Ken Schrader (DOB: May 29, 1955) is a native of Fenton, Missouri, who competed in 763 NASCAR Cup Series Races (1984-2013) with considerable success. But there is much more to the career of one of North America’s most-talented and versatile automobile racers.
All of this, of course, goes back to Sunday night May 30, 1971, the day after his 16th birthday, when the eager Fenton, Missouri, native began racing his Sportsman Stock Car at the quarter-mile-paved Lake Hill Speedway in Valley Park, Missouri. And he not only won that first race in his white No. 100 1964 Chevrolet Impala (a car with the same livery and number his father Bill used when he raced Midwest Stock Cars from the late 1940s to the early 1970s), but he also won Lake Hill Speedway’s 1971 Sportsman Championship.
Schrader also did some Midwest Sprint Car Racing then and his idea for getting into motorsports was based on a decision that matched his easy-going personality; it was so that he didn’t have to go out and look for a regular job.
Well, that decision proved to be a good one as after his early successes in local competition he moved up to USAC’s Stock Car Division in 1980 where he drove Henry Sieveking’s No. 68 Ford Granada to “Rookie of the Year” honors.
Then, he caught on with the Rose Bros. Trucking Team’s yellow No. 39 entries and with those cars he won the 1982 USAC Silver Crown Series Championship and the 1983 USAC “Thunder & Lightning” Sprint Car Series Championship.
In addition to winning these much-sought-after season honors, Schrader was: the 1981 4-Crown Nationals Midget Winner and 1983 4-Crown Nationals Silver Crown Winner at the half-mile-dirt Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
He also did rather well in the Copper World Classic at the 1-mile-asphalt Phoenix (AZ) International Raceway where he was: a three-time (1981-1982 and 1984) Copper World Classic Midget Winner; the 1998 Copper World Classic Late Model Winner; and, the 2006 Copper World Classic Stock Car Winner.
And in USAC’s Silver Crown Series he used Louis Seymour’s No. 29 Ozcar/Chevrolet to win: the 1987 Checker Classic 100 and the 1990 50-mile Copper World Classic at Phoenix; and, the 50-lap 1989 Pepsi Cola 150 on the five-eights-mile asphalt oval at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
In all, Schrader is the winner of four USAC Sprint Car Races, six USAC Silver Crown Races, 21 USAC Midget Races and 24 Midget Races in other series.
During his long and successful career, though, Schrader has driven many different race cars – including Northeast Dirt-Track Modified Stock Cars – and he is the all-time leader in Stock Car victories at the famed DuQuoin (IL) State Fairgrounds where he has driven into the “Miracle Mile’s” Victory Lane 10 times.
He has also done some IMSA GT Sports Car Racing, at first in the 1986 Rolex 24 at Daytona in the red No. 50 Roush Ford Mustang with co-drivers Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd and Kyle Petty. Then he finished 10th with co-driver Scott Lagasse in the 1994 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring (FL) International Raceway while driving the yellow No. 20 Consulier Intruder/Chevrolet.
And after he left NASCAR’s major series it was not unusual for him to race as much as 100 times a year in other dirt and asphalt Stock Car series with his Ken Schrader Racing Nos. 99, 52 and 9.
The former longtime resident of Concord, North Carolina, who now lives in Dittmer, Missouri, also owns another well-earned distinction as he has raced in 48 of this country’s 50 states. Still, while he has an open invitation to go racing one day in Hawaii, a track will have to be built in Rhode Island for him to make a clean sweep of it in the USA.
But it was in the wider audience of the NASCAR Cup Series where Schrader gained more national attention and he began that segment of his career in 1985 as the “Rookie of the Year” with Junie Donlavey’s blue, white and red No. 90 Ford Thunderbirds (1985-1987).
Then it was off to the Hendrick Motorsports No. 25 Chevrolet Monte Carlos (1988-1996) where he was: a four-time Cup Series winner (Talladega 1988; Dover 1989; Charlotte 1989; and, Atlanta 1991); a three-time pole-winner at the Daytona 500 (1988-1990); and, a two-time Busch Class winner (1989-1990).
He also won 20 additional Cup Series poles with Andy Petree’s No. 33 Skoal Chevrolet Monte Carlo (1997-1999), Nelson Bowers’ No. 36 M&M’s Pontiac Grand Prix (2000-2003) and the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing’s No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (2006-2007).
Plus, his victory ledger includes: a pair of wins in NASCAR’s Grand National Series (Dover 1989 and Talladega 1994) with his Ken Schrader Racing No. 52 Chevrolet; a victory in NASCAR’s Truck Series at Saugus (CA) Speedway on April 15, 1995, in his KSR No. 52 Chevrolet Silverado; and, 18 wins and 22 poles in ARCA’s Supercar Series.
In 2023, Schrader competed full-time with his red, white and blue No. 52 Fury SRX/Ilmor Federated Auto Parts/Hunt Brothers Pizza entry in the Camping World Superstars Racing Experience (SRX); a made-for-TV live racing series in which motorsports veterans compete on a half-dozen of the country’s best short tracks “… for some good old-fashioned rubbin’ and racin’ under the lights.”
He also entered his name into the record books on August 14 when he used Steckly Racing’s blue and white No. 22 Camaro to win the NASCAR Pinty Series Freshstone Dirt Classic 100 at the three-eights-mile-dirt Ohsweken Speedway in Ontario, Canada.
And with this victory he became: the first non-Canadian to win in that series; and, at age 68, the oldest winner in a NASCAR-sanctioned event by 16 years (Harry Gant was 52 when he won the NASCAR Cup Series Champion Spark Plug 400 at the 2-mile-asphalt Michigan International Speedway in Leo Jackson’s No. 33 Oldsmobile on August 16, 1992).
But Schrader is not just an on-track competitor as he owns the Federated Auto Parts Raceway (formerly I-55 Raceway) in Pevely, Missouri. And his association with Federated Auto Parts is a special one as he has represented that company for almost 25 years and it is the major sponsor of his No. 9 IMCA and DIRTcar UMP Dirt-Track Modifieds; cars in which he is still a strong competitor and popular winning driver. |
