MOTOR RACING BUSCH CLASH : Just a Day at Beach for Schrader

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —  The Ken Schrader show continues to dominate Daytona International Speedway in the same manner it did a year ago.

Last year, Schrader won the pole for the Daytona 500, won the Busch Clash, a 125-mile qualifying heat and finished second to Chevrolet teammate Darrell Waltrip in the 500.

So far this year, he has the pole and Sunday he led all but the first four laps of the Busch Clash to win $95,000 in the 50-mile sprint around Daytona’s 2 1/2-mile track. Next comes the 125 on Thursday and the 500 on Sunday.

“I can’t say I was disappointed at not winning last year, but it would make me real happy if we could move up one position next Sunday,” Schrader said. “It’s nice to come down here and win all this other stuff beforehand, but Sunday is what we’re after.”

The only reason Schrader didn’t lead every lap is that it took him a while to move from his third place starting position past leader Greg Sachs. The fifth lap paid a $10,000 bonus to the leader and Schrader made sure he collected it--just as he did $15,000 for lap 10, $20,000 for lap 15 and $50,000 for the checkered flag.

Schrader and Sachs were both driving Chevrolet Luminas owned by North Carolina car dealer Rick Hendrick. Behind them were two Fords, driven by Davey Allison, who made the day’s biggest move when he went from ninth to third, and Geoff Bodine.

Bodine, who has finished fourth in five of the last six Busch Clashes, was making his first start in a Junior Johnson-prepared Ford after running Chevrolets in past races.

Schrader, perhaps the most versatile driver in the country, covered the 50 miles in 15 minutes 36 seconds, averaging 192.308 m.p.h.

The Fenton, Mo., native, who lives in Concord, N.C., is a former United States Auto Club sprint car and dirt track car champion. Last Sunday he was in Phoenix, where he won a USAC Silver Crown dirt car race in the Copper World Classic.

The week before that he flew to Milwaukee to drive in a midget race.

“Winning all this money is great, but I just love to race,” Bodine said. “When I went to Milwaukee I probably spent more money in fuel for my plane than the race paid.”

Starting positions were made by draw, which accounts for why he started third back of pole-sitter Jimmy Hensley and Sachs.

Hensley, who was making his first start in a Winston Cup car on a superspeedway, inadvertently caused an accident at the start when the gear lever broke off and he abruptly slowed in front of Schrader.

“Hensley took off real good when they dropped the flag and then slowed down real fast,” Schrader said. “I almost clipped him but managed to swerve around and get in behind Sachs.”

Hensley is a veteran late model sportsman car driver who got in the race after qualifying Dale Earnhardt’s car on the pole last September at Martinsville, Va., when Earnhardt was delayed by Hurricane Hugo.

“I thought I was going to get run over,” Hensley said. “The whole thing just broke off. I couldn’t get it out of third gear.”

On lap four, Schrader pulled alongside Sachs and they drove side-by-side for more than half a lap before Schrader edged to the front in the battle of Luminas.

“You can’t just pull out and pass like you could before the (carburetor) restrictor plate,” Schrader said. “You’ve got to make a longer run and struggle the way I did trying to get by Sachs.

“You’ve got to make your moves early, like Allison did coming from the last row to third place all in the first lap or so because once all the cars get up to speed they’re all going at the same speed. That’s what the restrictor plate does.”

Bodine said the results were depressing for Ford drivers.

“You saw what happened,” he said. “That’s all the Fords have, and you saw what the Chevrolets have. Greg Sachs isn’t supposed to be a top runner, but Davey (Allison) and I couldn’t even work together and get him.

“We’re at the maximum of what we’ve got and we don’t really know what the 25’s (Schrader’s car) got. We know he won the race, but we don’t know how much he had left because he never had to show it.”

Bill Elliott, who started alongside Schrader in the second row, agreed with his fellow Ford driver.

“Kenny (Schrader) just accelerated right away from me on the green flag. I never lifted and he still drove away. I called my crew at the end of the first lap and told them, ‘No way today, guys.’ It looks like the 25 car is as strong as it was a year ago.”

Despite an all-night rain that persisted most of the morning, a crowd estimated at 55,000 watched Schrader’s runaway.