At midseason, veteran driver Ken Schrader of St. Louis didn’t have a ride in the Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR’s top series.

He had spent the first six races with BAM racing, his old team, then pinch-hit here and there for other teams.

But that all changed not long after Hall of Fame Racing sacked J.J. Yeley after a 39th place finish at Pocono in the 21st race of the season. Road course ringer P.J. Jones drove HoF’s 96 at Watkins Glen as scheduled in race 22, and car owner Jeff Moorad announced that youngster Brad Coleman would take over for the rest of the season.

That lasted all of one week, another 39th place finish, and with the exception of a two-race trial for hotshot Joey Logano, Schrader has been behind the wheel of HoF’s 96 car for 10 of 12 races since then. He’ll close out the season behind the wheel of the 96 Ford on Sunday at Homestead.

The 96 isn’t in the top 35 in the owners points, and hence a guaranteed spot in the field, so Schrader, 53, has had to qualify for each race. His average start is 34.4 and his average finish is 29.6 — about the same as Yeley (avg. start 32.6, avg. finish 29.9) — but the big difference is that Schrader actually qualified in every attempt for HoF. Yeley missed qualifying four times and got sacked after running out of gas at Pocono. For a team struggling to reach the top 35, the failure to qualify with Yeley in the drivers’ seat was too much to overcome for the 96 team.

So, Schrader has been The Man for HoF, with a steady, workmanlike performance and quality feedback in getting the team into the field each week. He no doubt helped the team improve on and off the track, and more importantly, he kept the sponsor’s name on the track instead of in the garage. You can’t teach experience, which is something moguls in any sport too often fail to realize until the institutional knowledge has left the building and the hotshots prove to be notshots.

But enough of my soapbox. Here’s Hall of Fame’s weekly update on Schrader and Hall of Fame Racing going into the season finale at Homestead.

Ken Schrader: He’s Seen it All at Homestead

 CORNELIUS, N.C. (Nov. 12, 2008) - Despite the fact that Homestead-Miami Speedway has only been around since 1995, it has seen plenty of changes. 

Ken Schrader, driver of the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry for Hall of Fame Racing, has been there for all of them.

 Schrader competed in the first NASCAR-sanctioned event at Homestead in November 1995, when he drove the No. 52 AC Delco Chevrolet for his own team in the Nationwide Series race. The layout was the original 1.5-mile rectangular flat track that looked like a smaller version of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

 That layout was changed in 1997 with the turns rounded into a more traditional oval configuration and Schrader drove on the newly designed track in NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series competition between 1998 and 2002.

 In 2003, the layout was changed a third time when the banking in the turns was increased from six degrees to 18-20 degrees of variable banking from bottom to top.

 Again, Schrader was there and has raced on the current configuration in both Sprint Cup cars and Craftsman Trucks.

 While the track has changed, Schrader hasn’t. Considered one of the good guys of the sport who will race anything, anywhere at any time, Schrader will look to qualify for his 11th Sprint Cup race for Hall of Fame Racing in Sunday’s Ford 400 and end the season on a high note.

 KEN SCHRADER, driver of the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry:

 What are your overall thoughts on Homestead?

 ”You can run all over the place there because of the banking. You can run high or low in the turns, depending on what your car is doing. Any time you can move around, that’s a good thing, compared to the one-groove tracks.”

 Talk about your time with Hall of Fame Racing in 2008.

 ”I appreciate the chance that DLP HDTV and all the owners of Hall of Fame Racing gave me to run all the races in the last part of the year. It’s a good group of people and they work hard. Hopefully, we can finish out the year strong for them. Any time you can race, it’s fun, but when you get to race in the Sprint Cup Series on Sundays, that’s the best. And I’m really happy DLP and Hall of Fame Racing gave me the opportunity.”

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