Pocono (July) Advance
SCHRADER ON MONTOYA: “… but what will greatly affect how well he does here is how friendly he is with his fellow competitors in the garage area.”
Ken Schrader, driver of the #21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion talks about Pocono set-ups, electronics, sponsorships, the mile and a half tracks and Juan Pablo Montoya in answer to his fan’s questions this week.
At the first Pocono race in June, a Fox broadcaster mentioned that race teams can use their Pocono setup at Indianapolis. Kenny please explain how a Pocono set up can work at the Brickyard? “Half a dozen years ago they might have been a little closer. They’re not that close any more. The tunnel turn might be close to the turns at Indy, but really the same set ups can’t be used at both tracks any more.”
Are you a person who has to have the latest and greatest electronics as soon as they become available or do you wait until you need something? Also, do you have a Bluetooth headset for your cell phone? “Not really. I’ve still got a Palm that I just use as a phone book. I am playing with the Bluetooth headset for my cell phone for my motorcycle. I’m not going to use it the rest of the time.”
Just wondering if you know what happened to Lyndon Amick? “I haven’t seen Lyndon in maybe a year. I talk to his Daddy every now and then. Lyndon is married, but I don’t know what he is doing.”
You included do any drivers in cup have personal primary sponsorships? Say you leave the 21, or other drivers leave their current ride, would the sponsors leave as well, or are they all team sponsors? “It just depends on the team and the driver and the relationship. We see Dale Jarrett going to another team and UPS has decided to go with him. When I left the 49 car Schwan’s decided not to stay, and I still do some stuff with them. Casey (Mears) is leaving the Havoline car and Havoline is staying there. It just depends who they have the closest relationship with. Everybody’s contracts are different. Normally the contract is not with the driver. A driver might bring a sponsor to a team and maybe the contract for both the sponsor and the team is for three years, but normally the sponsor contract is with the team.
Last year it seemed that the 21 team really had a handle on some of the mile and a half tracks (Chicago, Kansas, etc) and this year you guys have looked lost. Has the new body type affected this at all? “Well, at Chicago we were looking at a minimum of a top-20 and then had some other issues get us. We haven’t been to Kansas yet, but at Kansas last year the BAM car was real good. And, yeah we have had some trouble, but I think we’re getting closer to it. As far as the new body, it hasn’t helped. It just needs some more front down force.”
In your opinion can this team run with the best of the field (on most tracks? some tracks?). “Right now we run good on some tracks, maybe not most tracks. If this team was one on one with other teams, and there weren’t multi-car teams – I mean teams with four cars and building all their own stuff and trading information that would help, but we are a single-car team. But, we’re getting there.”
What do you think about Juan Pablo Montoya coming to NASCAR? “It can’t be anything but good for the sport. He is a world-wide racing figure. It’ll be good. It’s not going to be a slam-dunk for him. I don’t know him, but what will greatly affect how well he does here is how friendly he is with his fellow competitors in the garage area.”
Did you ever consider an open-wheel (Indy car) career? “Well, we went to Indy in 1983 and we ran 192. You only had to run 186 to make the show and we cut a tire and killed the car. I actually had another opportunity to run another car at Milwaukee, but everybody wanted to know what kind of sponsorship you could bring, and at that time I was racing to pay the bills and I decided if I wanted to make a career out of it I had to look down south.”
Ken Schrader Career |
Starts
687
|
Poles
23 |
Wins
4 |
Top 5's
64 |
Top 10's
183 |
Wood Brothers Career |
Starts
1254 |
Poles
119 |
Wins
97 |
Top 5's
336 |
Top 10's
515 |
Schrader
at Pocono
|
Starts
43
|
Poles
5 |
Wins
0 |
Top 5's
6 |
Top 10's
12 |
Wood Brothers at Pocono
|
Starts
52 |
Poles
0 |
Wins
2 |
Top 5's
9 |
Top 10's
19 |
