NASCAR BGN: Oakwood Homes and Ken Schrader Return to Site of First Race Together

19 May 1999

It was at this Busch Series event last year at Richmond that Oakwood Homes made their debut as the primary sponsor of the No. 15 Andy Petree Racing Chevrolet with driver Ken Schrader. Oakwood Homes has had a business relationship with Schrader since 1986. When Ken and wife Ann first moved to Concord, NC in 1986, Oakwood Homes gave them a singlewide mobile home in exchange for some personal appearances.

"We moved to Concord from St. Louis when I got the opportunity with Junie Donlavey," said Schrader. "We didn't know at the time if things would work out, so we kept our home in St. Louis. We bought five acres in Concord and had a mobile home that some friends from St. Louis came to help us clean. After several days, it was clear that there was no way we could live in it. A friend introduced us to an executive at Oakwood, and I basically told him I would be theirs for life if they could help us out with a place to live."

ON RICHMOND ...

"I like going to Richmond because it brings back memories of the three years I drove for Junie Donlavey, whose team is based in Richmond, said Schrader. "The track itself is very fast, and provides a great show for the fans. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot of trouble with the Busch car there in both races last year. We hope to run as good as we did last year, but this time we need to come up with the good finishes."

OAKWOOD HOMES TEAM TESTS AT USA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY IN LAKELAND, FLA.

"We tested for two days in Lakeland," said Chris Carrier, crew chief of the Oakwood Homes Chevrolet. "Lakeland is a lot like Richmond, except it doesn't have the tri-oval. Coming off of turn two and going into turn three is almost identical. The car has a new snout and we were encouraged by what we saw. Usually with our regular Richmond set-up, the car pushes in the corner. This car was loose in the corner. We tightened it up, and Schrader was real pleased.

The car was used at both Richmond races last year and had a fourth place qualifying effort in the Spring race. The car was also ran at Indianapolis Raceway Park finishing ninth. It was ran at Las Vegas earlier this year. Carrier was the crew chief for Harry Gant when he won four straight Busch Series races at Richmond from 1990-1992.

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