KEN SCHRADER: “When you sit in the race car, you’ve
only got a steering wheel and a couple pedals.”
Ken Schrader, driver of the #21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion for Wood Brothers Racing, answers his fan’s questions this week about racing at Bristol, the pavement at the Tennessee half-mile, changing teams and how the Lucky Dog rule works.
There is no racing like Bristol racing!!! Do you need completely different setups due to the times of year the races are run? (spring vs summer temperatures) “No, the concrete. The temperature affects the concrete less. You wind up adjusting at every race track a little bit, but you change very little from spring to summer at Bristol.”
Do you think the plans by Bristol to resurface will allow you to race there or will you keep "car wrestling" as you have called it? “We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t see it allowing two and three-wide racing if they do it with concrete again. They need to get someone who is in the repaving business to repave it. Then we could get back to two and three-wide racing like we used to do there all the time. But, as long as it is concrete I don’t see that.”
Kenny, do you get a little more excited than normal heading to Bristol since you’ve had quite a bit of recent success there? “Yeah, it’s been real good to us, and Ricky ran real well there in the 21 car so we’re looking forward to going back. It’s also a place where you can be real good and get knocked out real quick because you just get caught up in something. So we’ll play it as just another race.”
How hard is it to transfer to a new team and even equipment to start a new season? And second part of same question how long will it take for you to be settled and comfortable where you are now? “When you sit in the race car, you’ve only got a steering wheel and a couple pedals. You do your same stuff everywhere, and you relate to your crew chief about what you need. So, it’s really not that hard especially for the driver. Now, it’s a lot harder for the crew chief because he’s got all the new people that he works with every single day, but in the car it’s not that hard.”
So far how is the chemistry between your Crew Chief David, and Team Manager "Fatback" going? “I felt good with Hyder coming over here with me. But, like I said with the crew chief it’s harder. We’ve got Fatback who was the crew chief and going into the role of team manager. It’s not like he’s wanting to give up everything he’s been doing for years. He looks at stuff the way he did it and David and I are wanting to do stuff the stuff we did. You know it is just a deal where you sit down and get it all worked out. We’re getting there. There are always bumps along the way, but we’re getting her done.”
What is the best way to handle overly aggressive drivers? Do you try to change their ways or just stay out of their way? “Between all of us, they’ll get dumped a couple of times and they’ll figure it out.”
I would like to know how many numbers you've had since you started in Cup? I know some of them but I'm sure I don't have them all. “64 for five races with Elmo Langley; 90 for three years with Junie Donlavey; 25 for nine years for Rick Hendrick, with one race for Buddy Arrington, number 67 thrown in there at Richmond in 1988; then 33 for Andy Petree; 36 for MB2; 49 Bam and 21 here.
Kenny was the first car a lap down. Kyle Busch was 2 laps down but lined up in front of Ken on the restart, hoping to get one of his laps back. I understand protecting the Lucky Dog spot but Ken would have had the same opportunity as Kyle to get his own lap back. “Kyle Busch lined up in front of us two laps down, and I was only one lap down in the Lucky Dog spot. But, I knew Kyle wasn’t a concern because Kyle was fast. He was gonna get out of the way. He was not going to affect us. If the yellow had come out as soon as we restarted, Kyle didn’t get his lap back. I got my back. It is not the first car on the racetrack that gets the Lucky Dog that’s a lap down. It’s the highest running car in position that’s a lap down that gets his lap back. So, it didn’t make any difference that Kyle was in front of me. If it had been a car that was slower, I would have jumped, whatever and tried to get around him on the parade lap, but that wasn’t the case.”
Ken Schrader Career |
Starts
672
|
Poles
23 |
Wins
4 |
Top 5's
64 |
Top 10's
183 |
Wood Brothers Career |
Starts
1239 |
Poles
119 |
Wins
97 |
Top 5's
336 |
Top 10's
515 |
Schrader
at Bristol
|
Starts
42
|
Poles
0 |
Wins
0 |
Top 5's
4 |
Top 10's
11 |
Wood Brothers at Bristol
|
Starts
59 |
Poles
4 |
Wins
1 |
Top 5's
10 |
Top 10's
24 |
