 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 David Hyder has over 20 years of racing experience both driving and as a chief mechanic.

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:

“Daytona was the first event of the season… yes. But, California is the first race. Nothing against Daytona; it has great history and I can’t ever imagine us kicking off the season any other way… but, the restrictor plates just make the racing there such a different animal. Not to mention how it seems like every time we go to race at Daytona it seems a new rule change is in place, or a new body style, or new something that makes it slightly or not so slightly different than the time before.

“But, California is generally the same each time here. The rules packages rarely change from one time to the next, just like at most any other track we run at. We don’t have the plates, so the cars won’t be kept in tight packs all day and we’ll actually have a chance to get out and race. There’s plenty of room on the wide, fast surface of California Speedway and you’ll have to get out and race the track, not just worry about running over somebody, or getting run over with every single move.

“Speedweeks weren’t so kind to the Schwan’s Home Service team, but one race doesn’t make a season. Just when we had the car right and where it needed to be, we had a call go against us and then we lost the engine. I guess that’s racing, but it feels more like frustration. But, now it’s onto… uh, California. Man that sounds weird.

“We had an excellent test session at California Speedway just several weeks ago. Yeah, I know everyone says that, but as a team we felt as good as we’ve ever felt leaving a test session when we left California. For me it was as beneficial a test session as I’ve ever had. Anytime you can go to a test session and pick up a full second on your lap times, you have to feel like you’ve accomplished something when you’ve left.

“This will also be the first Cup race with the new ‘impound’ procedure after qualifying. The first few times we have this it’ll be interesting to see what effect, if any, this has on certain teams. Personally, I think it’s great. It’s cost-effective; teams won’t be spending as much time and resources just to turn two laps. They can concentrate all their energies into just racing. Kind of like your local tracks, where everyone is concentrating on racing because the heat races are the only way they’re getting into the ‘main’. Maybe that’s how it should be everywhere; show up in race trim, run a couple of hot-laps, qualify, impound, and race.

“We’ll be looking to start the ‘racing’ season off on a much better note than we did last week. These types of tracks, like California, are the ones that we needed to really improve on from last season, and we feel like we’ve made vast strides in the off-season to do so. Hopefully we’ll be able to duplicate the speed we ran out there in testing a few weeks ago. If we can do that, the Schwan’s Home Service team is going to turn some heads this weekend.”