 | |
| Owner | Ken Schrader |
|---|---|
| Base | Concord, North Carolina |
| Series | ARCA Menards Series |
| Manufacturer | Ford |
| Opened | 1987 |
| Closed | 2020 |
| Career | |
| Debut | NASCAR Cup Series: 1990AC Spark Plug 500 (Pocono) NASCAR Xfinity Series: 1987AC-Delco 200 (Rockingham) NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series: 1995Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic (Phoenix) ARCA Menards Series: 1989Daytona ARCA 200 (Daytona) |
| Latest race | Xfinity Series: 2002O'Reilly 300 (Texas) Truck Series: 2015Mudsummer Classic (Eldora) ARCA Menards Series: 2019Southern Illinois 100 (DuQuoin) |
| Races competed | Total: 627 Cup Series: 1 Xfinity Series: 92 Truck Series: 173 ARCA Menards Series: 361 |
| Drivers' Championships | ARCA Menards Series: 1 |
| Race victories | Total: 38 Cup Series: 0 Xfinity Series: 2 Truck Series: 1 ARCA Menards Series: 35 |
| Pole positions | Total: 39 Cup Series: 0 Xfinity Series: 1 Truck Series: 4 ARCA Menards Series: 34 |
Ken Schrader Racing (KSR) was an American professionalstock car racing team that last competed part-time in theARCA Menards Series, fielding the No. 52 forNatalie Decker. The team was owned by longtimeNASCAR driverKen Schrader. Over the years, Schrader has also fielded his team in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series in addition to in ARCA.
Schrader began fielding his own team in1987 in the then-Busch Series, driving the No. 45Red Baron PizzaFord Thunderbird atNorth Carolina Speedway. Qualifying 21st, he finished 5th, one lap down. He switched to the No. 52 and Chevrolets in1988 and picked up sponsorship fromExxon. Running ten races, he had two top-fives and finished 32nd in points. In1989, he made twelve races and picked up his first win in the Busch Series atDover, and ran withKodiak sponsorship in1990. During the 1990 season, his team ran its first Winston Cup race whenBrian Ross drove the No. 58Pontiac atPocono Raceway, finishing 27th after suffering an engine failure. Schrader would change his number to 15 in1991, and had four top-five finishes.
AC Delco became the new team sponsor in1992, and Schrader finished 29th in points, a career-best for him in the Busch Series. He switched back to the No. 52 in1993, winning the pole at the season opening race, but had three top-tens, his lowest total since 1990. In1994, he won his most recent race atTalladega Superspeedway, and had two other top-fives. After the1995 season, the team retired from the Busch Series.
Schrader began fielding trucks during the series' inaugural season in1995. Driving the No. 52Chevrolet Silverado with an AC Delco sponsorship, he made seven starts and won atSaugus Speedway. He ran three races in his truck in1996, sharing the ride withTobey Butler, who won the pole atEvergreen Speedway. Schrader Racing also ran a pair of Cup races, withJack Sprague driving the No. 52Pedigree Petfoods-sponsoredPontiac Grand Prix, his best finish being 23rd at Phoenix.
Butler was hired as the team's full-time driver in1997, withPurolator becoming the team's new sponsor. After eleven races, he was replaced byMike Wallace, who had a second-place finish atCalifornia Speedway. Schrader himself ran a second entry, the No. 53Penda Truck Accessories-sponsored Chevy, atRichmond International Raceway, finishing sixth. Wallace drove exclusively for Schrader in1998, posting eleven top-tens. He would leave forUltra Motorsports at the end of the season, and Purolator ended its sponsorship in NASCAR.
