Jiffy Lube Miami 300

November 3, 1996
Homestead, FL

About the upcoming race, Derrike said, "It's the last race for Badcock in the Busch series. It's also the last time we'll run a Ford in the Busch series. We're trying to get our act together and have a good effort down there. I think the last time I was down there I qualified fifth and was running third when we broke something in the rear end. Hopefully the weather's nice and we can enjoy ourselves."

On Friday, Derrike crashed his car in practice and the backup car placed 39th. This meant Derrike had to try to qualify by running in a race on Saturday.

Bob Cope was live at Friday's qualifying. Check out his report for further information and pictures.

Before the 30 lap qualifying race on Saturday, Derrike was sitting on the pole and said, "Obviously first thing on Friday morning we got into trouble and wrecked the Badcock/Jasper Ford. The backup car I've got has done a great job getting it out just in time for us to get some laps. We're still fighting it a little bit here and the handling, but we'll get it together here and get a good run in hopefully here today."

During the qualifying race, Derrike never lost the pole position and finished in 1st. This put Derrike in 39th position for the Busch race on Sunday. After the qualifying race, Derrike said, "It's a tough little race track. I'm proof of that. We wadded one up here in practice. It's tough enough by yourself and when you get a bunch of cars around you, it makes it even more difficult."

Derrike started the race in 39th and by lap 21 was in 33rd position. On lap 31, there was a wreck that involved 10 cars including Derrike with front and rear damage. In the garage, Derrike was asked what happened in the crash. Derrike replied, "Well, it looked like somebody got spun around there up in the middle of that turn one and two. We just started to check up. We saw it pretty early and somebody from behind didn't, got into us and spun us around and I think Mark Green got spun around into us. It was just one of them deals. There's just not a lot of room and everybody couldn't stop fast enough."

Derrike finished 43rd.

As far as the Busch team in 1997, Derrike said, "We're negotiating with some sponsors and trying to find a sponsor for the Busch team. We're actively searching for that and we're hoping to announce something here relatively soon."

Derrike was asked what happened to cause the crash in practice on Friday. "It was early in the morning and the track was dirty. I guess I just drove the car harder than the conditions warranted. We got loose and backed into the fence, caught on fire, and obviously just burned to the ground. It was not a good start for us."