Aaron's 312

April 29, 2006
Talladega, AL

Derrike was not planning on driving in the Busch race, but according to Derrike, "My update for this week has me headed to Talladega for the Busch Series race. I will be driving for Jay Robinson this week doing substitute work for Jorge Goeters. Jorge was not approved by NASCAR for the Superspeedway. I am sorry that Jorge did not get his approval, but I am pleased with getting the opportunity to get the chance at running Talladega. As you know I love restrictor plate racing and really look forward to these races. Unfortunately I have not been able to participate in them all that much. Hopefully we will have a productive qualifying effort and can get a great finish! Our first practice is on Thursday at 2:45 PM. I will update you after practice and let you know how things are going."

In the first practice, Derrike was 33rd fastest with a time of 51.867 and speed of 184.626. The team did not run in the second practice.

Derrike updated us after practice. He said, "Just wanted to provide an update for practice at Talladega. We ran very few laps today. Without a back up car they do not want to take a chance on having a problem. We ended up 33rd in the first practice. The car drove pretty well, but needs cars behind it to help get it into the mix. We did not make any simulated qualifying runs so we do not know what the car will do by itself. We qualify at 4:05pm on Friday. We go out 21st. I am looking forward to the race. Hopefully we can run well and stay in contention until late in the race and then turn the wick up and have some fun. I will update you after qualifying."

In qualifying, Derrike produced a lap of 53.555 with speed of 178.807. This was fast enough at the end of the round to start the race in 41st position.

Derrike started the race in 41st position and finished in 40th position.

After the race, Derrike provided this update. "We started the race and settled in with a good pack of cars and was just riding along waiting for the first pit box. I had got oiled down and my vision was hampered a bit. The crew had informed me that we were 9 laps from pitting and with 3 laps before we were to come in for fuel, the #25 car Ashton Lewis pulled out of line and Johnny Sauter started to go with him and then went back up. The two of them were side by side and had slowed up. I could not slow down enough or I would have run into the back of Sauter, so I tried to move up to go along side him and I got clipped in the right rear which shot me up into the outside retaining wall. That was the end of our day. I felt bad for Extreme Gel and Jay Robinson as we could have stayed in the mix and could have had a good finish. I enjoyed getting to drive Talladega again as I love racing there. Thanks to Jay for having me drive the car."