DirecTV 500

April 2, 2006
Martinsville, VA

Derrike will be driving the #74 car in Martinsville. He said, "We are getting ready for this weekends NEXTEL Cup race at Martinsville, VA. I am hoping to produce the same results as last year. We had a great qualifying effort there. This year I will be driving a Dodge with Sundance Vacations and Royal Administration on the car. I have not driven this car before. It is one that Carl Long drove several times last year. I am hoping the weather will cooperate and we can get this one in. Martinsville is a unique and fun racetrack. It is a half mile in length and has asphalt straight aways and concrete corners so there is some difficulties with the transitions getting into the corner as well as trying to get the forward bite necessary to get off the corners. One issue for qualifying has always been to get enough heat in the tires to get a quick lap."

In the first practice, Derrike was 40th fastest with a time of 20.148 and speed of 93.984.

In qualifying, Derrike produced a lap of 20.142 with a speed of 94.012. At the end of the round, this was actually 41st fastest but because of provisionals, this put the #74 Sundance Vacations/Royal Administration Dodge in 44th position which was not in the top 43 to make the race.

Derrike updated us after the weekend. "The Martinsville weekend did not go as planned. I am very disappointed with the outcome, but not the effort that we all put forth.

"We are definitely gaining on everything. Scott, Wiz and all the guys brought a competitive race car to the track. The Sundance Vacations/Royal Administrations/My Guardian 911 Dodge unloaded of the truck pretty respectable. We lost a bit of practice but bounced back well. I really thought we would make the race...but when it all shook out we missed it by one one-thousandth of a second. I slipped a little ( spinning the rear tires) coming off turn four coming to the white flag which was our quickest lap and that was the difference.

"I really feel bad for the team because they deserved to be in this one. But, unfortunately there is no margin for error in this field of cars. We continue to get better each week, but keep falling a bit short. I am confident that we will have some good things happen to us and for Sundance, Royal, and My Guardian, our sponsors, in the immediate future. I know it has to be frustrating for Ray McGlynn. He puts a lot of emotional effort into this operation, and I hope it will reward him soon. I will update you on our next event as soon as it becomes available to me."