Derrike Cope Fan Club
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2007

USG Durock 300

July 14, 2007
Joliet, IL

  

Pre-Race

Derrike will be driving in the Busch race this weekend. He said, "I will be driving the #28 Border Patrol Chevrolet this weekend at the Chicagoland Speedway. I am looking forward to getting to race again at Chicago. I like the racetrack and am hopeful that we will be very competitive. The car looks good. The engine has good numbers on the chassis dyno and the whole team is really enthused about our chances.

"I am looking forward to running another race for the Border Patrol. Our last effort produced a top 25. I hope to improve on that this weekend."

The press release added:
Jay Robinson Racing announces that former Daytona 500 champion Derrike Cope will be driving the #28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevy during the NASCAR Busch Series USG Durock 300 in Chicago. This will be Derrike’s third race this year with the JRR Team and the second race in association with the U.S. Border Patrol. Earlier this year Derrike drove the #28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevy to a top twenty-five finish at Darlington Raceway. “I am looking forward to being back on the track this weekend and ready to compete come race day for the U.S. Border Patrol.”

The event will be the ninth race of the U.S. Border Patrol's twenty-five race sponsorship. The U.S. Border Patrol presence trackside in Chicago will be missed this week, but Comcast SportsNet Chicago-CH 37 will be running a feature on the JRR Team and the U.S. Border Patrol as a sponsor that will air Friday night July 13th.

This week joining Car 28 as Associate Sponsors will be Checkers / Rally’s, Smith Transport and CMO Music.

In the first practice, Derrike was 41st fastest with a time of 32.138 and speed of 168.025.

In the second practice, Derrike was 31st fastest with a time of 31.277 and speed of 172.651.

In qualifying, Derrike produced his fastest lap of 31.067 with speed of 173.818. At the end of the round this was good enough for 34th position where Derrike will start the race.

The Race

Derrike started the race in 34th position and finished in 36th position.

Start Finish Status Money
Won		 Laps Laps
Led		 Race
Points		 Standing
34 36 Running $21,795 194/200   55 70

Official Report

After the race, Derrike said, "We qualified 34th. We bottomed out on our qualifying lap which hurt the effort, but we were not off being 25th or so by much, as the times were close. We were trying a new coil bind setup and finally got a bit closer by the second practice session.

"When the race started we moved up a bit and the the car went to the tight side and we were really unable to get that much better. We will have to learn how to make better adjustments with this coil binding process. When we came in for the first green flag pit stop we left a lug nut off the left front wheel so we had to come back in. Then I was too fast leaving pit road so I had to serve a drive through penalty and we lost a lot of laps doing all that. Then the clutch went out late in the race and I just had to nurse it home and finish the race. In my opinion we had a 20th place car but the finish does not reflect that, but overall a pretty good effort I thought. We can certainly build off this weekend. I will update you soon on Gateway next weekend."