Moment in the Sun

By Tom Higgins

Driver Cope and his teammates were in victory lane at the famous Florida track on Feb. 18, 1990, reveling in spontaneous jubilation as the biggest upset winners in Daytona 500 history.

"Someone among the mass of people, probably a photographer, yelled, 'Hold the winner's trophy over your head!'" Cope recalled a few days ago. "The trophy was heavy, but my adrenaline was like a gusher, so I was able to hoist it way up there.

"I closed my eyes and tilted my head toward the sky in thanks. The sun was shining right into my face. It felt so great, so warm on my face, that this incredible warmness washed all over me. I kept my eyes shut for several seconds because I didn't want the feeling to end.

"It sounds crazy to some people, I guess, but when I'm remembering that race I can close my eyes and it seems like the sun is warm on my face again, exactly as it was in 1990.

"It's like I can put myself back ... like I'm stepping into a Tmie Machine and returning to '90."

This memory as an almost-over-whelmed victor is among many vivid recollections Cope has of a race that produced one of the most astonishing finishes ever in NASCAR, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

The season-opener of '90 is the Daytona 500 that - more than any other - appeared at long last to belong to superstar Dale Earnhardt, never a winner in Winston Cup racing's major event, then and now.

Earnhardt dominated the event at the fast 2.5-mile track in a Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing. He led 155 laps, and was ahead as the lead pack roared into the 200th and final lap.

Earnhardt remained in first place down the backstretch. Had there been an odometer on his car it would have indicated 499 miles completed.

But it was Cope, never a top-five finisher in 71 previous starts on NASCAR's big-time tour, who took the checkered flag.

A race known for dramatic developments in the late stages had produced perhaps its most stunning, sudden turn of fortunes ever. And in the process, it provided the Washington state native with memories to last a lifetime.

"Our car was productive from the time we got to the track," Cope recalled of his No. 10 Chevy, prepared by a Buddy Parrott-led crew for a team owned by New England businessman Bob Whitcomb. "We ran well in our 125-mile qualifying race leading to the 500 and secured a solid starting position for the main event, 12th place.

"Buddy Parrott had a lot of savvy as a veteran in the sport, and he made his experience count. He told me and the other guys we needed to just settle in during the last rounds of practice and fine tune even the smallest things about the car.

"I remember the final practice, 'Happy Hour,' like it was this morning. Our car worked so well in the draft that it showed us we could run up front in the race. The car drafted so strong that I could stay right with Dale (Earnhardt) at all times, and we considered him to be the class of the field.

"Me and Buddy and the crew guys stood around the garage area after practice and it was hard to keep from grinning about our chances.

"I always have called my dad, Don, and my brother, Darren, back home in Washington state on the night before each race. I couldn't wait to talk to them this time.

"I told both of them something that ordinarily I never said. I told them that I felt very deeply that we had a car that could win."

Cope, who will drive Pontiacs for Bahari' Racing this season in a new pairing, remained optimistic overnight and during the hectic morning hours before the '90 racing classic.

"Dave Despain from one of the TV networks came by in the garage area and stopped to talk to me," continued Cope. "I said to him, 'Dave, if I can just be patient, I realistically have a shot.'

"Finally, the race began, and we followed the strategy Buddy had set, just making a methodical march to the front.

"The car was a little on the free side, the chassis a tad loose, so I'd feather the throttle slightly in the turns.

"Dale was setting a blistering pace. But this was only my third Daytona 500 and I knew to have a chance to be there as the race wound down I had to drive within myself and within the car.

"Still, I couldn't help worrying that Earnhardt was going to get away. Buddy kept reassuring me over our radio hookup. 'Don't worry about Earnhardt,' he said. 'We'll be there and have a chance to race him at the end.'

"Buddy had said over and over that in all likelihood there would be a caution flag with just a few laps remaining in the race. He said that was a pattern woven into the Daytona 500's history.

"Sure enough, with just eight laps to go Geoff Bodine spun in turn one, forcing a yellow flag."

Parrott didn't hesitate. He ordered Cope to remain on the track even though most rivals, including Earnhardt, were pitting for fresh tires for the looming dash to the finish.

"Buddy reasoned that there were seven cars on the lead lap," said Cope. "He told me that staying out to get an edge in track position was our best chance to win or get an up high finish."

The restart came with five laps to go and Cope in the lead. Earnhardt swept by into first place on lap 196.

"Because Dale had taken on new tires he could hug the bottom of the track," said Cope. "My car was very, very loose by now and I was washing up the banking in the corners. In fact, during our last pit stop Buddy had beaten the rear deck spoiler down to free up the car even more.

"The car was a handful to hold. But I told myself, 'This is the Daytona 500, there are only a few miles to go and I ain't lifting off the gas pedal.'

"Although I was losing ground to Dale in the turns, my motor was so strong that I could pull back up to him on the straightaways with drafting help from Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott, who were eight behind me. Could I get around Dale? I wasn't at all sure about that, but I was certain I was going to try.

