Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400 Live Report by Carol Dignazio

Friday, September 11

I arrived in Richmond early afternoon on Friday. The whole gang, that's 20 of us, went to lunch. Sixteen of us went on to the track for qualifying and the Busch race. What a glorious day! The weather was great, the company awesome, and except for some man with a silly duck call sitting near us, we were set for an exciting evening. I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity (actually he was nearly the last of the field to attempt to qualify) for Derrike to take his two laps. The first lap was slow, but wow!, did he pick it up for the second lap. The annoucer was pleasantly surprised and I was beaming as they announced a 7th place (at the time) qualifying run for DC! My group congratulated me as though I had something to do with it, and, of course, I accepted their praise for Derrike proudly! Only one of the remaining cars was able to beat Derrike's time! Starting 8th!!!

The Busch race was exciting, and I must say, given the general admission nature of the race, and the fact that Richmond was very liberal in opening up additional sections of the seating as more of the crowd arrived, we had ample space to set up our belongings for an evening of racing action.

I really do enjoy the Busch races, and look forward to going to Winston Cup races where this division competes. If you've never been to see these folks race, do yourself a favor, you won't be disappointed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulled off another win in the Busch race. Then it was time to fight a little uncharacteristic (for Richmond anyway) post-race traffic jam. Back to the hotel for a little dancing and karaoke (yep, I was singin'!) and to bed for an early rise on Saturday morning.

Saturday, September 12

Arrived at the track by 9:15 AM (oh my yes, the race is at 7:30 PM, but we tailgate...just a bit...). Anyway, set up the blender for margaritas, serve up the Bloody Mary's in the stemmed glassware, and fire up the grill and clam steamer...set in for a great day of horseshoes, fun, friendship and racing!

I took a stroll through the trailer section and was not able to find the Gumout trailer. I'm hoping I didn't miss it, but I did have the rest of my group on the lookout for it as well. Went into the track for happy hour and saw a hard hit by Jimmy Spencer during the final minute of practice. He definitely had to start plans for getting the back-up car ready.

We entered the track just in time for drivers' introductions. And I expressed my satisfaction at seeing DC starting in row 4!

The sunset was absolutely beautiful, and there's nothing like racing under the lights! The drop of the green flag saw Derrike immediately begin dropping back, and it wasn't long before he was pitting under the evening's first caution. At first, suspect was a loose plug wire, but several visits to pit road found, instead, a problem with one of the plugs. Then, an extra stop for hood pins and to listen to the motor.

I sit on the front stretch, so I had a good view of the pit stall, and the guys seemed to do one heck of a job getting over the wall. The communication on the scanner was positive and supportive from both Derrike and the crew. I must admit that his pit stops caused the most excitement (save for the close finish of the race and Dale Earnhardt's fire) of the evening for my entire group. Everyone was tuned into Derrike's frequency listening to the activity. And, of course, they were all extremely supportive of me in my disappointment at seeing his excellent qualifying run go for naught. In any event, as I said, folks around me were all rooting him on, and I enjoyed getting to hear the team on the scanner. They managed to keep him on the lead lap at that point, and the next caution certainly helped them catch up to the rest of the field.

The evening saw Derrike battle to a 24th place finish, just two laps down. It could have been so much worse considering the initial possibility of a cylinder gone bad. Now it's on to Dover, and I'm lucky enough to be going there too!