MBNA Platinum 400 Live Report by J. Seravalli

For Dover, we drive down Saturday evening to a friend's campground in Maryland, do some partying and crash out. Then it's rise and shine at 6:00am, shower and head to the track. It's only about a 45 minute drive on any other day but seeing how they added more seats and most fans drive in on Sunday rather than stay overnight in Dover, Rt 13 was chaotic.

We arrived at the track at about 9:00 and set up our grill and started partying. Anyone who's ever been to Dover can attest to how long a day it can be if it's hot and it was! Thank God they shortened it to 400 miles. A body could literally pass out from the heat. In fact on Friday afternoon at qualifying, one gentleman a few rows behind us did just that. The paramedics had to carry him down from the top row seats in turn 3.

Derrike didn't make first round and had to settle for a not so good starting spot way back in the field. Except for the multi car crash on lap 8 or 10, the race ran pretty much incident free. Derrike did not finish on the lead lap as did 38 of the other 42 entries. Hey, it's Dover and Jeff Gordon was on a rail like he always is at that track.