DieHard 500

July 28, 1996
Talladega, AL

Derrike Cope's father suffered a heart attack Tuesday night and Derrike flew to his home state of Washington to be with him. Fortunately, Derrike's dad, Don, is doing well. Derrike was able to make it back to qualifying on Friday and ended up qualifying 23rd.

After a lengthy rain delay of almost four hours, the race finally began. Unfortunately for NASCAR fans, CBS had decided to not show the race. Thus, fans were left with either MRN radio or the Nascar Online website for information. It was reported that CBS will show the race next week on Sun. from 2pm-4pm EST.

This is what we learned from the NASCAR Online website as to Derrike's position during the race:

• 27th position - lap 50
• 22nd - lap 100
• 14th - lap 109
• 16th - lap 113
• Lap 117 a major wreck occurred and somehow he went to 2nd position. Later we learned that he was involved in the wreck along with 11 other cars. How he went to 2nd position is unknown.
• 15th, one lap down - lap 118
• 25th, five laps down and out of the race - lap 122

Derrike ended the race in 27th.

Reader Carol Dignazio listened to the race on radio and said that Derrike Cope was the first to hit the upside-down #3 car of Dale Earnhardt.. According to initial reports, Derrike was taken to the care center where he was joined by his wife Renee. There were reports that he had bitten his tongue during the wreck but no further information was given.

After the race, Derrike said "It was just starting to get interesting. Everybody was starting to run fast on the bottom. We came through the tri-oval, I don't know what happened, but it looked like Sterling or somebody got into Earnhardt and all of a sudden they started turning around. I thought they were going down to the bottom and I moved up, then they turned around back up into the wall and I got hit. I hit them, then somebody hit me from behind and that was the end of it. I'm OK."