Dover Interview

May 29, 1997

Cope's career blossomed that year in the Purolator Chevrolet Lumina. Since then he has established himself as one of the veterans of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. And surprisingly, he rates the 1990 win at Dover Downs as even more significant to his development as a driver than the groundbreaking victory earlier that year in Daytona.

Cope returns to Dover with memories

In may ways, Derrike Cope's victory in the 1990 Budweiser 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway was more special than his season-opening win in the Daytona 500.

After all, this win wasn't the "gimme" that many cynics viewed the 1990 Daytona triumph to be. As Cope says, at Dover "we flat-out whipped 'em." The two wins while driving the Purolator Chevrolet were supposed to be a sign of things to come for Cope. Since that day, however, Cope has had 196 starts on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series without a win. But three consecutive finishes strong for the driver of the No. 36 SKITTLES® Pontiac, including two in the top-15, have this new team and its veteran driver openly optimistic about this weekend's Miller 500 from the track affectionately known as "The Monster Mile."

What do you remember about your victory at Dover Downs in 1990?

"I knew I had a really good race car. We were on bias-plies. The car was just hooked up, and I was able to have enormous confidence in the car. I remember because I could just drive down into the corner exceptionally hard. The car would make the turn and I could just put my foot right back down. It would drive off and it was actually smoking the right front tire. The car was extremely balanced. It was one of those days where we were running along pretty good, and I was not overdriving the car. I was hanging up in there. Then we ran out of fuel. (Crew chief) Buddy (Parrott) ran us out of fuel. I remember pulling back out and seeing Rusty (Wallace) behind me, probably six or eight car lengths. I just took off and ran away from him. The caution came back out, so I stayed on the lead lap. The next thing I remember was just really battling (Ken) Schrader (who would finish second). That's the thing I really remember the most. That was the most fun. I had Mark (Martin) right there and Schrader. I had to race Schrader exceptionally hard. Rusty was getting away from us. We ran side-by-side but never touched. I finally got by Schrader and left him. then I ran Rusty down. I just drove hard, and it was still smoking the right front, and they'd tell me 'Slow down.' I said, 'I'm not going to change the way I'm driving the car. If it blows it's gonna blow, but I'm not going to change my rhythm.' I wasn't even driving it hard. I was driving it smooth, and it went on to victory. It was a great day. It was just a good, solid effort. It was one of those deals where you have a good race car and you make the right choices. We made a mistake that hurt us, but we were able to battle back, and we had a good enough race car to win. That's what it takes."

Was that win a greater vindication than Daytona of your driving abilities?

"That was really the race that I felt like reinforced my belief in myself, my team and my abilities. Dover is both a tough track on the race car and the driver, and it remains so today. To go up there and flat-out whip 'em, basically, just whip 'em, proved we were the best team on that Sunday. We were the best in the world on that Sunday. They can't take that away from us. I proved that I can run 500 miles as good as anybody, and when push came to shove, I was able to run one of the best in the business down, in Rusty Wallace. The way I look at it is I can drive one of these things. It proved I know how to win."

Describe the makeup of that team.

"I made the phone call to get Buddy (for crew chief). I called Buddy up and asked him to take that job. Buddy had even at that time, an enormous amount of experience. Buddy is one of those guys where when he puts his mind to something, he's very difficult to beat. When he's heading it, when he's behind the program, he's a real motivator of people. He can really make people believe in themselves. That's a trait, a quality, that not an enormous amount of people in the garage have. Everybody can say they do, but you have to be able to truly feel it. Buddy believes it. I think he made the guys believe it could be done. We did it at Daytona. But we still took a lot of ridicule by the way we won, but we stayed within ourselves because of Buddy. And to got to Dover and do what we did there, really reinforced everybody's belief in everybody's ability and themselves, and the cause. Buddy was the main person behind that. He can still motivate the guys. When you're in a race car and you need to dig, Buddy can make you dig. He's a great strategist, too. I think Buddy's come a long way since then. His stay with Rusty helped him in the chassis and shock areas, and opened him up to some other things. Obviously, that just shows you that you can always continue to learn. Buddy is a great talent."

How big was the change from bias-ply to radial tires?

"Huge. Huge. I didn't have an enormous amount of experience when I got here. Fourteen, 17 races a year on the Winston West tour. I really didn't have a lot of money to drive different things to get more experience. When I got here I was relatively green. The bias-ply was the feel I had, and I always manipulated a car on bias-ply tires. I drove hard. I got in the corner hard, and when I got the car turned I used both feet to get in the throttle. I really tried to manipulate a race car much to the likes of Earnhardt and Rusty, maybe not to that degree (laughs), but along those lines. When we changed, the radial was not suited to that. The radial you have to massage. It's extremely picky. You've got to play with it, nurture it, and I wasn't used to or accustomed to doing that. I went through a period there where the transition was extremely difficult. Slowly but surely I think I've made the transition. We've been in a position to win some races the last few years. I've taken care of things, and maybe I wasn't stellar all the time, but I've always been there. Jimmy Fennig and the Bobby Allison team were very instrumental in helping me make that transition. It's a difficult process, and it continues, because obviously technology continues to progress and we keep changing tire compounds from month to month. It's quite a process."

How do you feel about the concrete surface at Dover?

"Before you even get there the first time you know it's not going to be easy. The other drivers let you know that. You just have to go out there and initiate a learning process, and apprenticeship of Dover. You try to gain confidence. It's a mindset. It's the confidence you have in the car. It's all just something you feel, something you absorb. At times you feel like you start to get that, and then something will happen. I started getting to where I felt really good up there, where you get to the point where you're saying, 'It's OK. You're in the throttle.' Then I broke loose one time and knocked the fence down. I had a good race car that day, too. From that point on I've kind of wondered, 'Do I really have it?' You just have to prepare yourself. It's there. It took a while to gain that kind of confidence. There are some guys that can brave it a little bit more. I've wrecked a lot of cars in the past and I'm just not in that mode right now. We're just not in that position where that's something that we need. I really try to feel what the race track will give me at first and then try to work up to it. I may be a bit behind but I feel like that's the best way to approach Dover. If you don't have a good car at Dover, it will drain you more so than most any other track. You're going fast up there, first of all. The concrete does not give you any sensation of grip. You're on the edge of your seat while you're on top of the wheel, a lot more than you want to be. When you gain confidence in the car, then it becomes like any other race track. If it's not right and you're on edge, then it can really take a lot out of you."

Where does the No. 36 SKITTLES® Pontiac team stand after the first third of the 1997 season?

"Obviously, we're not pleased where we're at. I think the last three races or so we've started to see signs of major improvement. Especially on our qualifying and the driveability of the car. My confidence level is up. I think, overall, we're starting to pick up a bit more. We're not having to work as hard to see some speed in the car. We're getting closer each week. That's a good sign. We still have a long way to go. We still need a good, solid, two-tenths in the car to be really solid each week. We've just got to keep working toward that. I think you'll see us at some race tracks coming up where we'll run strong. In the second half of the year I hope we'll be more productive."

Reprinted by permission of Pontiac