Goody's Headache Powder 500 Live Report by Darrin Baird

Derrike Cope had a great qualifying effort for the Goody's Headache Powder 500. He turned in a lap speed of 15.664 seconds, giving him the 9th starting position.

In the Saturday race Derrike looked really good. He managed to stay consistently in the top 10 through much of the first half of the race. I was getting a bit worried as I spotted what looked like a piece of metal sticking from the front of Derrike's car. As I watched his car enter the turns, I also spotted that this piece of metal was touching the ground and throwing sparks as Derrike entered the turns. This strange piece turned out to be a trim molding from the #36 car's bumper. At least it didn't cause much problems like cutting a tire. Cope managed to rid himself of this piece on the front stretch.

Moments got tense when the #36 and the #90 car of Dick Trickle got together off of turn 4 early in the race. Trickle was spun out and Cope was fortunate enough to avoid the accident.

Around lap 250 Derrike and Dale Earnhardt were running 9th and 10th and both were in danger of going a lap down to the leader. Cope received a break in the form of a caution much to the relief of this SKITTLES® fan. Derrike made a couple of pit stops to make some adjustments on the #36 Pontiac. I heard him later say that he was fighting a handling problem.

Derrike's luck changed at lap 258 as Michael Waltrip got into the left rear of the #36 spinning him into the outside retaining wall. Derrike hit hard! But in frey also collected a couple of other cars, one of which was David Green. Green's car overturned and skidded along with Cope. The SKITTLES® car came to rest just in front of where I was sitting. As I waited impatiently for the smoke to clear, I could see movemnet in Cope's car. The red flag was thrown and David Green was rushed to the hospital. There he was diagnosed as having a fractured right shoulder blade. Derrike limped the Pontiac behind the pit wall were the team waited for the red flag to be lifted so they could get Derrike back out on the track.

Derrike returned to the track minus the sheet metal from the front end of his car. He managed to finish out the race ending the day with a 32nd position, 60 laps down.

Despite the bad luck halfway through the race, Cope had an exceptional run capable of a top 10 finish. Cope has had some good luck there in the past with the Bobby Allison Ford.

I am looking forward to seeing Cope run again at Bristol in April of 98. Maybe he can pull off a win there. Wouldn't it be nice to see Derrike as the new Bristol King?

Good luck at Darlington Derrike and the SKITTLES® Team!!!! Keep on digging!!!!