RookieScott Hansen was tabbed as the new driver of the 52, andOakwood Homes became the team's new sponsor. Hansen qualified for every race and had three top-tens when Schrader replaced him in the final race of the year, where he crashed out. Hansen still finished 2nd in theNASCAR Rookie of the Year standings and eighteenth in points. The 52 team went back to part-time racing after picking up a Federated Auto Parts sponsorship in2000, with Schrader sharing the ride withLyndon Amick, who had a second-place run atIndianapolis Raceway Park. Schrader and Amick continued to run part-time in 2001, with Schrader himself posting a second-place finish atDarlington Raceway. During 2001 and 2002, KSR ran in the Busch Series again in the No. 07 Chevy with Schrader attempting a total of three races, andMichael Vergers failing to qualify in his attempt. In2002, Wallace returned to the team as co-driver, replacing Amick. The two would combine for twelve starts and five top-ten finishes. Schrader ran eleven races in2003, and Wallace four, with four top-tens. Wallace began the2004 season with a third-place finish, before Schrader took over for the rest of the runs for the years. He had four top-tens and a pole atBristol Motor Speedway. He made nine more starts in2005, but had only one top-ten finish.
KSR did not run any Truck Series races over the next two seasons, focusing on the ARCA series, fielding entries for Chris Bristol. The team returned in2008, when Schrader returned with Federated Auto Parts sponsoring hisToyota Tundra. In his first race back, he started 28th and finished 4th.
The team returned once again in2013 at the inauguralMudsummer Classic atEldora Speedway, with Schrader winning the pole position, becoming the oldest pole-sitter in NASCAR history.[1] Schrader returned in his No. 52 in both2014 and2015 for the races at Eldora, which were the only NASCAR events he and his team competed in. In2016, Schrader drove the No. 71Toyota Tundra atEldora's race in a partnership between his own team andContreras Motorsports so he had a better chance of qualifying with the large entry lists the series was seeing that year.
For2016, the No. 52 team ran with one driver for the full season for the first time in over three years, with Matt Kurzejewski joining the team after getting many good finishes driving part-time for his own team for a few years. Despite not winning any races, he earned a third place finish in points. Also, they picked up sponsorship fromMenards (as well asAnsell), which moved over to KSR after sponsoringFrank Kimmel since2009. They replaced Federated Auto Parts as the team's full season sponsor.[2]
The team ran the fullARCA Racing Series schedule in2017 withAustin Theriault.[3] However, Menards did not return in 2017, and they were only able to find sponsors race-by-race. The team scored 7 wins en route to the championship, which Theriault and the team clinched in the penultimate race atKentucky. The team struggled with finding sponsorship both that year and in2018, and as a result, the team only guaranteed Theriault to run the car at the 2018 season opener at Daytona.[4] However, weeks before the start of the season, those plans changed as the team signed up-and-comerWill Rodgers to drive for KSR part-time, starting at Daytona and then in a second car with sponsorship from Drydene. He had previously driven for KSR at ARCA's testing at Daytona in January 2018.[5] Because Rodgers brought a sponsor and Theriault did not, Theriault was left without a ride. At the same time, they announced that Brandon Grosso would attempt to run all the races for them after Daytona (where he was still only 17 and not eligible to run there). Grosso was eventually released during the season, and Rodgers moved from the No. 11 car (which Schrader fielded in a collaboration with Fast Track Racing) to the team's primary car, the No. 52, for his remaining starts.[6]
After his own team was also struggling financially,Bret Holmes did not field his own No. 23 car at the race atIowa and drove Schrader's No. 52 instead for that race along with two others. In2019, the team only ran two races, atDaytona withTyler Dippel andDuQuoin with Schrader himself.
For2020, Schrader's team partnered with late model teamFury Race Cars to jointly field Fury's driverNatalie Decker in the No. 52 at Daytona in preparation for her start in the Truck Series race there driving forNiece Motorsports.[7] This was not Fury's first time running a stock-car team, as they fielded a part-time Xfinity Series team in2018.
On December 8, 2020, Schrader confirmed that he would be closing down his longtime ARCA team and only keep its dirt racing operations in 2021. This made it the first season since 1990 where KSR did not compete in the series. Schrader's iconic No. 52 car only competed part-time from 2018 to 2020 due to lack of sponsorship.[8]