Schrader takes Toledo race

Ken Schrader leads the field in the ARCA/RE-MAX Hickory Farms 200 at Toledo Speedway. Schrader raced in the NASCAR Nextel Cup race Saturday in Richmond, Va.

Ken Schrader is a NASCAR veteran, but he had his hands full in an ARCA race yesterday at Toledo Speedway.

Schrader held off Jason Jarrett in a spirited door-to-door, two-lap shootout to win the Hickory Farms 200 in front of a capacity crowd.

It was Schrader's 11th career ARCA RE/MAX Series victory in 31 attempts.

“We sort of backed into that one,” said Schrader, who led 106 of 204 laps. “The way things played out, I didn't think I'd be racing Jason Jarrett for the win, but there was some overzealous driving out there that helped our situation.”

Scrader's reference to overzealous driving was likely referring to Billy Venturini, who was running third behind race leader Frank Kimmel and Schrader with less than 10 laps remaining. Venturini banged his way past Schrader, then hit Kimmel on the left-rear quarter, causing Kimmel to spin. Venturini was black-flagged — meaning he had to do a stop-and-go on pit road after the race resumed.

That left Schrader and Jarrett to battle it out for the trophy.

“Felt like we were gonna pull it off for a while but Schrader got off the corners better than we did,” Jarrett said. “It was a lot of fun, I'll tell you that.”

Rookie Boston Reid finished third, Ryan Hemphill fourth and Mark Gibson fifth.

Schrader, 48, was the NASCAR Winston Cup rookie of the year in 1985 and has four career victories on the top circuit.