Funai 250

May 14, 2004
Richmond, VA

Derrike Cope shook off a rough weekend and is ready to go in the #49 Advil Ford in Friday night's Funai 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at the .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Cope was taken to a St. Louis, Mo., hospital following a crash in practice Saturday at Gateway International Raceway. Though his injuries were diagnosed as minor, he was held a few hours for observation and released Saturday evening, about the time of the start of the race. Josh Richeson substituted for Cope, driving the Jay Robinson-owned car.

"It was 'Praise the Lord and pass the Advil,'" Cope said. "The brakes didn't burn in the way I thought they had. They locked and spun me around, and I hit the wall there pretty hard. I'm grateful everything turned out okay, but I'm ready to get back in the car. You never know how easy you have things. I wanted a good run at Gateway, and didn't get to drive at all. I thought it was going to be bad enough watching the race on television Saturday night but the hospital didn't have cable. I was on a flight anyway, so missed hearing any of it. Believe me, I'd much rather have been driving," he said.

For Cope and the Advil Ford team, the return to Richmond will be important. "We lost a little continuity with the driver change but being able to get right back on the race track should help us a lot," Cope said. "Racing can be a lot like baseball – you need to do it regularly to make things work right. Having that routine is important to any race team. Running the schedule the way we do, whether it is Busch or Cup or Trucks or whatever, is helpful in a lot of ways. It helps being busy like that," he added. "You can't get too excited in either direction. You can't be too happy after a great race and you can't be too down after a bad one. You don't have the time!"

In the first practice, Derrike was 42nd fastest with a time of 21.971 and speed of 122.889.

In Qualifying, Derrike produced a lap of 21.695 and speed of 124.453 which at the end of the round put the #49 Advil Ford in 32nd position.

In Happy Hour, Derrike was 37th fastest with a time of 22.147 and speed of 121.913.

Derrike started the race in 32nd position and finished in 27th position.

We spoke with Derrike regarding the Busch race this past weekend. Derrike commented, "Our Busch team had a solid night. We were productive considering our brief practice and the fact that we hadn’t been able to test since the track had been resurfaced. We made the field on speed in the Advil Ford and would have had a higher finish had we not experienced voltage problems that briefly put us behind the wall during the race."