Food City 500

March 29, 1998
Bristol, TN

(March 24, 1998) -- Each time Derrike Cope climbed in and out of the Gumout Pontiac at Darlington Raceway last weekend, he did his best to mask the pain he endured from his bruised and battered body.

Cope's plight won't get any easier this weekend. He faces one of the most physically demanding races of the season in the Food City 500 at the 36-degree banked Bristol Motor Speedway. Cope feels he's up to the task.

"I feel like if I continue to keep finding more mobility and keep feeling better each day by going through rehabilitation, with another week of tuning up, I'll be that much more ready for Bristol," Cope said. "Bristol is going to be a tough one. I don't care if you're even 100 percent, you're hurting there. All I can do is get as comfortable as I can in the car, and if the car drives well that makes it a lot easier."

Cope finds all the motivation he needs to overlook his pain by looking no further than the eyes of his teammates.

"First of all, the passion is there as far as myself and the team," Cope said. "There's a lot of passion in this group, about this team, about what we're doing. We've run well this year. We just haven't gotten the finishes we need. I love to drive this Gumout Pontiac. It's tough to stay away when you enjoy yourself that much. I like this team and the people that are in it. It makes you want to come out and perform, gut it out for them and do it."

So last Sunday at Darlington, that's what Cope did. The resulting 40th-place finish may in some ways prove to be one of the most crucial of the season for this blossoming team.

"He's determined he wants to be in that seat, regardless of the situation," Rider said. "In seeing him last week and each day how he progressed and still how he was hurting even when we went to dinner last Friday night, I think he did an unbelievable job. He was so determined in that race to take the car to the front. Derrike is just a super human being."

Or maybe even NASCAR's version of Superman.

In first round qualifying, Derrike took the track and was very loose but produced a time of 15.599 and speed of 123.008. At the end of the round, this was good enough for 15th position and a pit stall on the frontstretch.

In happy hour, we learned that Jeff Green was taking some laps just in case Derrike needed Green to back him up on Sunday, although Derrike would prefer making the entire run himself.  Derrike also explained that he was wearing a stimulator that would stimulate his ribs and pec muscles to get rid of the pain.

Derrike started the race in 15th position. This is where he was during the race among the 43 cars:

• 13th position - lap 13 of 500
• 39th - lap 35 (Got into the back of a car and received damage to the right front of the car which required pulling into the pits a couple times to fix it)
• 25th - lap 99
• 23rd - lap 143
• 32nd - lap 180
• 26th - lap 202
• 31st - lap 226 (last car on lead lap)
• 30th - lap 268 (1 lap down)
• 31st - lap 371 (4 laps down)
• 31st - lap 430 (5 laps down. Derrike was shown passing a car with an in-car camera and there was damage on the Gumout Pontiac's rear bumper.)
• 27th - lap 455

Derrike finished the race in 26th position, 5 laps down.

BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 29, 1998) -- Overcoming two painful broken ribs, Gumout Pontiac driver Derrike Cope went the distance in Sunday's physically demanding Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and came home with a hard-earned 26th-place finish.

Cope broke his ribs in a crash in the Primestar 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway three weeks ago. He got the weekend off to a good start by qualifying 15th on the demanding 36-degree banked, .533-mile short track.

Despite his injuries, Cope was sniffing the top-10 early in the race when he sustained some damage to the front end of the Gumout Pontiac when Jerry Nadeau's Ford crashed. That slight damage affected the car's handling throughout the race, but the Bahari' Racing crew, led by Doug Hewitt, fought hard to get the car working better.

Near the midpoint of the race, Cope was running lap times nearly equal to that of the leaders, but was stymied by a left-rear tire that lost pressure. Eventually, Cope lost a lap. Rear body damage suffered later in the race continued to negatively affect Cope's handling, but he endured to finish. Overall, the race was slowed by 14 caution flags.

"For all the adversity we're fighting, the guys did a good job today," Cope said. "We fought hard. We weren't right, but we got a decent finish, nothing great, but we finished. It was a tough race. It wasn't without pain. I just wish I could have done a little bit better job for the guys. There was a lot of stuff that happened in front of us. We really got fortunate. Maybe our luck has turned a bit. We didn't get wrecked and we didn't finish in the back of the pack, so that's something to be thankful for."

Cope moved to 33rd-place in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings. He collected $28,615.

Next up for owner Chuck Rider's team is Sunday's Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Darrin Baird was at the race and provided a live report.