Ben Smith

I have been a Derrike Cope fan since I was a little kid. I was born and raised in Washington state and grew up around the local tracks. I have a lot of friends that race and some of them raced with DC around the state at Yakama, Spanaway, and other tracks.

I even have a friend that is a race driver and his son is named after Derrike; I'm sure DC knows who I am talking about. I only met DC once when I was 10 or 11 but it's cool to be able to say that I have talked to him. When I was in Jr. High and High School I used to go to the Winston/Motorcraft 500 Winston West race every year to watch Derrike race in that series.

Being from the northwest I am really proud to say that DC is representing us in NASCAR's big leagues. There are not many northwest drivers in Winston Cup and I think DC does a great job for us. He has had some hard times over the years but he has shown that when he has the right team and the right equipment, he is a force to be reckoned with and I think that the Bahari' team is on the verge of showing that force.