Virginia 529 College Savings 250

September 11, 2009
Richmond, VA

Derrike will be bringing two cars to Richmond. Derrike is driving the #73 and Kevin Lepage is driving the #78.

In the first practice, Derrike was 35th fastest with a time of 22.208 and speed of 121.578. Kevin Lepage was 17th fastest with a time of 21.954 and speed of 122.984.

In Qualifying, Derrike produced his fastest lap of 22.434 with a speed of 120.353. At the end of the round he was 44th fastest which wasn't enough to make the show. Kevin had his fastest lap at 22.041 with speed of 122.499. This put him in 20th position where he will start the race.

Kevin started the race in 20th position and finished in 43rd position

After the race, Derrike commented, "It was not a good weekend for us. We struggled with my car the whole time, and in qualifying I am not sure what went wrong. We either changed the air pressure or the combination we had was too loose for the new tires, and the car just turned sideways coming out of turn two. I was able to save it but then I lost all my momentum for the second lap and we fell short.

"Kevin's car was pretty good from the start of practice and went very well in qualifying, although the race went very poorly which I am unhappy about since we were there to only do a start and park because of the lack of funding.

"We have switched numbers on the cars once or twice, but the car I am now driving is the original #73 car. It always has been very productive for us except on the short tracks. That is where the #78 car has been better, but it has struggled on the larger tracks. I drove that car at Gateway where it was pretty good and Kevin struggled with the car I drove this week. We have worked very hard to get an understanding of what this #78 car wants on the big track and have made some headway with it, but we are struggling with the #73 car.

"The competition continues to get better, and we only have these two cars and the same engines with the same horsepower. I am working on some additional equipment to hopefully improve our situation, but without sponsorship and missing races, as well as crashes, it is difficult. We are doing the best we can, although we are making some poor choices which has to change."