It’s a little outside the norm to write a column about a two-year-old book.
Still Racing by Ken Schrader, with Joyce Standridge, is no normal book.
Throughout its first 262 pages, Schrader, 69, recaps his racing endeavors from 2006-2023, with plenty of older history and stories sprinkled in with the fantastic dry humor he is known for.
Still Racing is a follow up to 2006’s Gotta Race, which also featured Standridge as co-author.
During his career, Schrader competed in 994 races in NASCAR’s top three national series, with six wins. Including every NASCAR division Schrader raced in, the total rises to 1,178 with 46 wins, not including heat races, All-Star races or other exhibition events.
Those lofty totals don’t count how many races Schrader has driven in, with thousands more coming at the grassroots levels.
Among so many drivers who’ve competed in NASCAR, Schrader is one of 41 who have won at least one race in each of the top three series. He might be a longshot to make the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which is a real tragedy.
Unless you’ve followed Schrader’s career as closely as possible, there is a lot of information in the book that is revealed for the first time. From TV jobs, to family stories, to candid recounts of the teams he’s driven for. Plus, great comedy, vulnerable admittance of his own shortcomings and health challenges.
The book is a page turner that your humble author finished in one week. If you read it, I would be shocked if you didn’t have the same result. It’s just that good.
The foreword was written by Rusty Bishop, CEO of Schrader’s longtime partner, Federated Auto Parts. The main text begins with Schrader’s first season with the Wood Brothers in 2006 and gets off to a captivating start. Schrader’s relationship with the Woods remains strong to this day, despite their tenure together falling short of expectations.
True gear heads will appreciate Schrader’s take on why those expectations weren’t met. A prominent reason, from Schrader’s view, was the stubbornness of Michael “Fatback” McSwain. Schrader explains that in 2006, crew chiefs throughout the NASCAR Cup Series had begun to find great success with coil binding setups: soft springs in the front and stiff springs in the rear.
Schrader had brought his former crew chief from BAM Racing, David Hyder, over to the Wood Brothers. Schrader and Hyder weren’t successful on paper in their BAM tenure by common metrics, but they were much more competitive than a lot of people expected, largely owed to Hyder’s willingness to experiment with setups.
According to Schrader, McSwain, the newly-promoted competition director, did not believe in using these types of setups and would not allow them to be employed. The result? Two top 10s in 36 races, an average finish of 26th and 31st in the final standings.
Readers will learn about the trials and tribulations of the road, where Schrader ran in nearly 100 total races per year, sometimes more. He won a lot more often than may be remembered, mostly on the grassroots levels. One particular story from a NASCAR Southwest race in 2006 combined great comedy and … innovation.
Schrader was leading, but as the race neared the end, he was struggling to hold off a hard charger behind him.
Hilariously, Schrader pulled the pin on his fire extinguisher and started spraying fire retardant out the window. Competitors and onlookers thought his engine was expiring. The second-place driver backed off to avoid what he thought would be an imminent splash of oil on the track, which gave Schrader just enough room to hold him off and win the race.
That same year, Schrader got to fly with the Air Force Thunderbirds as part of the Wood Brothers’ U.S. Air Force Sponsorship. An exchange between the pilot and Schrader about the G-forces of flying and their effects was nothing short of classic.
“You won’t race tonight,” the pilot said. “You won’t feel like it.”
“’Oh, I bet I do,’” Schrader recalled responding, before adding that “The race was at the (Las) Vegas dirt track. We ran second.”
There are many more stories like these throughout the book that will keep you laughing as you turn the page.
It isn’t all jokes and comedy, though.
He spends a lot of time explaining the business side of team ownership, racing in general, track ownership, and more. With some generous specificity, the reader learns how the costs of competitive engines have changed over the years, even at the modified level, while the purses awarded have remained flat in comparison, making it much more difficult to chase the dream or addiction.
He even went into details about his contract in an endorsement of the character of the Wood Brothers.
In mid-2007, Schrader had been taken out of the car for past-champion Bill Elliott, who was guaranteed a spot in the show because of a past champion’s provisional. In 10 starts with the Woods, Elliott never finished in the top 15 that year, giving credence to Schrader’s assessment of the struggles.
