TOLEDO, Ohio (March 7, 2017) – The glow from a win at Daytona never goes away, but there comes a time in every race team’s life when you put it up on the shelf for safe keeping and get on with the work ahead.
For Ken Schrader Racing (KSR), the focus is now on a brand new composite car for the next event on tour – the Music City 200 at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville April 8.
“Everything’s going really smooth,” said KSR crew chief Donnie Richeson.
“We should be setting it up on the set-up plate Friday. We’re excited. We took a little more time to build this car.”
As for all the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards teams, the newer composite machines have been a learning process.
“We’ve taken what we’ve learned about these cars over the last year and a half and incorporated our own ideas. It’s a collection of information we’ve learned as we’ve gone.”
Richeson and crew at KSR are planning to test at Nashville March 22. Several other ARCA teams will be joining KSR for the track rental.
If KSR has had more than a year to perfect its composite body program, the team’s driver Austin Theriault will take his first ride in the composite car at Nashville. For the record, Theriault has just three previous ARCA starts, all in legacy steel cars, with two wins and a fourth-place finish.
“We’ve done well in the older type body, but I’ve never raced the new composite car,” said Theriault. “That could be a disadvantage or an advantage. I feel like Donnie and the team have raced it enough that it doesn’t matter that I haven’t.
“I’m looking forward to it. I like the way the cars look…closer to a production car with production lines. They obviously punch a different hole in the air, but it should be nothing we can’t handle. That’s why we’re at the national level. By the time you get here, you’ve already experienced several different types of cars. This is just another step, another change, another challenge…I’m not worried about it.”
KSR raises big money for local cause
On the heels of the big win at Daytona, KSR hosted an open-house event to raise money for a local charity.
“When we got back from Daytona, we went to work getting everything cleaned up…cleaned the shop for a charity event we hosted,” Richeson said.
The charity event that KSR hosted was on behalf of The Community Free Clinic of Cabarrus County, North Carolina.
The Community Free Clinic provides medical care and lab services at no cost to low income un-insured residents of Cabarrus County who are diagnosed with chronic health conditions.
KSR raised a record $40,000 for the clinic. The clinic was founded by two doctors who initiated the program 23 years ago when thousands of blue-collar workers in the county lost their healthcare coverage after local textile mills began closing.
Don Radebaugh
dradebaugh@arcaracing.com