Winston Open

May 16, 1998
Concord, NC

(May 12, 1998) -- Chuck Rider stands atop his team's transporter puffing on a cigar, stopwatch in hand. He studies Derrike Cope's progress in the Gumout Pontiac, undoubtedly wondering if this will finally be the race in which he tastes a long overdue victory on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit.

After 11 full seasons and 337 starts as owner of Bahari' Racing, Rider remains unrelenting in his quest. In the last year alone, Rider has spent more than $1 million while searching for the elusive ingredient that could finally mean victory in the major leagues of auto racing. The improvements include an in- house chassis assembly program, elaborate machinery, key personal hires and race shop additions.

"We're as complete as any multiple-team shop on the circuit today," Rider said. "The investment we've put in here is very, very sizable. We've added another building that's 7,500 square feet. We'll probably have to build another building before the year is out because we want to put a chassis dyno in also."

The cost of Rider's long victory pursuit is growing at an alarming rate as the multi-car teams enjoy their testing advantages and vast resources. While Rider contemplates the addition of a second team, he spares no expense in giving his team all the resources he can to enable it to compete on even terms with NASCAR's best.

That commitment was one of the biggest reasons Cope joined Rider's burgeoning operation at the end of last season.

"When I came over to Chuck's, I looked real hard at what I wanted to do, and I wanted to be somewhere where I could stay for a while and really grow and have people behind me," Cope said. "Chuck made an enormous amount of capital expenditures this year to try and take this team to the next level over a period of years. The sport is ever-changing, and you have the multi-car teams with all the resources. We're a one-car entity, but there aren't many teams out there that have what we have here. We've done a lot of things to try and take us through the next three to five years to where we can stay up front even if we are a one-car entity at that point."

Weekly team meetings are held to formulate the winning designs. There's Rider and Cope, along with crew chief Doug Hewitt and engine builder Ron Puryear, plotting the course that can finally take Bahari' Racing to victory lane.

"The one thing Doug Hewitt and Ron Puryear do extremely well is ask for more money all the time," Rider joked. "You cannot stay status quo. You have to continue improving yourself in every area. Not only do we review what happened the previous week, but we're all suggesting what our needs are going to be three-six months from now, or even a year from now."

Competing with the multi-car teams is Rider's primary concern, so that is why he is determined to give his employees the resources it takes to stay even with the sport's juggernauts.

"When you look at the top teams out there they're basically doing everything in-house," Rider said. "They're building their chassis, they're doing their engine program and they have all the people to do the general assembly. We felt that if we wanted to move ourselves up to the next bracket, we needed to do the same. We're basically self-contained in here right now."

Cope's two broken ribs sustained in a crash in the March 9 Primestar 500 at Atlanta slowed the winning potential of Bahari' Racing's new resources. But now with a healthy Cope, Rider is optimistic of a turnaround, beginning with the Winston Open and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"I think we have the fire in the system," Rider said. "The horseshoe's turned around on us. But we know in racing we can get it going in the right direction. We'll be all right. We're continuing to go forward. It will turn around."

Rider puffs away on his stogie. It's good, but to light a victory cigar would be oh so sweeter.

In the second No Bull 25 qualifying race to determine the outside starting positions of the Winston Open, this is where Derrike was during the race:

• 9th position - lap 4 of 25
• 7th - lap 10
• 6th - lap 20

Derrike finished the qualifying race in 6th position. This gave him a starting position of 12th in the Winston Open.

This is where Derrike was during the Winston Open:

• 13th position - lap 9 of 50
• 15th - lap 12
• 13th - lap 27
• 12th - lap 30
• 7th - lap 44

Derrike finished the race in 11th position.

(May 16, 1998) -- Keeping an eye on the big picture -- Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 -- Gumout Pontiac driver Derrike Cope and the Bahari' Racing did a little experimenting in Saturday's Winston Open at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Winston Open serves as a qualifying race for The Winston all-star race, whose field is filled only with winning drivers from the previous year and past winners of the event. Only the winner from the Winston Open advances to The Winston.

After finishing sixth in Friday's nights 25-lap race to set the starting grid, Cope started 12th in the Open. He ran near the top-10 throughout the 50-lap race, but settled for 11th.

"We learned we shouldn't have changed these shocks," Cope said. "We just tried something different. We were good in our 25-lap race Friday night and we were just looking for a little more speed. We tried it and we thought we would be better. We had a little too much grip and got way too tight. We tried it and we learned from it. We'll go back to what we ran with Friday night because we were pretty good."

Qualifying for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 will be held Wednesday.

Angela Walker and Patti Serge were at the race and provided live reports. Angela's Live Report, Patti's Live Report