Sports

Veteran NASCAR driver will make his first racing appearance in Alaska

Alaska Raceway Park is drawing some big names this summer.

Saturday, Iditarod icon Lance Mackey won the Legends featured race to retain his lead in the season standings. It was the second victory of the year at the Palmer race track for Mackey, a four-time Iditarod champion.

When racing on the track's NASCAR oval resumes June 30, the competition will include a man who has won four NASCAR Cup races and is the only person to win the pole at three consecutive Daytona 500 races.

Ken Schrader, 63, is scheduled to travel to Alaska to compete in the late-model division. The race will mark the 49th state he has raced in.

Schrader, who lives in North Carolina, was a NASCAR Cup racer from 1984-2013. He won four races, beginning with the 1988 race at Talladega, Florida, where he defeated Dale Earnhart and Geoff Bodine. Over the years his NASCAR teammates included Jeff Gordon and Terry Lebonte.

Schrader boasts 11 top-10 finishes at the Daytona 500, where he won three straight poles from 1988-90. He placed second in 1989 and third in 1996.

Though he has retired from NASCAR Cup racing, Schrader continues to race at dirt and asphalt tracks around the country.

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Among his competition at Alaska Raceway Park will be Alaska drivers Jeff Creech, a two-time series champion; Tim Workman, the current late-model points leader; and Dana Pruhs, who survived a spinout in last week's featured race to grab victory for the second straight weekend.

Gates on June 30 will open at 3 p.m., with racing at 6 p.m.

This week at the track, there's a NASCAR test-and-tune event Wednesday at 5 p.m. and a two-day diesel race Saturday and Sunday. Gates open each day at 9 a.m. for the Prowl for Power.

You can check the weather at the track at raceak.com, which has a webcam and a weather report on its home page.

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