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ALLTEL 200February 20, 1999
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In the first practice on Friday morning, Derrike was 37th fastest of the 57 drivers with a time of 24.558 and speed of 149.083. In the second practice, things picked up as Derrike was 20th fastest with a time of 24.353 and speed of 150.338. Rain delayed qualifying. The race order was set by owner's points and postmarks. Derrike fortunately got in at the last spot of 43rd where he will start the race because of their postmark.
Derrike Cope, driver of the No. 61 IWX Motor Freight Pontiac, will start Saturday’s ALLTEL 200 NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division race from the 43rd-starting position. Friday afternoon rain resulted in NASCAR being forced to cancel the one round of qualifying to determine the field. They had to set the starting line up based on a combination of 1998 car owners point standings, past NASCAR Busch Series Champions and the dates in which entries were recieved for the event. Fifty-seven cars were looking to get one of the 43 starting positions. The first 33 cars are cars that were in the top-35 in points last season. Johnny Benson secured the 34th starting spot based on his status as a past series champion. Positions 35 through 43 were left to postmarks which determined entry arrival at the NASCAR offices in Daytona Beach, Fla. "This is a break in our favor," said Derrike Cope. "Last week in Daytona, the breaks went against us and we missed the race. This week we were luckier. I’m very happy because the car ran very well in practice before the rains moved in." The NASCAR Busch Series teams completed the two scheduled practice sessions on Friday morning. The team was 19th-fastest after the second practice session. "Unfortunately, we don’t get any practice time with our race setup," said Cope. "But Dave (Fuge - Crew Chief) and I think we have a pretty good idea where we’ll need to be. The good thing is that nobody else had practice on race setups so we’re all in the same situation. We just need to stay our of touble and get a good finish." The ALLTEL 200 gets the green flag at 1:00 p.m. EST on Saturday. The Nashville Network (TNN) will have live television coverage of the race. Motor Racing Network (MRN) has live radio coverage on its network of stations.
Derrike started the race in 43rd position. This is where he was during the race among the 43 drivers:
Derrike finished the race in 15th position, 1 lap down.
Derrike Cope, driver of the No. 61 IWX Motor Freight Pontiac, finished in the 15th-position in Saturday's ALLTEL 200 NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division event at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. Cope drove from the 43rd-starting position to secure the strong finish. "This is exactly what we needed to do at this time," said Cope following the run. "We had a great car at Daytona, but didn't get to race it. We had a great car here today and considering where we started, we can be really proud of today's run." Due to rain on Friday afternoon, the 43 car field was determined from last season's car owners points, a past champions spot and entry dates. The Xpress Motorsports team secured the 43rd and final starting spot of the 57 entries through the dated entry. "The car ran really well all day long," he continued. "We had a bit of a push at times, but it was pretty good. We just started so far back and lost a lap trying to catch up. This is real encouraging for us as we head to our next event at Las Vegas." The car returned to the Mooresville, N.C. shop with virtually no damage in an event that was slowed six times, most for major multi-car crashes. Cope completed 196 of the 197 laps and earned $7,305 for the effort. Jeff Burton won the race. Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Randy LaJoie, and Casey Atwood followed him. The NASCAR Busch Series has this weekend off before heading to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Sam's Town 300 to be contested on Saturday, March 6. |
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