Stater Bros. 300

May 1, 2004
Fontana, CA

For Advil Ford driver Derrike Cope and owner Jay Robinson, the two-mile California Speedway ranks as a tremendous opportunity. That’s the site of Saturday’s Stater Bros. 300 NASCAR Busch Series race. "We feel we can run pretty well there, for one thing," said Cope, a winning veteran who is one of a handful of drivers running the full NASCAR Busch Series schedule as well as the full Cup schedule. "We have a good motor for this Advil Ford, and that always makes a big difference at California," Cope said. "You have to have a good handling car and a good aero package but, by and large, it comes down to how much horsepower you can produce. And we think we can do pretty well in that category this week.

"There has been a lot of work going on with our engines. They were pretty good engines to begin with but those guys have gone back and found even more horsepower. That area has really been a positive for us, and that makes running California this week even more of an exciting thought."

The #49 Advil Ford was strong for awhile at Talladega, Ala., last week but running out of fuel early in the race and ensuing damage because of that cost the team the bulk of the race. At the series’ other restrictor-plate track, Cope ran in the lead pack much of the race. The team was also strong at Texas Motor Speedway, one of the series’ fastest tracks. "Running well at Texas makes us feel pretty good about California," Cope said. "Being successful with our engines and setups there just gives us a good feeling about repeating that success with the car at California.

"There are more similarities than difference between Texas and California, so we can carry some of that over to this week’s race. And California is a whole lot like Michigan, which is a track where I’ve run really well. So yeah," he added, "we feel awfully good about our potential at California."

The Advil Ford, one of two cars fielded by Robinson on the NASCAR Busch Series, is not among the "high-buck" operations but you would never know by watching the team, on and off the track. Its cars and haulers are as high-quality as anything in the series, and both teams carry themselves as well as any on the circuit. "You make do with what you have, sure, but we’ve based our team on giving the sponsors as much as we possibly can," said Robinson, who is in his fourth year as a Busch Series owner after four years as owner-driver of a Late Model car.

"If I have one dollar, we make it look like we are getting two dollars. If I have a million dollars (in sponsorship), we make it look like we’re getting two million," he said. "We’re in this to compete, to do the best we can week in and week out. We want to run well and we want to win.

"But we know our sponsors like Advil and Yahoo! (which sponsors Robinson’s #39 Ford on the Busch Series) are looking for a solid return too, so we do everything we can to make it a great experience for them. We’ve been able to develop a giant sampling program for Advil at some race tracks, and they are getting some good positive exposure here too," he added.

One thing that would help that exposure, of course, is a solid run at California. "The best way to get good positive exposure is to run up front. Pretty simple stuff," Robinson said. "We’ve had some good time in the sun, and we’re working each week to make that more and more consistent. But coupling the on-track things with some good off-track things, like the sampling program, has worked well for our race team and for Advil."

In the first practice, Derrike was 46th fastest with a time of 41.676 and speed of 172.761.

In Qualifying, Derrike produced a lap of 41.050 and speed of 175.396. This was not fast enough for the top 38 so the team took a provisional and will be starting in 39th position.

In Happy Hour, Derrike was 40th fastest with a time of 42.419 and speed of 169.735.

Derrike started the race in 39th position and finished in 33rd.

Looking back on the Busch run last Saturday Derrike indicated, "We had problems with the Busch car in practice. Our finish was less than desirable as we finished the race on seven cylinders. We will put that behind us and anticipate a good run at St. Louis this weekend."