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NASCAR's Ken Schrader looks for second Allen Crowe 100 win at
Springfield
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[August 11, 2007]
SPRINGFIELD -- NASCAR Nextel Cup
Star Ken Schrader added his name to a growing entry list of stellar
drivers for the 45th running of the Allen Crowe 100 Automobile Club
of America Re/Max Stock Car Series event Aug. 19 at the Illinois
State Fairgrounds in Springfield. Schrader is a fan favorite in
central Illinois, having run many times at the Illinois State Fair
mile and the now defunct "Little" Springfield Speedway, and is part
owner of the Macon Speedway just south of Decatur. The popular
driver has aligned himself with a popular central Illinois race
team, and if they can find victory lane, the celebration could rival
that of the 2006 race.
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 Schrader will be driving for the Normal-based Bill Hendren team in
the Hendren Motorsports Ford as a substitute for Mokena veteran Bob
Strait, who was injured in a motorcycle accident earlier this year.
The Hendren team is familiar to many in the area, having competed in
USAC Stock Car competition in the early 1970s and fielding cars for
many years for popular El Paso native Ken Rowley. Together Hendren
and Rowley won the 1974 USAC Stock Car Rookie of the Year title and
narrowly missed winning the 1993 Allen Crowe 100. Hendren-owned cars
have one pole position at Springfield and have led over 100 laps of
stock car competition on the "World's Fastest One Mile Dirt Track."
Schrader is one of at least four former Allen Crowe 100 winners on
the preliminary ARCA Re/Max entry list, with Schrader's lone
100-mile Springfield triumph coming in the 1998 race. He joins
defending winner Justin Allgaier, two-time winner Bill Baird and
five-time winner Frank Kimmel in search of another Springfield
victory. Schrader owns two ARCA pole positions at Springfield and
won the 1984 Rex Easton Memorial Midget race at the Illinois State
Fair as well as a UMP Modified race in 1998, making the 52-year-old
Fenton, Mo., native the only man to ever win in three different
types of race cars on the Springfield Mile.
In addition to his 1998 Allen Crowe 100 win and two ARCA pole
positions
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(1997-98), the 1982 USAC Silver Crown champion and 1983 USAC Sprint Car
champion has led three times at the Springfield Mile in stock car
competition for a total of 89 laps, 79 of them coming in ARCA
competition. Schrader is also one of 10 men in motor sports history to
post a stock car win on each of the "Big 3" fairground miles of the
Midwest, winning at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in the ARCA Hoosier
Lottery 100 in 1994, the Allen Crowe 100 in 1998 and the Southern
Illinois 100 at DuQuoin last year.
Schrader joins an entry list that is beginning to overflow with
open-wheel racing stars. Schrader himself has four USAC Sprint wins,
six USAC Silver Crown wins and 21 in the USAC Midget division. 1998
USAC Silver Crown champion and 2002 Hoosier Hundred winner Jason
Leffler is on the entry list; 2006 Hoosier Hundred winner, 2006 USAC
Sprint, 2005 USAC Midget champ and former Springfield USAC track
record holder Josh Wise is also entered; while Allgaier has
extensive Midget and Silver Crown experience. Schrader is just one
of two drivers with a national open-wheel championship to post a
victory in the Allen Crowe 100, the other coming at the hands of A.J.
Foyt in 1979.
The 45th Allen Crowe 100 is slated for Aug. 19. Tickets are now
on sale at the Illinois State Fair box office, Ticketmaster or Track
Enterprises at 217-764-3200.
[Text from file received
from Jay Hardin]
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