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Interstate Batteries 500April 6, 1997
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| Qualifying for the inaugural Texas
race got rained out Thursday and Friday. The track seemed dry enough on Saturday but they
cancelled qualifying. The starting lineup was decided on the first 35 driver's point
standings and the remainder of the field by the postmarks on their entrys. This
coincidentally put Derrike in a starting position of 37th. The team was disappointed that
they couldn't qualify because they were sure they could have had a better starting
position. The start of the race at the new track didn't look well with 13 cars involved in a first lap incident. Fortunately, Derrike was able to squeeze through the cars involved and he ended up in 23rd position. This was a perfect break for the team. But on lap 18, cars in front of Derrike slowed up and as a chain reaction he hit Bobby Hillin Jr. in front of him, and then Greg Sacks hit Derrike from behind. This required bringing the car to the garage for repair. Once the team rebuilt the back end of the car, Derrike brought it on the track for a couple laps but could not keep the car going straight. On lap 115, the team decided to call it quits for the day. At the end of the race, Derrike was left in 41st position. After the race, Derrike said, "It's disappointing we left the race early because we put a lot of emphasis on the race with testing. We were able to miss the first wreck but then unfortunately we got tangled up with some other cars." Derrike continued, "The SKITTLES® Pontiac reacted really well to some last minute adjustments before the race on Sunday morning. I was optimistic that we were going to be pretty quick there and have a good day, but we just didn't get to the end to show how good we really were. We're still in the first quarter of the season. Confidently, we will continue to improve on the race set ups and showcase the SKITTLES® Pontiac in a better light."
Jeff and Bob Cope were at the race. Check out their report. |
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