"With three laps remaining Terry and Bill pulled out of line in an effort to draft by me. They couldn't make it. They pulled back in when they saw they didn't have anything for me.

"I still had a problem. When Terry would tuck the nose of his car right up under my car's rear, it made me even looser still.

"Earnhardt, meanwhile, had been inching up the track. I felt that he felt I couldn't run low.

"As the white flag lap began I decided that if Dale inches any higher, I'm going to dart low in the third turn and hope that Terry and Bill go with me, maybe enabling all of us to get past Dale."

Incredibly, it never came to that.

"I was right on Dale's bumper going into turn one," continued Cope, his face forming into an expression of excitement as the shootout unfolded for him again. "I gave my car its head and lost two or three car lengths to him by the time we came off turn two. Terry had gotten me loose again.

"My mind was racing, doing relatively as many RPMs as our engines. 'I'll probably be back up to Dale by the time we get to the trioval homestretch,' I thought. 'But I doubt I can get by him.'

"I guess I was sort of resigned to finishing second.

"Then, halfway down the backstretch, Dale's right rear tire started looking real strange. Pieces began flying off the tire and they were hitting my grille and windshield.

"Suddenly, it seemed that round tire became elongated and the back end of Dale's car slid out. He got almost sideways.

"It all happened very quickly, of course. But I swear the way I saw it then and the way I still see it happneing is in slow-motion.

"I came up on Dale so fast it's a wonder that I didn't get into him and wreck us both. Somehow I managed to miss him and when I was by the action returned from what seemed slo-mo to full speed.

"All I could see was clear track in front of me and I was telling myself, screaming to myself, 'Don't lift! Whatever you do, don't lift!'

"In the mirror, I saw Terry and Bill separate by about 2 1/2- to three-car lengths, and I figured that broke up their drafting shot at me. I looked toward the flagstand and then I was there and the checkers were falling. I watched for the flag. I deeply wanted to be sure to see it.

"For a second or so after the flag showed there was silence on the radio, then absolute pandemonium.

"I slowed between turns one and two and on the backstretch I let the window net down. Bill drove alongside, grinned and waved at me. I was sort of in a daze. I was trying to remember to thank our sponsors when I got to victory lane. And I wanted to see how the other drivers had finished behind me.

"I saw that Terry was second, then Bill, Ricky Rudd, Earnhardt, Bobby Hillin and Rusty Wallace.

"I really expected to come back around and see Earnhardt in the wall, wrecked. The fact that he saved that car amazed me then and it still amazes me today. I doubt there's another human who could have done it.

"I heard on the radio from somebody that Dale had cut the tire (on a piece of sharp bellhousing off another car). I felt for him, but at the same time I was filled with happiness for myself and the team.

"Coming down pit road was very emotional for me. The other crews came out to slap my hand. Dave Fuge and Jeffrey Baker were there from the TriStar team, which I'd driven for previously. That meant a lot to me.

"I'd never bothered to check where victory lane was at Daytona. And all the excitement got me very disoriented. I radioed Buddy to ask where to go. He said, 'Just keep coming. We're waiting on you and we'll show you!'

"In the meantime, Jim 'Teeny' Fox, a crew guy from Washington who'd worked for me on the West Coast, jumped on the trunk of the car whooping and hollering and rode into victory lane.

"It's incredible the effect the Daytona 500 has on you as a driver. Winning the race multiplies all that to a point that what's happening in victory lane seems surreal and all these thoughts spin through your head.

"I'm not a vindictive person, at least I try not to be. Yet, in victory lane I couldn't help remembering that when I started driving Late Model Sportsman cars back in Washington some people didn't like me. They told me to my face that I'd never amount to anything in racing."

Cope's eyes misted at the painful recollection, and he conceded the memory made him emotional.

"The response I had for the people who put me down always was this: 'Just wait and watch. Someday I'm going to win the Daytona 500.'

"I couldn't help remembering that and I have to confess I was feeling a tremendous amount of satisfaction."

As Cope stood celebrating at Daytona he couldn't have imagined what was happening elsewhere.

In Seattle, angry fans were besieging the local CBS television affiliate which had chosen "alternative programming," probably an old movie, over the live telecast of the 500. Cope's father and brother had been forced to drive to a town in Oregon and rent a motel room in order to watch the race on TV. Derrike is of Portuguese-Cherokee Indian heritage, and in Washington, D.C., Portugal's ambassador to the United States was drafting a proclamation praising Cope for his feat ... And in the garage area, Waddell Wilson, crew chief for Rudd, was giving Earnhardt the culprit piece of tire-cutting shrapnel, which had flown up from the pavement and stuck in the grille of Rudd's car ... Also, Earnhardt's teammates were removing the shredded tire to be mounted in the shop as a daily reminder of a Daytona 500 mission not yet accomplished.

Cope sighed as the interview about his great triumph drew to a conclusion.

"It was an incredible day," he said.

Then, the personable driver closed his eyes.

Obviously, he was putting himself back, feeling the Daytona sun of February 18, 1990 warm on his face once more.

Reprinted by permission of NASCAR Winston Cup Scene - February 12, 1998