Pepsi 400 Live Report by The Wood's Family

Thursday's Practice - Derrike came out at 4:00 p.m. When he went around the track, he reported back that he was "all over the place." He also said that he was hitting the skirts so he went in to run down the bump stops and skirts. Time 47.70 - 15th fastest.

4:30- Out for a plug check. Derrike said, "She's a hand full. We got to do what we got to do to make it go fast." Time 47.49 - 13th fastest.

4:50- A plug check again. Said the car was a tad better.

5:25- The car was on pit road and wouldn't start. Derrike had to let several drivers jump ahead, but soon followed the 5 car around. Derrike was running soft shocks and didn't think he could handle it that way. The car was dragging the track all the way around. He went in to change oil, tires, and shocks. Time: 47:11 - 11th fastest.

5:52- Derrike had a hard time getting out of pit road. The spotter got somewhat anxious, so Derrike talked to him and calmed him down. But when Derrike finally did go out he thought he was in trouble of hitting another car on the track. The anxiety subsided and Derrike had a good run. He said he wanted to "save a little for 'em." He came in when practice was over and wanted to remove the tape. Time: 47.27

Qualifying - Good run. He was the 36th on the track to qualify. First lap- 189.978, Second lap- 47.097 or 191.095 for the time being was 12th fastest. End - 13th.

Happy Hour - We missed. It started to rain. We were sure that with that hard of a rain they would not run. It would also be close to 10:00. We got back to the motel and later heard on the news that they did in fact run. Sorry.

Race Day - Derrike looked great!! He came off the backstretch running 3000 RPMs in 2nd gear. He has a really hard time hearing Doug Hewitt and his spotters. He was really concerned but with some changes, all the radio problems were solved. Doug Hewitt told Derrike as things were about to get under way, "Have a great evening, we are all here with you."

• Lap 1 - running 9th
• Laps 2 and 3 - 6th
• Lap 5-8 - running 5th with the 18 car
• Lap 9 up to 4th briefly then back to 5th
• Lap 12 - caution- Derrike said that the car was "not too bad" but everyone was pushy
• Lap 14 - restart Lap 20- Derrike's group of cars were faster than the others according to his crew chief
• Lap 22 - 5th but by lap 24 he was running 6th with the 24 car. He said he had a bad push and dropped to 7th.
• Then the big wreck - Derrike went in for fuel and four tires. Followed out the 22 to run together. Derrike came out 13th. Derrike was a bit anxious but was encouraged to hang in there because they were fast. By lap 45 he was up to 9th position again.
• Lap 50 he got shuffled back when the lapped 21 car would not move over. None the less, Derrike was irate to put it mildly. He continued to look good but on lap 61 he complained of water on his windshield and that it was getting hard to see. He did not know who was losing water.
• Lap 65, he radioed in his right rear tire was going down. He had been hit by Kenny Wallace. He had just passed pit road so he had to go all the way around the track to get back to the pit entrance. He went in for the tire change and had damage to the lower bottom corner of the car. When he went back on the track, he realized something wasn't right. He thought the track bar broke. There was some confusion in the pits as to where Derrike was to go.
• Lap 75 - Derrike was concerned over a broken axle
• Lap 78 - He knew something was wrong but not sure what
• Lap 80 - Back out but knew the rear axle was gone. Took the car to the garage on lap 81.
• Derrike radioed to Crew chief to ask to park the car. He was already 20 laps down and that the car was too good to lose. He wanted to fix it and save it for next year. Doug agreed and radioed Chuck Rider. Chuck Rider's only reply was "Okay". The last statement was Doug saying back to Chuck that he would see him at the airport.

Derrike had an awesome car, I feel that we will see good things come out of it!