As Schrader’s two-year contract wound down, he kept drawing his salary, which he is happy to say helped fund his grassroots racing all across the United States and Canada. As it turns out, the Wood Brothers had a business partner who advised them to stop paying Schrader’s salary when he wasn’t driving the car. As he tells it, the Woods responded, “Hey, it’s not his fault we’re not giving him good stuff to drive. We’re paying him.”
Added Schrader, “They paid me every cent through the end of the contract.”
Between drawing out his Wood Brothers salary and the fire extinguisher-assisted win, it may seem like Schrader has a lack of integrity. But his moral code is consistent.
In a 2010 race at the Talladega Short Track, Schrader finished second. The race winner was soon disqualified for what Schrader found to be an unacceptable reason.
Drivers were told that after taking the checkered flag, they were to go immediately to the pits with no victory lap. The winner seemingly forgot this instruction and was disqualified for it. When the PA announcer summoned Schrader to victory lane, he refused.
“He won the freakin’ race,” said Schrader.
Throughout his NASCAR tenure, Schrader drove for some strong teams, namely Hendrick Motorsports and Andy Petree Racing. He also drove for several teams that were not as strong and he’s proud of that fact.
“I contend that just about anybody can drive a well-prepared car – even take the pole in a very competitive field,” Schrader said. “But I drove a lot of shit to learn just how easy it is with something good.”
To that point, when Ray Evernham called Schrader to help set up the cars for the inaugural SRX season, he asked why. Evernham responded eloquently.
“You drove enough shit boxes at every level of your career that you can get a car figured out fast,” Evernham told Schrader.
A racer through and through, the Missouri native recalled an ultimatum given to him by his parents at a young age.
“When my folks offered me the options of college versus a gift of the racing equipment, I’m gonna guess you know which way we went.”
With only half a thumb on his left hand, owed to an accident while working on an engine, Schrader recounted a choice he didn’t hesitate to make. The doctors offered options to get the rest of his thumb back, but those options would’ve required a long recovery and not racing as a result. Unacceptable.
“The third option?” asked Schrader. “They could stitch up what remained and send me out the door. That meant I could get back to racing quicker. Son-of-a-bitch would hurt, but not nearly as bad as staying out of the race car.”
Some of Schrader’s greatest successes at the national stage came in the ARCA Menards Series. Alongside his 18 wins in 89 starts, Ken Schrader Racing won the 2017 championship with Austin Theriault driving. You would have to look far and wide to find a greater endorsement for that series than what is given in the book.
“One of the reasons we’ve been a long-time fan is the variety,” Schrader said. “You’ll experience massive ovals like Daytona, short ones like Toledo, the road course at Mid-Ohio, and, of course, the great one-mile dirt tracks at Springfield and DuQuoin. If you are building a career, nowhere else can you get that kind of experience.”
Theriault’s career never took off like Schrader expected, and it is mainly due to money.
“Some team somewhere is missing out on a major talent, but that is the main lesson you’ll get today,” Schrader said. “Racing success does not promise anything toward the future.”
Schrader continued with a shocking name drop as an example.
“Ask Jimmie Johnson,” he said. “The seven-time NASCAR Cup champion was uncertain for weeks after the 2022 season what he was going to be able to do the following year – because he didn’t have a budget nailed down.”
Speaking of a budget, in 2020, Schrader’s seemingly unshakable partnership with Federated Auto Parts hit turbulence. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Federated stopped funding Schrader and his team. Schrader did not panic and didn’t even take the logos off his cars. Eventually, Federated came back to terms and the partnership continued. The lesson is one many drivers today could learn from.
“If a sponsor pulls their support, no matter how disappointed you may be, don’t bad mouth them, don’t throw a hissy fit, don’t act like you should be their first and most important priority,” Schrader said. “There’s often a lot of things going on in the background that you don’t know about.”
There are more great stories than can fit into this column, including a ride along with Rick Hendrick during a test session, where Schrader rode shotgun with no seat and no seatbelt. When Hendrick crashed, things got hairy. Schrader also tells the famous story of taking a young Dale Earnhardt Jr. out with his friends and formally introducing him to his sponsor at the time, Budweiser.
“I don’t think that weekend was why they eventually sponsored Junior, but we did introduce him to the product,” Schrader remarked.
Schrader is still racing today, and god willing, he’ll do so for a long time to come, with many great stories created along the way.
Steve Leffew joined Frontstretch in 2023 and covers the Xfinity Series. He has served honorably in the United States Air Force and and lives in Wisconsin.