Hershey's Kisses 300

February 14, 2004
Daytona, FL

Derrike will be at the wheel of the #49 Advil Liqui-Gels Taurus in Daytona.

In the first practice, Derrike was 39th fastest with a time of 51.178 and speed of 175.857.

In the second practice, he was still 39th fastest with a time of 51.121 and speed of 176.053.

In the third practice, he was 30th fastest with a time of 50.670 and speed of 177.620.

In qualifying, Derrike was the 32nd car of 54 cars to take the track. On his first lap he produced a time of 52.081 and speed of 172.808. He picked it up on the second lap with a time of 51.407 and speed of 175.073. This put the #49 Taurus in 25th position at the time. At the end of the round, the car was in 44th position which meant the team had to take a provisional to make the race. Derrike will be starting in 41st position.

Derrike started the race in 41st position. After 31 laps of the 120 laps, the race was rain delayed and was restarted on Monday, February 16 at 11am EST. Derrike started in 8th position. At the end of the restarted race, Derrike finished in 20th position.

Regarding Monday's Hershey Kisses 300 Derrike commented, "Considering that we hadn't had the opportunity to test our Busch Car at Daytona, I think that our twentieth place finish was respectable. Our Ford drove well and was decent in the draft. However, we were a little down in power and therefore had to keep a car behind us. After we got hit in the left front we lost some of our drafting and handling ability. We are looking forward to a good run for Advil at Rockingham this weekend."