MBNA Gold 400

September 20, 1998
Dover, DE

(Sept. 13, 1998) -- Eight years ago the competition was counting out Derrike Cope. They were left shell-shocked when he captured his second career victory in convincing fashion in the Budweiser 500 at Dover Downs International Raceway.

Now the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit returns to the "Monster Mile" for Sunday's MBNA Gold 400, and Cope is hoping to encounter a little racing magic of his past in the Gumout Pontiac.

Cope is coming off a superb eighth-place qualifying effort at Richmond. Had a faulty sparkplug not caused early problems in the Exide 400, Cope may have well captured his best finish of the season instead of 24th. Cope believes the Bahari' Racing team, owned by Chuck Rider, can reach that pinnacle at Dover.

Since Cope's win at Dover, the racing surface has changed from asphalt to concrete. That makes Dover one of the most physically demanding tracks on the circuit, even though its races have been shortened to 400 miles.

"I don't like to complain," Cope said. "It's something you have to deal with. You wish it was asphalt, but the tough part about it is the loss or the sensation of grip. You just don't feel like you've got grip. That's just an ugly feeling you've got to tolerate for 400 miles. When you feel you really need some security at Dover, you've got to really dig deep and drive hard to find it."

Cope has battled the pain of two broken ribs, chest and wrist aches through this season, but he believes he's ready for the task ahead at Dover.

"You have to go out there and initiate a learning process, an apprenticeship of Dover when you first start running there," Cope said. "You try to gain confidence in that way. It's a mindset. It's all something you feel, something you absorb. I really try to feel what the race track will give me at first and then try to work up to it. You're just on the edge of your seat while you're on top of the wheel, a lot more than you want to be. When you gain confidence in the car, then it becomes like any other race track."

One Cope is intent on conquering.

The team leased an engine for qualifying. In practice before qualifying, the Gumout Pontiac was the 35th fastest in the first practice and 21st fastest in the second practice.

In first round qualifying, Derrike took the track as the last car of 46 drivers to try and qualify and pulled out a time of 23.154 and speed of 155.481. This was fast enough for 3rd position, the best starting position of the year for the Bahari' Racing team and best starting position for Derrike since June 1996.

Derrike said of his lap that he went through really good in turns 1 and 2 but might have let up a little in 3 and 4. Mark Martin was already on the pole. The first person to see Derrike after his lap was Martin's crew chief Jimmy Fennig. Fennig told Derrike that Derrike had him worried. Even Martin said after, "How about Derrike Cope? Wow, what a run he put in."

When asked about the lap by RPM2Night, Derrike said, "It was non-eventful. The car got in really good and I put my foot back in it and it turned off really well. It was pretty smooth. I knew it was good but I was hoping for a little more."

"That felt pretty good," said Derrike Cope about his lap. "We had run in the .30s in practice, so, I wasn't too surprised that we did what we did. We're using those T&L motors (builders out of Stanfield, N.C.) and we leaned on them pretty hard today and it paid off. I know what I need here because I've won here before, now, I've just got to find what I really need. Health-wise, I'm fine. I feel like coming to the race track every day and I do really feel good (Cope was injured earlier in the year in a crash at Texas in April). Now, I feel like I can drive harder and better than I was doing after I got hurt."

Derrike started the race in 3rd position. This is where he was during the race among the 43 drivers:

• 5th position - lap 12 of 400 (car is reported to be tight)
• 14th - lap 22 (Derrike got caught on the outside and couldn't get back in before losing spots)
• 22nd - lap 52
• 23rd - lap 60 (1 lap down)
• 25th - lap 100 (after pit stops)
• 28th - lap 160 (2 laps down)
• 28th - lap 184
• 33rd - lap 338 (24 laps down. Got this from NASCAR Online. I must have missed TNN reporting what was wrong with the Gumout Pontiac.)
• 33rd - lap 344 (TNN reports as Out)

Derrike finished the race in 35th position, 86 laps down.

(Sept. 20, 1998) -- Buoyed by his best qualifying effort of the season, Gumout Pontiac driver Derrike Cope had high hopes for a strong run in Sunday's MBNA Gold 400 at Dover Downs International Speedway, but a blown engine less than 100 miles from the end of the race ended such aspirations.

Cope qualified third in Chuck Rider's Pontiac during Friday's time trials with a speed of 155.481 mph, behind only pole-winner Mark Martin (155.966 mph) and Rusty Wallace (155.723 mph). In the last two races, Cope has qualified no worse than eighth, which he accomplished at Richmond.

Unfortunately, Cope had to retire due to engine failure after running 314 of 400 laps. He finished 35th.

"This hurt because the team and I were so high after qualifying so well," Cope said. "We've really turned around our qualifying effort. Now we're hoping to improve on our race performance. It was nice qualifying up front because it's a big reward for the guys that have stuck with this team and not given up. That kind of effort and desire are going to help us down the road."

Next up for the Bahari' Racing team is Sunday's NAPA AutoCare 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Dennis DiPietro was at the race and provided a live report. Dennis' Live Report