#49-Ken Schrader may be the oldest regular driver, but he’s also one of the most versatile, racing everything from ARCA cars at South Boston, Va. last Saturday to a dirt Late Model at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock last night. And he’s one of the most frankly honest of the lot, even when the subject is a touchy one like the lack of a full-time sponsor for the #49 Dodge he drives in Winston Cup. “The phone doesn’t ring a whole lot when you’re 48,” he said. “We’re kind of on hold here waiting to see what happens. There are a couple of other little deals out there, a couple of opportunities maybe.” Schrader said that if all else fails, he has a back-up plan in place that would allow him to run his own truck on the Craftsman Truck Series with backing from his long-time sponsor, Federated Auto Parts. “I guess that would be option one,” he said. “But there’s been way too much conversation on [car owners Tony and Beth Ann Morgenthau’s] part and the whole team with other companies to really be in panic mode.”( Atlanta Journal-Constitution ) AND #49 Team owners Tony and Beth Ann Morgenthau got a heavy-handed dose of NASCAR reality in June, when, just as they sensed a sponsorship breakthrough with AT&T, NASCAR executives issued a controversial, and legally questionable, “No.” The Morgenthaus are still not happy with the way that played out, but they’ve resigned themselves to playing by NASCAR’s business “rules.” “NASCAR got into the middle of something they should never have been in the middle of, really,” Tony Morgenthau said. “They tried to work that out. They have helped us tremendously trying to get sponsors. They’ve gone to presentations for us. They’ve had a lot of data. They’ve encouraged existing sponsors to talk with some of our people to show it really has helped their sales. NASCAR has been extremely helpful. The only problem we’ve had has been the Nextel problem. It’s really not a problem. We’ll overcome it and survive.” With Kenny Schrader.( Winston Salem Journal )(10-26-2003) AND II: Tony Morgenthau, co-owner of the No.49 Bam Racing car with Ken Schrader, says the team has a letter of intent from a company to be a sponsor next season.( Roanoke Times )(10-26-2003)
