Dura-Lube 500 Live Report by Bruce Bates and Chuck McCoy

It was a beautiful day in Phoenix for a race. Derrike started in 16th position which was a good effort considering he has not had a great qualifying effort this year. Our seats this year were located on the backstretch right at the dogleg. They weren't up very high but I could see most of the track.

The start of the race went normally and Derrike picked up a few positions before too many laps were completed. He kept pace with all of the leaders except for Bobby Hamilton who was leaving everyone in his wake.

The first caution came out when Pobert Pressley spun. None of the leaders came in and Derrike stayed out also. On the radio Derrike said the car was doing okay. The second caution flew on about lap 40 for Ricky Craven's crash in turn 3. I didn't see what happened but on MRN he was talking about Skinner so I guess they got together. His car was pretty bashed up and the crew said on the radio to just put it on the truck. During this caution Derrike came in for two tires and to pull the fender out on the right front. DC had been racing with Geoff Bodine and they had touched earlier. The #7 had a big tire mark on the side. The spotter said he had seen smoke but I never did from my not-so-good vantage point.

The 3rd caution of the day flew for an accident between Spencer and Earnhardt coming out of turn 3. Derrike was caught on the outside with the #10 on the inside. Derrike had to come almost to a complete stop until the spinning cars got going again. Cope lost a lot of positions and thought about coming in to pit but he said he didn't want to lose any more positions. On the radio he said that he was cut off and they ran him into the wall. I guess this was after he tried to get going again but there didn't appear to be any more damage to the car.

On lap 67 the #18 and #10 got together right in front of us causing the #18 to come in to pit. On lap 130 the yellow flew again for Ward Burton as he ran against the turn 1 wall. This was a good break for DC as he was only a short distance from going a lap down to Hamilton. The team put new tires and filled up with gas and the car came out in I think about 14th position. It was very tough to tell where everyone was as some of the cars who had pitted before the caution were on the tail end of the lead lap.

After the green Derrike said the car was pushing badly. Around lap 215 is when other cars started pitting. Derrike was gradually fading. At lap 220 the #36 was coming out of turn 1 when Derrike said he was out of gas. He coasted around into the pits and Ryan told him to keep trying to crank it. Something that happened here was as DC was coasting into the pits Ryan said 4500 if the tach's working. Then the spotter said he was under power. This was when Derrike came on and said this thing ain't running. It didn't sound like Derrike was too happy about running out of fuel but I didn't hear him mention it anymore. Cope lost a lot of time during this mishap and ended up a lap down after all the pit stops were made.

Rusty Wallace was the new leader now. After this Derrike said something about the car I couldn't make out but I take it that it wasn't good. He was coming out of turn 1 sideways many times. I think he must have lost some of his rhythm. At lap 262 Ryan gave Derrike a call that there were 50 laps to go. Darrike asked him how many laps were in this race. Derrike also put his hand out the window on the backstretch quite a few times. I guess this was to get some air or to cool off. Derrike was running okay but certainly was in no danger of getting his lap back.

At lap 273 I just happened to be listening to and watching Jeff Gordon as he was getting lapped by eventual winner Dale Jarrett. Gordon was on the high side of the track going into turn 3 when I saw a lot of smoke from the car and he said something just broke. He was yelling for the spotter to get him down but before he could say anything Jeff was coming onto pit road. As he was going down pit road he said he didn't know but it may be a tire. When he got to the pits I heard Evernham say the left front was flat. Guess that little mishap will tighten the points race.

At the end of the race Ryan was constantly telling Derrike to be very smooth to conserve gas. Almost every lap he would say "be smooth." He was also saying there was no one behind him so slow down some. With 2 laps to go Ryan told DC to keep an eye on the fuel pressure. Derrike ended the race as the last car 1 lap down but his fuel did make it. Ryan thanked everyone and said he was sorry about the fuel but didn't know what happened there. Dale Jarrett ended up with the win as he stretched his fuel over more laps than any of the other leaders and had a very dominant car in the second half of the race. Derrike ended up with a 16th place finish which I think is a good showing for the #36 car.

Just a little side note on Phoenix Int'l Raceway. While it is a good track and provides some good racing action, the fan experience is definitely lacking. The stands are extremely cramped. There literally is not enough room to let someone past you unless you stand in your seat. There is no backrest on the seats. Where we were there is no guards on the footboards so many things were falling to the ground underneath if they were kicked over or dropped. Finally the traffic was horrible. In my opinion, it was worse than Talladega which I thought had to be the world's worst. Maybe with new ownership they will make it more fan-friendly, otherwise I will probably not go back as there are other tracks out here now that are newer and in the case of California Speedway, a 100 percent better time.

Well this was my last time to see Derrike in the #36 SKITTLES® car but hopefully I will get to see him next year in the #30 have a better season.

Note: Photos courtesy of Chuck McCoy.