The victory came on the heels of his historic win in the Menards 200 ARCA Racing Series event recently at Toledo Speedway. His next stop – Elko (Minn.) Speedway for ARCA’s Akona 250 presented by Federated Car Care Saturday, June 1.
“Thought we were going to have a real busy week racing last week, but we rained out most everywhere,” Schrader said. “We got two out of six (races) in.”
In addition to his win in the Indy mile Friday, Schrader finished second in his modified at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois Sunday night.
“Other than the mile and Granite City, everything rained out. Terre Haute rained out Wednesday night. The Indy mile got rained out Thursday, so they moved it to Friday. Got rained out at Pevely Saturday night, raced Sunday in Granite City, and got rained out tonight (Monday) at Macon.”
Attempting to run six races in six nights would wear most people out, but apparently not Schrader, who’s been doing it this way for the last 40-plus years. The NASCAR/ARCA veteran racer will turn 58 Tuesday, May 29, ahead of this Saturday’s Akona 250 at Elko. He’s also on track to compete in more than 80 races by year’s end. A combination of ARCA races, dirt modified races, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series will keep Schrader plenty busy for the year.
His ARCA win at Toledo earlier this month distinguished Schrader as the oldest winner in ARCA Racing Series history.
“We got caught off guard with all the publicity we got from that. For one, it was the only Sunday race, so that helped a lot. But ARCA did such a great job with the promotion of that event, and it was live on SPEED, so it opened it up to an even bigger audience. But I was quite surprised.”
His ARCA triumphs are a stark reminder of his versatile driving skills, with wins at Toledo, the Topeka, Kansas road course, the Indiana State Fairgrounds mile-dirt, the Illinois State Fairgrounds mile-dirt, DuQuoin, the Hagerstown Speedway half-mile dirt, Nashville Superspeedway, and other short tracks at Salem, South Boston Speedway, and Anderson Speedway.
In 61 career ARCA starts, he’s earned 16 wins among 40 top-five finishes and 48 top-10s, with 15 Menards Pole Awards presented by Ansell. Through it all, he’s led an impressive 2,226 laps in 35 races.
Schrader was also the 1999 ARCA Racing Series car owner champion with Bill Baird driving, and a back-to-back car owner winner at Daytona with Mike Wallace and Andy Hillenburg.
His NASCAR career includes four Sprint Cup Series wins at Charlotte, Dover, Talladega, and Atlanta, two wins in the Bud Shootout at Daytona, three poles in the Daytona 500, and eight top-10 Cup championship points finishes.
Prior to his stock car career, Schrader first made a name for himself in USAC where he earned the USAC Silver Crown Series championship in 1982 and the USAC Sprint Car championship in 1983. He has 33 career USAC victories overall in Silver Crown, Sprints and Midgets.
Not surprisingly, Schrader has already raced on the three-eighths-mile Elko track a few years back when track officials created a dirt surface over the asphalt.
“We raced up there a few years ago, but that was on the dirt. Either way, it’s a great little track. I like it either way.”
Raceday at Elko starts with ARCA Racing Series practice from 2-2:45 p.m., with final practice following from 3:15-4. Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell starts at 5:30 with the Akona 250 set to take the green flag at 8.
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