Diamond Hill Plywood 200

March 20, 1999
Darlington, SC

(March 17, 1999) - Tony Roper will drive the No. 61 IWX Motor Freight Pontiac in Saturday's Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway. It will mark his first NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division start, which originally was scheduled to happen later this season.

"Derrike had two very hard wrecks last weekend in Atlanta," said team manager/crew chief Dave Fuge. "He needs to stay healthy so he can concentrate on his Winston Cup program."

"Darlington is a tough place," continued Fuge. "Ideally, this may not be the best place to start Tony, but we think he'll be fine. We've watched him in the truck series and he's a good racer. Good racers take to tough tracks like Darlington."

Roper, 33, a native of Fair Grove, Mo., has competed in the last two seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In those two seasons, he has had 11 top-10 finishes and his series' best second-place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park last season. He has finished in the top-20 in points in both seasons. Roper has been a general mechanic on the Xpress team since the first of the year.