Checkered Past: Ken Schrader Starts the “Triple” List

Ken Schrader won the pole for the inaugural
Mudsummer Classic at Eldora in July 2013
credit: Getty Images/Tom Pennington

Veteran driver Ken Schrader may have left NASCAR competition behind after the 2013 season, but he's accomplished a great deal. While his win total is not as prolific as many – four wins in the Cup Series, two in Nationwide and one in the Camping World Truck Series – it's the fact he won in all three series, and was the first driver to do so, that makes those numbers special.

Schrader won his four Cup Series races in a four-year span from 1988 to 1991 while driving the No. 25 for Hendrick Motorsports. His first win came in 1988 at Talladega, which he followed up in 1989 with a victory at Charlotte. In 1991 he won at Atlanta and Dover. Another impressive statistic from that era of Schrader’s career: three straight Daytona 500 poles from 1988 to 1990. Schrader’s Nationwide Series victories came five seasons apart: at Dover in 1989 and Talladega in 1994.

Because of his wins in the top two tiers of NASCAR, when the Truck Series made its debut in 1995, he become a “triple threat” – a winner in all three top NASCAR series. Early in 1995, on April 15, Schrader raced at Saugus Speedway in California in the track’s only Truck Series race and took the checkered flag, becoming the first triple winner on a list that now includes 23 drivers, the most recent of which is Denny Hamlin.

The Truck Series also helped Schrader earn one more record before he left NASCAR for more dirt track racing and ARCA opportunities. At the inaugural Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway in July 2013, Schrader won the pole with a track record speed of 91.329 mph and became the oldest pole winner in NASCAR history at age 58.