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Schrader
Chronicle #7 - Fast, But Not Fast Enough
By Steve Stakem April 19, 2005 (This column covers Nextel Cup Driver Ken Schrader over his final season, or two, on NASCAR's biggest circuit.) Justin, TX - Failure to stay on the lead-lap hurt Ken Schrader and the 49 Schwan's Home Service Team Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, relegating the Fenton, MO native to a 23rd place finish in a Greg Biffle-dominated race. Schrader was quick in the the event's early stages and was dodging wrecks to avoid a shortened day. With a fast car towards the middle of the race, and Schrader running 18th after starting 30th, crew chief David Hyder made the call to stay out during green-flag pit stops to lead the first laps of the season. However, when an unwanted caution flew 10 laps after Schrader's pit, he was trapped a lap down to Biffle. Although close at times, Schrader was unable to run down the leader to score what should have been a better finish. "We had a pretty good car today," said Schrader, "but we didn't have some things fall our way that we needed to have the finish we deserved. This team worked extremely hard today and did a good job in the pits. Even down a lap we fought hard, but we couldn’t get the caution we needed in order to put us back on the lead lap. Had we got that break, we could have gotten a top-20 finish." Schrader gained one spot in the points to 31st, but lost ground again to 10th place, 256 behind Dale Jarrett; Schrader is 545 behind leader Jimmie Johnson. BAM racing now looks forward to the first Saturday night race at Phoenix where Schrader has 14 wins to lead all drivers, but who is still looking for that first Cup victory there. "To be fast at Phoenix you have to be able to handle, like pretty much every other track we race, said Schrader. The times we've run well out there, we've been able to keep it on the bottom and pick up the throttle early. It seems like a no brainer, but most tracks where you're good; you probably have those factors working in your favor. "This particular race should be as challenging as ever considering the twilight conditions we'll be racing in. Anytime you race in twilight you can count on fighting track conditions; even more so than at a race run completely at night or a day race. "We had a decent run out there last November and would like nothing more than to improve on that finish. For whatever reason, we've had reasonable success on one mile and under tracks. Phoenix has been good to us in the past and hopefully it'll be good to this Schwan's Home Service Dodge team this weekend. "If it were up to me, we'd race out there four or five times a year." Random Notes Sterling Up Six - Sterling Marlin drove to his first top-five finish of the season and jumped from 12th to 6th in points. Poor Bobby, Redux III- Now it's four weeks in a row of bad news for Bobby Labonte. An early wreck put him in the garage. Labonte came back out in the Interstate Batteries Chevy, but finished 38th. He lost more ground in the points chase and stayed in 37th. Top Jimmie, Barley - Jimmie Johnson scored yet another top-five by finishing 3rd Sunday. If you are counting, and you should be, that's 13 consecutive top-10s. Needless to say, he's still in the points lead with a 135-point advantage over race winner Greg Biffle. 17 Contenders - Only 16 drivers are within 400 points of leader Jimmie Johnson. Another 10 are within 500 and need to get moving along with those within 600 points, another six drivers including Schrader. 2005 Samsung/RadioShack 500 Results 1. Greg Biffle, Post-It/National Guard Ford, $540,250 2. Jamie McMurray, Texaco/Havoline Dodge, $316,350 3. Jimmie Johnson, Lowe's Chevrolet, $236,600 4. Casey Mears, Fujifilm Dodge, $215,908 5. Sterling Marlin, Coors Light Dodge, $166,700 23. Ken Schrader, Schwan's Home Service Dodge, $97,525 |
