Sharpie 500

August 24, 2002
Bristol, TN

Derrike Cope and BAM Racing have again teamed up this week. Derrike will be again driving the #49 BAM Racing Dodge this weekend at Bristol with MNR Productions as the sponsor. Billy Ray Cyrus from the TV show Doc on the PAX Network will be featured on the car. A design of the car can be seen in Picture Gallery 71.

In qualifying, Derrike took the track and on the first lap produced a time of 15.702 and speed of 122.20. He picked it up on the second lap with a time of 15.671 and speed of 122.44. At the end of the qualifying Derrike was in 29th position where he started the race.

Derrike started the race in 29th position and finished in 41st position after a crash on lap 162.

Derrike told us, "As for Bristol, things went really well in practice. I believe we were like 16th or 17th in practice but got very loose qualifying. I do not know if it was the rain or if it was just a loose set of tires that got us that way or what. But we will take 29th! As for Happy Hour we were not that good. We were very tight, so Scott, the crew chief, made wholesale changes for Saturday and did an outstanding job along with all the rest of the BAM crew. These guys and girls on the team work really hard and have really been a pleasure to work with. In the race we had a little pit stop problem that got us 2 laps down, we made one up, and then ran really well holding our own, until just after a restart I went into turn one and got really loose going in the corner. I did not know if I got some help or not, but went up the race track and got a lot of trash on the tires and when I came around the next time I went into turn one and the right front tire went down and I went into the wall ending our night."

Jim Coolbeth was at the race and provided a live report.