Stater Bros. 300

February 26, 2005
Fontana, CA

Derrike will be at the wheel of the #28 Busch car for Jay Robinson Racing in Fontana. Telmex and Sun Microsystems were the sponsors of the car for the race.

After the strongest through-the-field charge at Daytona International Speedway in Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race, Derrike Cope and owner Jay Robinson are looking forward to getting back on track for Saturday’s Stater Brothers 300 race at the two-mile California Speedway.

“We came from a long way back and ended the day with a pretty solid finish, especially considering how far we came,” said Cope, referring to his Jay Robinson-owned #28 Ford. RadioShack sponsored the car in the Daytona Busch Series race.

Cope started 42nd in the 43-car field but utilized the driving talent that led him to two NASCAR Nextel Cup Series victories including the 1990 Daytona 500, to finish 16th.

“It shows the potential Jay Robinson Racing has and this race team has,” Cope said. “We had some pretty good sponsorship and it turned into a pretty nice run for RadioShack. That’s the type of showing Jay has always given his sponsors – invest one marketing dollar in his race team and he’ll give you two dollars worth.”

Robinson, a long-time owner in NASCAR’s Busch Series, and Cope, a veteran driver, are two of the top marketing minds among those in the top divisions of major league stock car racing. The ability to put together a strong, competitive race car – as evidenced by the way they cut through the field at Daytona Saturday – adds to that.

“No matter what you do, the sponsor has to come first with your plan,” Cope said. “A good, competitive car is a major step in putting the sponsor first but you are looking for ways you can mesh with his marketing plans. Nobody does that better than Jay Robinson. A driver or team who can make sponsorship work is normally the one who comes out best in the long run.

“To be successful, you have to remember that,” Cope said. “Let’s face it, as expensive as this sport is, you need the financial backing to be competitive. To get the financial backing, you have to have something pretty strong to give a corporate sponsor, a way for them to make money from that association,” Cope said. “I think a lot of teams and drivers have forgotten that.”

That line of thinking – putting the sponsor first – has worked well for Cope throughout his career, and is working in his NASCAR Busch Series relationship with owner Jay Robinson, a veteran two-car owner based just outside of Charlotte, N.C., in Indian Trail. “I’ve never had a sponsor or talked to a sponsor who had worked with Derrike before who wasn’t absolutely delighted with him,” said Robinson, who counts multi-corporate Wythe Industries among his sponsors.

“Derrike gets it. I’m not sure a lot of drivers coming into the sport these days do, but Derrike gets it. These corporations are looking for a way to make their marketing dollars work – and race teams have to help them find that,” Robinson continued. “If you do, then you have a great relationship for a long time. If you don’t, you are going to lose them.”

Granted, Robinson said, sometimes the marketing focus changes for a motorsports sponsor, or a new person comes into the company who feels another sport is more advantageous. “You can’t always make it work but if you go into a corporate relationship thinking the right way, you can usually make it work,” Cope said. “People like myself and Jay Robinson, we put our sponsorship proposals together thinking, ‘How can sponsorship help this company move product?’ Too many teams go into these days thinking, ‘I need X amount of dollars to run. How can I talk them into paying it?’

“The result of the latter a lot of times is a company might come in and then realize it’s not getting a return on its investment,” Cope added. “So they turn around and walk back out, soured on the sport and soured on what we all have to offer. If they are moving product, if they are meeting goals and motorsports sponsorship is helping and doing its part, then you have a great deal going.

“As race teams, as drivers, we owe that to the sponsors. Just like we owe something to the fans, the ones who buy tickets and sit in the grandstands, we owe it to the sponsors to help them in any way we can,” he said.

Robinson is considered one of the most savvy business thinkers among car owners in NASCAR. Cope is considered one of the stronger business minds among those who wheel stock cars.

“Sponsorship is the base for NASCAR racing at the higher levels, and Jay not only realizes that but he uses that in his business model,” Cope said. “There have been a lot of owners come through this sport, spend a ton of money and have nothing to show for it at the end. They come in, spend what they have and then they are gone, most of the time never to be heard from again.

“You have to have a solid foundation, and Jay has done that with his race teams,” Cope continued. “We’re moving forward and using the resources we have pretty wisely. Our hopes are that we can keep building, continue moving forward and get even more competitive.

“The thing about Jay is he can take one dollar and make it look like he has two. A sponsor spends a dollar with Jay and get three dollars in return,” Cope said. “We’re not the richest team out here by far, but you look around at what we have been able to do and what we have been able to accomplish, and you would think we’re doing pretty well.

“With the financial backing of some of the top teams out here, I really believe Jay would have his teams right at the top of the charts every week.”

In the first practice, Derrike was 35th fastest with a time of 42.139 and speed of 170.863. In the second practice, Derrike was 43rd fastest with a time of 41.645 and speed of 172.890.

In qualifying, Derrike's first lap was 41.525 with a speed of 173.39. The second lap was 41.489 with a speed of 173.540.

Derrike started the race in 39th position and finished in 34th.

Derrike updated us with the efforts from California. He said, "The California weekend is over and we accomplished what we needed to. We still do not have full time sponsorship for the 28 car but hope to have a partial schedule deal soon. The effort at California this weekend was a good one with the engine we had to use. We were down on power significantly, but finished the race (34) with no problems and helped in the points effort. We hope to have a new D-3 Ford engine ready by Las Vegas. Hopefully we can be more competitive there and beyond.

"As for Mexico City, I will be sitting it out and Johnny Sauter will drive a car with the number 28 on it."