Ken Schrader
Ken Schrader pictured ahead of the 2019 Southern Illinois 100 for the ARCA Menards Series at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, on Aug. 31, 2019. (Jay Alley/ARCA Racing)

Ken Schrader returns to ARCA Menards Series for DuQuoin dirt race

www.arcaracing.com August 31, 2021

For the first time in two years, racing veteran Ken Schrader is back in the field for an ARCA Menards Series race.

The opportunity arrives at what the 66-year-old considers his home track, and, in a way, his partnership with car owner Andy Hillenburg brings their relationship full circle.

Schrader, the Fenton, Missouri, native who grew up attending races on the nearby one-mile dirt track on the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, is entered in Sunday’s Southern Illinois 100 presented by Lucas Oil in Hillenburg’s No. 10 Kuttawa Fire Department Toyota with Mike Sroufe as the crew chief.

Which is fitting considering it was Schrader in the early 1990s who gave Hillenburg his first ARCA driving opportunity. Hillenburg won the 1995 series championship, and he began that season taking Schrader’s car to Victory Lane in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Now it’s Schrader who will be driving Hillenburg’s car. He will do so at one of the tracks he knows best when it comes to ARCA competition. The 18-time ARCA winner has four poles, three victories, 11 top fives and 14 top 10s in 15 ARCA starts on the DuQuoin dirt.

In addition to Sunday’s Southern Illinois 100, Schrader also plans to compete in all three events at DuQuoin over the weekend, including the USAC Silver Crown Ted Horn 100 and the Oldani Memorial Modified race.

If Schrader successfully starts all three races, he will become just the third driver in the last 50 years to pull off the “DuQuoin Triple.” A.J. Fike is the last driver to run all three events, doing so in 2004. Before him, it was Larry “Boom Boom” Cannon in 1971. Other drivers who have pulled off the triple are Tony Bettenhausen (1960), Rodger Ward (1960 and 1961), Len Sutton (1961), Parnelli Jones (1963), A.J. Foyt (1963 and 1964) and Bobby Marshman (1964).

Further, the decals representing the partnership on Schrader’s ARCA Menards Series car at DuQuoin are special to Hillenburg.

On Aug. 22 after the ARCA Menards Series race on the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, traveling home from the track, one of Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing haulers caught fire. The team was able to save the majority of its equipment thanks in part to the Kuttawa Fire Department.

“Without the race crew being there, it would have been way, way worse,” Kuttawa Fire Department chief Phil Compton said. “They got the liftgate down, and the doors open, and that was a huge help to us. If not for their help, it’s likely we could have been dealing with a total loss.”

Hillenburg credited the fire department along with his crew members.

“They were great,” he said. “They got it under control very quickly, and their response time was incredible. Another five minutes and we could have lost everything. We are going to make sure all of the fire fighters and their families are invited to the race at DuQuoin on Sept. 5 as a way to say thank you.”