Cracker Barrel 500 Live Report by Darryl Gumz

Well, the normal Atlanta race weather has returned. Cold, rainy, maybe a plot to keep the speeds down at the fastest track in Winston Cup racing.

I missed the action on Thursday and Friday (hey, ya gotta make a living), but Derrike's first round qualifying put him in 36th position before the weekend rains were due to roll in. On Saturday, Derrike posted the 15th fastest speed during practice. Each time I saw him, he ran one lap and went back in for adjustments.

Almost immediately after practice, the rains came. Not too bad, but enough that they qualified the 2nd round of qualifying. Thankfully, Derrike made the big show.

On Sunday, the skies were clear and the temperature had dropped like a rock. Everyone had on stocking caps and face covers. It was brrrrrrrr cold! Before the race, I spoke with the pit crew for Derrike and they said they thought they had the car adjusted pretty well.

The early part of the race saw DC moving up slowly, but his pits seemed to be a little slow (he lost 2-5 positions on each of the first few stops). But Derrike kept battling and continued to move up the ladder. By lap 47, Derrike was running 28th.

The rest of the race was a war of attrition. Many front-runners bit the dust (Mike Skinner, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, to name a few) in accidents or mechanical difficulties. At lap 274, DC was 22nd. Was he going to get to that prized 15th spot? To do so, he was going to have to get by Rusty Wallace, Bobby Hamilton, Brett Bodine, Jimmy Spencer, Jeff Gordon, John Andretti, and Ricky Rudd at that point.

At Lap 310, Derrike moved up to the top 20 and he finished 19th. Of the previous list, Rusty finished 32nd, Bobby 13th, Brett 16th, Jimmy 17th, Jeff 9th, John 18th, and Ricky 11th. Derrike finished 2 laps down (the only car to do that).

Time to put away the parkas, Winston Cup has left Atlanta until November!