Just returned from Bristol last night.

During pre-race introductions the drivers (2) ride standing in the bed of a pickup around the track and wave to the crowd. Derrike was paired with Tina Gordon since they started together after both taking provisional spots. She is a looker!!

Derrike smartly avoided the 2nd lap crash involving the 3rd JRR car of Mark Green. Derrike held his own very well until a caution at about lap 30 when he and a few others running on the tail of the lead lap pitted. A good move that put him into the top 5 after the leaders all pitted at the next caution. When he was running in fifth with the lead cars the difference between his car and the usual leaders became obvious to me. Derrike's car handled well but lacked acceleration out of the corners, a horsepower thing I'm sure. It was until about lap 145 until Derrike was lapped, mostly because he was at the rear on every green flag because they pitted numerous times under each caution.

He probably pitted 15 times during the race. They were paying special attention to the left front wheel of the car throughout and kept removing tape and cleaning the grill often; perhaps they had an overheating problem. He was a bit unlucky getting the 2nd lap down, because again they always restarted at the rear because of pitting so much, but this time they got caught just leaving the pit lane when the green came out and started way behind the rest of the field. But he ran very well during that last race segment and gained a number of positions. Also he did indeed punt Robby Gordon, but everyone checked up in front of him and Derrike was hit in the rear also since his car had some damage on the left rear, typical Bristol. All in all a good effort.

A note on the way out of the speedway each night, thousands of Advil Liqui-Gels were being given away. Too bad they don't spend a few more bucks on some engine development.