RPW Exclusive: Absolutely No Quit In Kolby Schroder & DSR After Saturday’s Wreck At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – STAATSBURG, NY – There’s several hot drivers in Northeast Modified racing every year, and 2025 is no different.

You have the likes of Friesen, Sheppard, Williamson and Yankowski so far this season who have asserted their dominance at a multitude of tracks. In New York’s Capital Region, you have to add the name Kolby Schroder to that list.

Based on his record so far this season, racing two tracks weekly, you can see why.

Heading into Saturday at Lebanon Valley, the Daniels Schroder Racing (DSR) hauler had pulled into the pit area of area race tracks on five occasions and the no. 99 has been lights out to the tune of two wins, two top 5s and three top 10s.

On Saturday at the Valley of Speed, however, Schroder’s season took an extremely unexpected turn on lap 11 of the DIRTcar Big Block Modified feature. That’s when his racecar hit a pit gate on the backstretch and flipped over.

It’s also the time his racing season hit a massive setback.

“I’m okay,” Schroder said exclusively to RPW earlier this week. “I’m a bit sore but I’ll be okay. The car, however, is pretty much a total loss.”

Does Schroder know exactly what happened to instigate the accident?

“Something happened to Brett Haas’ car and he shot down the track off turn two,” he said. “Brett then clipped me in the right rear and it ripped the radius rod apart. I was just along for the ride after that.”

Schroder was along for the ride, for sure. His rear end became askew and with the power a Big Block Modified has behind it, at the speeds drivers hit on the backstretch at Lebanon Valley, there was very little he could control.

While that was the case, the quick thinking and intelligence of Schroder behind the wheel may have saved him from an even scarier accident.

“I knew I could see I was going to hit the inside wall,” he said. “There was nothing I could do about that. I then started to see the gate opening coming faster and faster so I made sure to turn off the master battery disconnect and shut off the fuel before I hit.”

That is extremely impressive. For any driver to know a dangerous hit was imminent, having the forethought to turn off the power and fuel to try and eliminate a chance at fire in a wreck is astonishing.

“I knew this was going to be a bad hit,” he said. “I had no control over the car. I did everything I could to make sure it wasn’t as bad as it could be.”

The accident has derailed the massive momentum train that Schroder and the DSR team has been on so far in 2025. They now have to regroup and pick the next course of action.

“We are going take the next few races off at Lebanon Valley and just focus on our Albany-Saratoga program,” he said. “We’re trying to round up enough money for a new car and the parts we need.”

Heading into this weekend’s action, Schroder sits fourth in points at his Friday night home, just seven markers behind leader Felix Roy for the Albany-Saratoga track championship. He’s currently fifth in points at the Valley but with taking a few weeks off, that will change.

It’s not only the car that’s setting the team back. The accident did even more damage that Schroder and company need to address.

“The hit into the pit gate broke the head on the motor,” he said. “That needs to be fixed as well. Hopefully by the time we get everything back in order the new track configuration at Lebanon will be a little bit better.”

The fact that he was able to climb out of his mangled race car with only a few bumps and scrapes is a testament to the safety of these cars and the equipment Schroder put into his no. 99.

“We had a brand new car this year with a durable Joie of Seating seat and brand new Crow safety belts,” he said. “I’m glad I’ve upgraded my seats and other safety aspects in the cockpit over the past couple of years. With how hard I hit, I feel pretty good.”

While this is a setback to the DSR team, they are not giving up. Not one bit. They’ve been working hard over the off-season to improve their program and it’s been on full display so far this season.

“It just sucks to have this happen because we’ve been so fast,” he said. “We spend a ton of time this winter doing a lot of research on set-ups and shocks. When the car feels good, you can really get up on the wheel and we’ve been able to do that.”