Dover II: Ken Schrader race report

Schrader, DLP HDTV Team Finish 33rd at Dover

Ken Schrader, driver of the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry for Hall of Fame Racing, overcame the loss of his primary car and the sharing of a pit box during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway to finish 33rd in the Camping World RV 400.

"It's tough when you have to go to a backup car," said Schrader, who crashed his primary car during Friday's practice session after a shock broke. "The DLP guys did a good job of getting the backup ready, but we just had a tough day today."

Hampering the DLP team's effort on Sunday was that they had to share a pit stall for the first 250 laps of the 400-lap race with the No. 43 car of Petty Enterprises driven by Bobby Labonte. Dover has only 42 pit stalls, so the cars that qualify 42nd and 43rd are forced to share a stall.

The No. 43 team's pit equipment was set up in the stall since they qualified 42nd, and the two teams agreed that whichever car had a higher position in the race had the option to pit first, while the other car would pit one lap later. Due to the short time between both stops, when the No. 96 car pitted, the team used the tire changers, tire carriers and the jackman from the No. 43 car, while the gasman and catch can man from the No. 96 fueled the car.

The reason for the mixed crew is due to each tire changer in the Sprint Cup Series having a specific air gun that they prefer to use. With so little time between both stops, it wasn't possible to swap out air guns, so it was agreed that the crew from the No. 43 would pit the car, with the exception of the gasman and catch can man.

When Kyle Busch's No. 18 Toyota fell out of the race due to an engine problem, the DLP team moved to their pit stall and the complete No. 96 team began pitting the car.

"It wasn't the easiest situation," said Steve Boyer, crew chief for the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry. "I appreciate all the DLP guys working through it."

With the 33rd-place finish, the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing entry remains 39th in the series' owner standings with 1,835 points, 295 markers behind the 35th-place No. 7 of Robby Gordon Motorsports.

Greg Biffle won the Camping World RV 400 to score his 14th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his second at Dover. Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards finished second and third to give Roush Fenway Racing a sweep of the top three spots, while Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Michael Waltrip comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 45 laps, with three drivers failing to finish the three-and-a-half hour race.

Joey Logano is scheduled to drive the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota in next week's Sprint Cup race at Kansas, while Schrader will return to the car the following week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

-credit: frr