DLP® HDTV Team Race Report

Schrader Stays Out of Trouble, Finishes 27th at Phoenix

Date: Nov. 9, 2008

Event: Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k (Round 35 of 36)

Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Location: Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile oval)

Start/Finish: 32nd/27th (Running, completed 311 of 313 laps in a green-white-checkered finish)

Winner: Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

In a race that no one was quite sure would ever end, Ken Schrader dodged several accidents and finished 27th in Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Schrader, driver of the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry for Hall of Fame Racing, started 32nd and fought an ill-handling car for much of the 313-lap event, which was extended one lap due to a green-white-checkered finish.

The race was also interrupted by two red flags, which lasted a combined 42 minutes.

The first red flag was for a rare rain shower that came through the Avondale, Ariz., area just past the 35-lap mark. The second was for a nine-car accident in turn three on lap 275. The multi-car accident was one of four throughout the last half of the race that Schrader avoided in order to finish relatively unscathed.

“We dodged a few things today and brought it home,” Schrader said. “We couldn’t quite get the handle on it, but we missed everything out there.”

With the 27th-place finish, the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing remained 39th in the series’ owner standings with 2,337 points, 158 markers behind the 35th-place No. 47 entry of Michael Waltrip Racing.

Jimmie Johnson won the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k to score his 40th career Sprint Cup victory, his seventh of the season and his third consecutive at Phoenix. Finishing .295 of a second behind Johnson was Kurt Busch, while Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and David Ragan comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 55 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the race. The final event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Nov. 16 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race begins at 3:45 p.m. EST with live, high-definition coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 3 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.

– DLP® HDTV –