Daytona ABCs: Perseverance, Patience, Power

Patience, perseverance and power are among the key ingredients for a Daytona 500 winner.

Ken Schrader will need all of them and a little more if he hopes to drive into Victory Lane on Sunday and claim a big chunk of the $2-million purse.

“We’ve all been in that situation at one time or another,” race favorite Dale Earnhardt said today. “Kenny will have to be careful, but starting in the back row at Daytona is not that big a deal.”

Schrader is back there, despite winning the pole a week ago, because he wrecked his car in a preliminary event and had to go to a backup.

Richard Petty, a seven-time winner of the prestigious stock car race, said Schrader will face no dilemma if he remembers it’s a long race.

“He doesn’t have to be in any hurry,” Petty said. “They pay off for 500 miles, not 490.”

Defending champion Darrell Waltrip, a Schrader teammate, said the decision to go to the backup car was smart.

“You can’t run 500 miles here with a beat-up car,” Waltrip said. “If he’s as fast as he was, he’ll be right up there after a pit stop or two.”

But Waltrip preaches patience.

“He’s got to have that, and he’s got to have luck,” he said of Schrader. “He needs a lot of things to fall in place for him.”

Mark Martin, one of the fastest of the Ford drivers, sees the need for Schrader to move quickly.

“He’s got to drive as fast as he can and hope he doesn’t wreck,” Martin said.

Defending Winston Cup champion Rusty Wallace doesn’t think Schrader’s task will be difficult.

“I don’t think it will be a problem for Kenny,” Wallace said. “He’s got such a fast car that he doesn’t even have to do much drafting to get back to the front.”

Schrader is not bemoaning his fate.

“I’ve been saying for the last week and a half that sitting on the pole was no big deal,” he said. “I can’t change my story now.”

Schrader insists he won’t consider it a great feat if he is able to take the lead.

“It’s a lot easier to be a speed demon when you’re sitting in that car,” he said of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Schrader has put Hendrick cars on the pole a record-tying three straight years. Waltrip won the race with one last year, and former teammate Geoff Bodine, the de facto pole-sitter, was the winner in 1986.

If he doesn’t win, Schrader will not be disappointed.

“Daytona does not owe me a thing,” he said. “It has been very good to me.”

The relaxed Schrader munching on a sandwich in the garage area at the Daytona International Speedway today gave the impression that a victory Sunday wouldn’t alter his life appreciably.

“I don’t want the attention,” he said. “I just want to get in my car and race.”