Daytona 500 Live Report by Cyndi Price

Derrike turned in the fastest laps for a Pontiac all week long in practice. Come Thursday he ended up in 15th in the Twin 125's, making him 29th overall for the starting position in the Daytona 500.

The day started out well. Derrike was making his way to the front of the pack, his SKITTLES® car reaching 7th place at one point. He reported on the scanner that his car would have to stay on the outside track because his car was tight when he came on the inside. Seemed as though the crew were positive and told Derrike to keep up what he was doing and keep moving to the front. Then the worst happened.

Coming down the backstrech off turn 2, a wreck happened in front of him. He moved over and tried to avoid it, and I heard him say on the scanner that he ran into Jarrett and lifted him off the ground. Then he tried to slow down and hit the brakes and his car started spinning. The wreck happened almost right in front of me but I did not see him hit Jarrett. It all happened so fast. I almost burst into tears! Watching his car spinning around and knowing that his and all of his fans' hopes just went up in flames.

Derrike and his crew were talking back and forth and he said something was broken in the rear. Turned out to be a track mount. He took his car into the pits where they tried to work on it and get him back out on the track. He came out for one lap and went right back in reporting on the scanner that something was still terribly wrong. Finally they pushed his car behind the wall and worked fast and furiously on trying to fix the car to get him back out for those valuable points. He made it back out again and only stayed out for a little while at a time, finally just retiring the car for good.

It wasn't a good day for the SKITTLES® team. Just wasn't meant to be. But all and all, things are looking up for Derrike and I hope to see him in Victory Lane soon!