Fontana: Schrader - Ford pre-practice interview

Ken Schrader, driver of the No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion, had a ninth-place run at Daytona last week and spoke about his hopes for California before practice.

KEN SCHRADER -- No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion

HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER LAST WEEK? "It's just a good way to get the year started. We had a good car all week and struggled with it in the 500, but we still wound up decent. Just coming in here with a good solid run. The Wood Brothers have been behind the eight-ball the last couple of years coming here and then they had problems here, so it's only one of 36 races that count, but you sure remember how you start off."

WILL THIS TRACK BE AN INDICATOR OF WHAT THE SEASON COULD BE LIKE BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF THESE TYPES ON THE CIRCUIT. "Oh yeah, it will definitely be a good indication of what you can expect throughout the year because there are so many tracks like this that we go to."

WHAT CAN YOU TELL ABOUT HOW THE FUSION DRIVES COMPARED TO THE DODGE? "We did the Las Vegas test and the Ford Fusion really felt good. It makes a lot of downforce and I really enjoyed running the Roush-Yates Engines. They were pretty sporty."

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