Schrader

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Ken Schrader will be racing next season. He's just not sure where.

The oldest full-time driver in Winston Cup at 48, Schrader is completing his first year with BAM Racing, owned by Beth Ann Morgenthau. The team has competed without a major sponsor for most of the season and doesn't have anything signed yet for 2004.

Hopes that AT&T could jump from an associate sponsor to the primary sponsor were thwarted by NASCAR's exclusivity contract with new title sponsor Nextel.

"I'm going to leave this place like a little baby, screaming and crying the whole way,'' Schrader said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "I don't need to drive that car, but that's what I love to do. I'm going to drive for Beth Ann as long as I can.''

Schrader has two top-10 finishes in 29 starts -- he failed to qualify for three events -- and nearly had a third last week at Martinsville. A flat tire dropped him off the pace and he eventually finished 22nd.

"We've had some decent runs, but we just haven't performed near as well as we'd like to,'' Schrader said. "But we see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. That's what everybody says, but it's been fast enough at times that we think we can get consistent enough to become a top-20 car.''

If the team doesn't get a sponsor, Morgenthau won't race. She and her husband, Tony, provided most of the $9 million budget this season.

"No, I'm not going to fund it a second year,'' she said.

If he's not with BAM Racing, Schrader might not have another Winston Cup option. He runs a limited schedule on the Craftsman Truck Series with backing from Federated Auto Parts, and he said the company will do the full truck season if he wants.

He already runs about 50 other races a year, traveling to short tracks around the country.

"The rest of the guys had rather do something else, the majority of them,'' Schrader said. "I just think when you're not in here, you can still be doing other stuff. Just because I'm screwed up and still want to do it, that doesn't take anything away from them.''

Cope's progress
Derrike Cope had his best qualifying effort of the season for Sunday's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, and it couldn't have come at a better race.

Cope is carrying the colors of Paramount Hospitality Management, which will sponsor him next season. He starts 23rd after a lap of 189.857 mph.

"I talked to them on the phone, and they're all excited,'' Cope said. "This is a big deal for us this weekend.''

In his previous 16 races, Cope had a best start of 24th at Bristol in March. That's one of only four times this year, including this weekend, that he's made the field on speed. His other starts have come after he relied on a provisional.

"We've struggled a bit with our motor program this year, because we're just trying to survive to next year,'' Cope said. "A track like this, where we don't lose many RPMs in the turns, is really perfect for us, because we just don't have enough horsepower to go fast at most of the other tracks.''

The speed didn't hold up in two practice sessions Saturday; Cope was the slowest car in both.

Another Rudd mark
Ricky Rudd reaches another milestone Sunday when he becomes the fourth driver ever to make 800 career starts.

Earlier this season, he made his 700th consecutive start, the first time anyone has done that.

"I'm proud of the fact that we're at 800, but by the same token, I'd rather low-profile it because it seems like so many of things have been about the number of starts,'' Rudd said. "My career is winding down, there's no secret about that. I've got a couple of years left in this business.''

That's hardly enough time to catch Richard Petty, the leader in career starts with 1,177.

"You know, I got started in this business running Winston Cup when I was 18, so to arrive at 800, a lot of guys never see it because age gets them first,'' Rudd said. "In this sport, until recently, you were considered in your prime in your mid-30s. So those numbers are changing a little bit now.''

Rudd, 22nd in points in his first year with the Wood Bros. Racing Team, starts 42nd after taking a provisional. Atlanta isn't one of his favorite tracks.

"It's probably the only track on the circuit that when I see it coming up on the schedule, I look at it and say, 'Man, I really struggle with that track,''' Rudd said. "That's the only one on the circuit that I can think of that gives me a fit like that.''

Miscellaneous
Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch paced the Winston Cup practice sessions Saturday, with Harvick's lap of 189.746 the overall fastest. ... 1960 Winston Cup champion Rex White, the oldest living champion, was honored before Saturday's Busch Series event with the Smokey Yunick Racing Pioneer Award, given by the track.