Emerson Radio 250

September 10, 2004
Richmond, VA

Derrike Cope and the Advil Ford team head to the fast .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway this week for Friday night’s Emerson Radio 250 NASCAR Busch Series race. Cope, a 45-year-old winning veteran of NASCAR racing, will be among that group of drivers running both the NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event at Richmond this weekend.

The thoughts of #49 Advil Ford driver Derrike Cope heading into Richmond: "Two things you have to keep in mind in the Busch race at Richmond. First, it is a really fast track and you get around the place quickly. Secondly, it’s not a long race. Two-hundred fifty laps doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to get the things done you need to get done – so you had better go into the race knowing what you need.

"Everything about Richmond is quick. You get through the turns quickly. You get down the straightaways quickly. You can get into trouble quickly. Everything is over quickly.

"First of all, that makes qualifying pretty important. Typically, qualifying at Richmond – whether it is for the Busch race or the Cup race – is really close. A few tenths can separate the pole winner from the guy going home. When the blink of an eye can determine your fate like that, you know it’s some pretty serious stuff.

"Qualifying gives you the initial track position. You can pass at Richmond but, since the race is just 250 laps, it becomes a ‘track position’ track. The closer you can start towards the front on Friday night, most likely the better your night is going to be all of the way around. You don’t see too much ‘last-to-first’ type of stuff in the Busch race at Richmond. There just isn’t the time to get it done, and the cars are too close together in speeds anyway.

"You make your own luck at Richmond, plain and simple. And that starts with that qualifying session. A good qualifying run gives you a better starting spot, puts more cars behind you and fewer cars in front of you, gives you a better pit position . . . it’s just a better deal off the way around. Some tracks you can kind of blow off qualifying, take what you get and concentrate on the race. At Richmond, everybody pays a lot of attention to qualifying because so much is riding on it. Let’s face it – qualifying doesn’t win the race for you but it can sure lose it for you.

"The track itself is really racey. It’s pretty smooth with good turns. The second turn can be a little tricky with that hard left-hand turn but if you enter Turn One pretty well, the second corner shouldn’t be that big of a problem.

"Most of the problems tend to come with people being over-anxious in the race. And it’s a tough track, and a tough race, to be patient. You know you don’t have much time to move up and if the guy ahead of you is slow but holding the groove, it’s easy to lose your patience and nudge him up out of the groove. The deal is, if you are nudging him up and maybe the guy behind you decides to nudge you up at the same time, you can call get nudged into a wad of sheet metal. So you have to really be aware of who you are racing, in front of behind, all of the time.

"It’s usually a pretty good race at Richmond, the Busch race and the Cup race. If we can lay down a pretty decent qualifying lap, it might end up being a pretty good night for this Advil Ford team."

In the first practice, Derrike was 44th fastest with a time of 22.373 and speed of 120.681.

In Qualifying, Derrike produced a lap of 22.292 and speed of 121.120. This was not fast enough for the top 38 so the team had to take a provisional and Derrike will be starting in 42nd position.

Happy Hour was cancelled.

Derrike started the race in 42nd position and finished in 28th.

Earlier today we spoke with Derrike regarding last weekend’s Busch race at Richmond. "Last weekend was one of those weekends that you would like to forget. We had difficulty getting our Busch car through inspection. When we got out for qualifying we had some rear end camber issues and the car was really loose. Happy Hour practice was cancelled and we guessed at the race setup and missed. We weren’t successful in tightening the car up during the race. I was disappointed for our sponsor Advil."