Entering several unknowns in his first full season with the American Sprint Car Series, Cole Schroeder is focused on two key elements: learn and build.
In the first 11 races of the season, the 20-year-old, from Bozeman, MT, has kept his No. 3 Maxim Chassis out of harm’s way, giving him as much track time as possible to ink the pages of his notebook against the toughest drivers in 360 Sprint Car competition.
“I feel like it’s been going really good so far,” Schroeder said. “We haven’t gone through too many parts, knock on wood. We’ve been good about not tearing anything up to make it to the end of the year without too many problems. I feel like we’ve made good progress this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the summer goes and seeing if we can get a rhythm of good runs under our belt.”
Since every track on the National Tour is a first for Schroeder in a 360 Sprint Car, the former go-kart and Micro Sprint race has relied on fellow competitors willing to share some words of advice for an opportunity to begin the night with a balanced car out of the box.
“Our biggest struggle with going to all these new tracks is that they’re a lot bigger than back home,” Schroeder said. “It’s a lot of learning different car control and different driving styles on the bigger ones. On short tracks, it’s hammered down and holding on, and these big tracks take a lot of consistency and being perfect every lap to make a good night come together.”
“For our program, it’s a lot of trusting what other people tell us on gearing to get us started for the night. A lot of guessing is there to get us a bigger notebook. That’s the biggest thing for us right now is to get a notebook for the future and work towards meshing them together better. It’s a lot of learning for us, but we love it, and we wouldn’t want to do anything else at this point.”
He’s picked up momentum over the last six weeks, scoring his first top-10 finishes – three straight at Benton Speedway, Creek County Speedway, and 81 Speedway.
With the comfort of racing around short tracks of similar size, Schroeder has been able to progress through the night more smoothly, resulting in a fast car ahead of the Feature.
“It seems like the (Feature) is where we really shine,” Schroeder said. “We seem to get better as the run goes on most nights, and that’s a big thing for us. On the bullrings, we ran so many of those back in California. That’s all we really raced on; the biggest track we got to was probably a 1/4-mile, and being on that to start really helps us out. But when it comes to going to the bigger tracks, I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress on learning and figuring out what works for me.”
His time racing around large, high-banked tracks like Volusia Speedway Park and Salina Highbanks Speedway at the start of the 2026 season will be tested in his upcoming debut at Belleville High Banks for two nights of The Big One.
With a $10,000 payday up for grabs in the Saturday finale, Schroeder’s goal is to run toward the front of the pack once he hits the track for Qualifying, then find a rhythm around the Kansas 1/2-mile.
“I feel like our biggest thing is trying to not make too many mistakes and get through the night,” Schroeder said. “Then, run hard in the main event, so that means we don’t have a problem or tear something up in the Heat race.
“We’re a fairly small team for being out here. We got as much as we can cram in the trailer, so it’s about managing our stuff until the Feature, then do as much as we can without tearing it up. I feel more comfortable now. I just struggle with car placement as the track progresses.”
Schroeder will keep his rookie season going with the American Sprint Car Series in June with two nights of racing at Belleville High Banks for the second running of The Big One from Friday-Saturday, June 26-27.
Where can you watch every lap of the American Sprint Car Series? Live on DIRTVision.
This article was republished with permission from the American Sprint Car Series. The original article can be found here: https://ascsracing.com/news/cole-schroeder-progressing-through-first-time-experiences-expanding-notebook-in-rookie-ascs-campaign/
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