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2009 Nationwide Series   Derrike drove a Nationwide car for Rick Ware Racing at the beginning of 2009. Metal Jeans sponsored Derrike's #41 car initially. Derrike also had his own #73 Dodge driven by Kevin Lepage and himself.

This Weekend
October 22, 2009 - Derrike gave us an update for the weekend. He said, "The plans for this weekend are as follows. I will be driving the #64 Sprint Cup car for Larry Gunselman at Martinsville, VA. I withdrew the #75 car because it looks like rain is eminent for Friday and the opportunity for me to drive was available.

"Additionally, we will have both Nationwide Series cars in Memphis. Kevin Lepage will be in the #78 and Chase Miller will be driving the #73 for us. We have stuggled here lately which has me a bit disturbed, but we will just have to work harder to rectify some of the mistakes that we have been making and try and become more productive."

Kansas Lottery 300
October 3, 2009 - According to Jennifer Jo Cobb's press release, she will be driving the #79 CapFed.com Dodge with primary sponsor Capitol Federal Savings for team owner Derrike Cope, Inc with Rick Markle Racing. Associate sponsors for the #79 include Big Bob’s Outlet, a national flooring and furniture outlet with Kansas City origins, AutoPartsCenter.net, Holtze Executive Suites and The Gardner Family Foundation. “Big Bob’s Outlet is excited to partner with Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing, Kansas City’s hometown race team,” said Big Bob. “We are looking forward to promoting this relationship on a local level while gaining national exposure for all of our franchises through this NASCAR race at the Kansas Speedway.”

Virginia 529 College Savings 250
September 12, 2009 - Kevin Lepage finished the race 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.

"This week is off for Nationwide which will give us a chance to regroup a bit, although we will be off to Loudon for the Sprint Cup race with the #75 car. We have had Doug Richert (formerly Greg Biffle's Crew Chief) at Roush working with us to hopefully have a better handle on the COT car. I am looking forward to it!"

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June 14, 2009 - Derrike started the race in 28th position and finished in 22nd position. After the race he said, "This past weekend's race at Kentucky came off pretty well for us. We practiced better than we qualified which was 28th. We did not adjust for the warmer weather as well as we should have and the car was very loose in qualifying so I took it a bit easy and calculated not to make any mistakes since we had a lot of flipNbag people there and various other friends.

"The one problem we are faced with is that we are a non-lock in car and that does not allow us the luxury of practicing in a race configuration like the top 30 lock in cars, so when the race comes, we are off on the chassis. Like Saturday night when we took the tape off the front of the car and lowered the air pressure, coupled with the night time we were very tight and the car would absolutely not turn. We had to work hard all night to get the car to respond. I made a few mistakes which hurt us as well. All in all, not a bad effort and the finish is respectable for our small race team.

"As for the pull down rig we used, it is a fixture that you put the car on and there are load cells and platforms in which you can actually pull the front of the car down and simulate the car going through its travel as it would on the race track. You then can measure geometry points, look at camber and caster, the coil bind of the springs in Nationwide and the bump stops on the Cup cars. We still need to correlate with what the pull down rig shows us and what the race track actually shows us to better understand and further our learning of what is needed. This has been the first time we have had the opportunity to get on there and learn. Hopefully we will be able to aid in the bump stop configurations on the Cup car when we run it next.

"We only have two more races for flipNbags, a Cup race at Pocono, and Bristol with the Nationwide car. We are off to Milwaukee this weekend. I had a lot of fun this weekend as well as the crew. They had good pit stops and overall did a great job."

Richmond/Darlington Update
May 4, 2009 - Some questions came up about the Richmond to Darlington transition and they were:
1. What kind of things get changed on the #73 car if any, for Darlington after racing at Richmond? And is last week's primary car this week's backup?

Derrike's answers are:
"We will be running the same car. It is more suited to Darlington than Richmond. As for the changes, we will change the rear end gear, the rear springs, front springs, swaybar, and the track bar location."

