Pennsylvania 500

July 24, 2005
Pocono, PA

Derrike will be going to Pocono with the Pro30.com Dodge and the Rick Ware Racing team. Sugar Hollow Farms was also listed as a sponsor.

After last week's effort with the same car, Derrike said, "I really felt good about getting the Pro30.com Dodge in the race, but unfortunately we just missed making the race. I just could not get the car to turn in the middle of the corner the way I needed to in order to get back on the gas. But it was a good first effort for us as a team. The guys did a really good job getting a number of changes done on the car to find the speed that we did. We learned a lot about this car and I think we will be better the next time out. We will be going to Pocono to try again. Hopefully we will have more success."

In the first practice, Derrike was 46th fastest with a time of 57.217 and speed of 157.296. In Happy Hour, he was also 46th fastest with a time of 57.042 and speed of 157.779.

Derrike updated us before qualifying. He said, "We were not very fast yesterday during practice. We were fighting a steering issue in which I could not steer the car for moments entering the first corner. After practice we feel we have found the problem. With no additional practice we are making wholesale changes and hoping for the best. We will need to pick up significantly to make the field. Qualifying starts at 12 noon and we go out 34th."

In Qualifying, Derrike crashed and hence missed the race.

Derrike informed us, "As you know we missed the race. I crashed the car unfortunately. The car was very loose and some other issues compounded the problem and made it even more difficult to make something good happen."