Derrike Cope

Few drivers have followed the same route into racing as Spanaway, Wash. native Derrike Cope. While his father, Don, was a professional drag racer, Derrike's interests were in a different sport - baseball. He was a professional baseball prospect as a catcher when he injured his knee in a home-plate collision. It was then that he turned to racing to quench his competitive fires.

Cope, who will drive the No. 61 IWX Motor Freight Pontiac in the Busch Series, Grand National Division in 1999, has had a career full of challenges and has enjoyed some sweet success along the way. The pinnacle moment of this career came in February of 1990 when he scored his career first NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory. The win just happened to be in the sport's premier event - the Daytona 500.

Cope was the 1980 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman (a regional series in the Northwest) Rookie of the Year and the 1983 Champion in that series. He was the 1984 NASCAR Winston West Series Rookie of the Year, missing the Championship title by a mere four points. It was then that his attention started to focus on NASCAR Winston Cup Series competition, racing his first full-time campaign on the tour in 1986.

Since that time, Cope has been a mainstay in NASCAR's premier division. Currently, he drives for Bahari' Racing on NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit. With his Winston Cup effort on the upswing, Cope looks forward to joining his former crew chief Dave Fuge for the chance to drive the Xpress Motorsports team Pontiac in NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division competition.

"Dave and I were together when I started racing," said Cope of Fuge, also a native of the state of Washington. "We always have talked about the chance to work together again. Everything has come into place for this to be the right time. Dave has assembled a great team at Xpress Motorsports. Actually, many of the guys there are from the Northwest and people I know real well. All the resources are in place for us to get back together again and run very competitively."

Cope, a near-scratch golfer, is a leading contributor of his personal time to a variety of charitable endeavors.