Update
April 26, 2009 - Derrike explained what happened during the weekend and upcoming plans. He said, "We have a commitment to be in Richmond, VA for flipNbags and the Nationwide Series. With being a small team and our commitment to our sponsor flipNbags we have to be prepared and the engines that are in the trucks will be used this weekend, so there is not a lot of time left to get ready."

Derrike Update
April 20, 2009 - Derrike updated us by saying, "This past weekend we took Nur Ali, a 34 year old driver from Fort Worth, Texas to the ARCA event at Rockingham Speedway. Nur did a great job qualifying the car in 28th position and finished 21st. This is really his first taste of what stock cars are all about. He has run at Daytona in ARCA, but not much more than that. We will continue to have conversations about what will be next for Nur.

"We seem to have a lot going on as of right now. We will begin a very busy month of May starting at Richmond in the Nationwide Series where I will be driving the flipNbags.com Dodge and will continue on to Darlington and Lowes Motor Speedway. Additionally, we will have our Sprint Cup effort at The Showdown at Lowes Motor Speedway during All Star weekend. We will be debuting a new flipNbags.com paint scheme for that race as well. I am very pleased and excited to get in my own race cars and get back to racing!"

flipNbags.com Announces 6-race Sponsorship with Cope/Keller Racing
April 15, 2009 - In a volatile economic climate for many NASCAR teams, Derrike Cope, Inc. (DCI) and Cope/Keller Racing (CKR) have found the "perfect demographic match" between the flipNbags.com products and NASCAR. flipNbags.com will sponsor Derrike Cope in five of his DCI NASCAR Nationwide efforts (Richmond, Darlington, Charlotte, Kentucky and Bristol) and one Cup event. Cope and the team are eligible for the NASCAR All-Star race weekend to participate in the Showdown at Lowes Motor Speedway and flipNbags.com will be the primary sponsor . Entries into the Camping World Truck Series are also being considered.

flipNbags.com sponsored the DCI entry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event in Bristol as well as the CKR NASCAR Sprint Cup event in Martinsville. Driver Kevin Lepage finished 36th (expired engine) in Bristol and Cope was denied the opportunity to qualify in Martinsville due to inclement weather. Both flipNbags.com sponsored entries garnered media success for the company which was viewed as a critical part of the company's initial branding initiatives. "We debuted the E-Z Tote flipNbags product to the race fans in Bristol and found that we have a perfect product\demographic match with NASCAR fans," said flipNbags.com representative Dale Clemons. "We looked at several options for engaging the NASCAR opportunity and decided that working with DCI and CKR presented the type of flexibility our effort required. Derrike and the team members at DCI and CKR are on board with our marketing plan and that's what we needed; a total team effort," stated Clemons.

"At a time when teams are struggling to find sponsorship for one race, we are pleased to be able to plan for at least a half a dozen with flipNbags.com support," said former Daytona 500 Champion, Derrike Cope. "It is a great time for a new sponsor to enter the sport as there are so many opportunities to spotlight a product in a multitude of media outlets." The EZ-Tote flipNbags product is a collapsible back pack cooler that includes built in seat cushions. During the Bristol race weekend, announcers spotlighted the product and commented on the sponsor several times. "We couldn't be more thrilled with our initial product launch at Bristol and that is why we are excited to bring this high quality, American-made back-pack cooler to race fans in other markets," said Clemons. The flipNbags.com show car will be on display throughout the season at various venues along with the E-Z Tote cooler which will be available for purchase. flipNbags Motorsports Marketing Director TJ Smith recommends that fans check the flipNbags.com web site for locations, dates and times.

Nationwide and Rick Ware Racing
February 8, 2009 - Rick Ware Racing plans to enter two cars in the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. Drivers Stanton Barrett, Derrike Cope, and rookie Tim Brown will share the driving duties. Barrett is expected to drive in roughly 20 races as the team enters the #31 and #41 Chevrolets. Metal Jeans will sponsor Derrike's #41 car in the Camping World 300 at Daytona. Derrike confirmed, "I will be driving a Nationwide car for Rick Ware Racing along with Stanton Barrett."

Thanks to TheHotLap.com for photos

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