NASCAR WCUP: Ken Schrader gears up for racing at Darlington
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
August 30, 2001Schrader On The Union-Darlington Record Club...
"There are guys in the club that only come to one race a year, and they come to Darlington just for that dinner. I remember going to the dinner as a rookie and there was Elmo (Langley) - who had been in the club forever - standing there in his white jacket and I remember thinking to myself, 'Wow. This is a really big deal.' I got two poles in the spring and kept thinking I was going to be in until I realized you had to be the quickest in the fall. Just being part of the club is really neat because there are guys in it who would build special cars for the race, just so they could get in the club. Guys would show up with a Buick when no one was running Buicks because it would guarantee them a place in the Darlington Record Club. It is just a really neat program and I've been president twice, including this past year, but I don't plan on getting re-elected."
Schrader's Darlington Highlights...
Qualifying hasn't been a problem for Schrader at Darlington Raceway as the Missouri veteran owns three pole positions at the egg-shaped oval (spring of 1987-88 and fall of 1993). Schrader also has two outside pole positions and has started in the top 10 on 16 occasions.
As tricky as Darlington can be, Schrader enjoys the challenges of the South Carolina track. The past spring, for instance, the No. 36 "M&M's"® Racing Team qualified 11th and backed that up with a 13th-place finish. The spring race was the second with crew chief Newt Moore calling the shots from pit road.
Schrader will fly to DuQuoin, Ill., to run the ARCA race on Labor Day (September 3) at the one-mile dirt oval as part of the Illinois State Fair activities.
Text provided by Laura Ehret
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