At the eleventh hour we are pleased to share the following announcement from Derrike regarding sponsorship for the 2005 Daytona 500. “We were obviously pleased with our overall performance during the recent Daytona test sessions. We have made several changes to our car that we are confident will make us even more competitive. We will be running Morgan McClure engines in the #55 at Daytona. Their engines performed well at Daytona testing and I have had previous opportunities to work with both Larry McClure and Ron Puyureur, their engine builder. Our car is ready and all that we needed was sponsorship. That has now been remedied. I am pleased and excited to announce that Year One Corporation will be sponsoring us for the Daytona 500 and will be an associate sponsor for the balance of the season. Our Daytona car decal layout will feature both Year One Corp and Muscle Performance. In addition, they will be an associate sponsor for Larry’s #62 Busch ride at Daytona.

"Year One is a Georgia based company that serves as the Restoration and Performance Headquarters for the automobile enthusiast. I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to get to know Kevin King, Year One CEO. I appreciate his enthusiasm and believe that ours will be a mutually rewarding relationship.”

Earlier today we spoke with Kevin King. As evidenced by his comments, he clearly shares Derrike’s enthusiasm. “This is our initial involvement as a racing sponsor at the Nextel Cup level. Clearly, it is an unusual opportunity for a company of our size to be a sponsor in Nextel Cup. It presents an exciting opportunity for us as virtually all of our customers are NASCAR fans. Furthermore, it allows us even greater visibility with race fans. We are particularly glad to be affiliated with Derrike Cope as a previous Daytona 500 winner.”

Be sure and check out Year One at www.yearone.com.

In another release, Derrike said, "This is obviously big for us and our program. Having a company like Year One on board not only helps us in our endeavors but it seems a natural fit giving their business with and relationship to the automotive enthusiast. We have millions of avid race fans that follow NASCAR, many of which consider themselves 'gear-heads' who spend a substantial amount of time restoring and upgrading their automobiles. This partnership with Year One seems a great fit and should be beneficial to everyone involved."

In the first practice, Derrike was 52nd fastest with a time of 49.810 and speed of 180.687.

In the second practice, Derrike was 52nd fastest with a time of 49.596 and speed of 181.466.

In qualifying, Derrike was the first one out on the track to qualify. His first lap was 49.987 with a time of 180.05. The second lap was faster with a time of 49.376 and speed of 182.28. At the end of the round, the #55 Monte Carlo was the 52nd fastest.

This will put Derrike in the Gatorade Duel race number 2 on Thursday in 25th position at 1:00pm.

Earlier Monday morning, we spoke with Derrike regarding yesterday's qualifying effort and Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150. "Our qualifying effort didn't go as well as I had hoped that it would. We lost speed from testing and that was something that we just didn't expect. We got our engine in late and missed some angles and as a result lost some speed. We made some adjustments in practice and gained some speed back to within two-tenths of our testing speed. Still overall we've lost some speed and as of yet haven't been able to identify what has caused it.

"For us it's now all about Thursday's race. We have Wednesday to get the car to draft well and to identify and resolve our slight speed decline. I am confident in our teams rising to meet this challenge. I was impressed with how well our car drafted in testing. If we can duplicate that in Thursday's race we stand a good chance of making the field. I recognize that with the changes made in qualifying we are challenged. However, strategy will play a major role in Thursday's race outcome and we'll be ready."

In the third practice, Derrike was 52nd fastest with a time of 48.543 and speed of 185.403. In the fourth practice, he was 48th fastest with a time of 48.220 and speed of 186.645.

Gatorade Duel 150 Race 2

Derrike started the second race in 25th position and finished in 14th position. Unfortunately with the new starting grid changes this year, this did not get Derrike in the show. On lap 3, there was an accident involving Kirk Shelmerdine and Greg Sacks. Derrike had minimal damage while the other two had major damage.

We are sure that all of Derrike's fans realize that under last year's Daytona 500 qualifying rules, Derrike would be solidly in Sunday's Daytona 500. Looking back on yesterday's 150 run, Derrike commented, "We fought as hard as we could, but just didn't have enough to pass other cars that we needed to pass. We couldn't get the car loose enough and had difficulty with getting the car to turn throughout the race. We were best on new tires and lost handling as the tires had more laps on them. We needed to achieve more down force to enable us to stay with the fastest cars. However, we did out race some fast cars. On our low budget that in itself is a positive. Our goal though was obviously to make the race."