Atlanta II: Ken Schrader race report

Bumpy Ride at Atlanta Results in 35th Place Finish for Schrader

Ken Schrader, driver of the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry for Hall of Fame Racing, tried the high road, the low road and every point in between before finishing 35th in Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. Battling through tight and loose handling conditions during the 325-lap event, Schrader managed to avoid a late race multi-car accident to take the checkered flag relatively unscathed after starting 40th.

"Losing qualifying to rain on Friday didn't do us any favors," Schrader said. "In practice on Saturday, we were much better in the first session. In the second session, the car got really tight and we couldn't get a handle on it. At the start of the race today, the car was really tight in the center again. When we came in for the first caution early in the race, we adjusted the air pressure, but it didn't solve the issue of being tight. Around lap 35 when we had another caution, we tried putting a spring rubber in the right rear and that didn't help at all. The car was loose and the front end didn't want to turn. We worked all day to try to tighten the car up, but the front end felt like it was always searching.

"We worked all day to try to get the car to turn. It was similar to the problem we had last week in Martinsville. Near the end of the race, the car did seem to improve slightly, but it was a handful. We couldn't get it freed up enough to correct the tight condition we battled all day, but I feel like we learned some things that we can use in Texas."

"Even though we battled the car all weekend, we definitely learned some things that we'll be able to take to Texas with us next weekend," added crew chief Steve Boyer. "Kenny did a great job with a car that wasn't handling well and we were able to bring it across the finish line in one piece."

With the 35th-place finish, the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing entry remains 39th in the series' owner standings with 2,182 points, 344 markers behind the 35th-place No. 84 of Red Bull Racing.

-credit: hofr