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ACDelco 400November 1, 1998
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(Oct. 27, 1998) -- The Green Bay Packers have Lambeau Field. In NASCAR Winston Cup racing, Pontiac teams have "The Rock" -- North Carolina Motor Speedway. Pontiac drivers have won 11 of the last 22 races at the 1.017-mile track in North Carolina's Sandhills region, giving Gumout Pontiac driver Derrike Cope loads of optimism heading into Sunday's ACDelco 400 at the speedway. "I think you'll see some Pontiac teams at the front Sunday and I hope we're one of them," Cope said. "Some tracks just lend themselves to particular makes. Michigan is known as a Ford track. They've had a lot of success there. Chevrolets always seem to run well at Bristol. For some reason, Pontiacs do well at Rockingham. "That wasn't the case earlier this year. NASCAR had just come out with some new rule changes and that really penalized the Pontiacs. Since then, NASCAR has adjusted the rules and Pontiac is on pretty even ground with both the Fords and Chevrolets. Now maybe we'll meet with the success we're accustomed to at Rockingham." Although he admitted the handling was off on the Gumout Pontiac in February's GM Goodwrench 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway, Cope still managed to finish 15th. That ranked as his highest finish for much of the season until Cope posted a 14th-place run at Charlotte last month and an 11th-place run three weeks ago at Talladega. "Our team has come around lately," Cope said. "We've elevated our qualifying game and the Gumout Pontiac has posted some competitive finishes. We want to build on that kind of momentum so we can go into next season feeling good about our program. We're feeling better about our program, but we've still got work to do. It's just comforting to know that we're heading in the right direction and the numbers show it." And if tradition rings true at North Carolina Motor Speedway with Pontiacs running among the leaders, Cope has a good chance to remain pointed in the right direction.
The team gets a provisional to use if necessary this weekend. In the first practice, Derrike was the 27th fastest of 46 cars with a time of 24.036 and speed of 152.321. In the second practice before first round qualifying, he had picked it up to 7th fastest with a time of 23.751 and speed of 154.149. In first round qualifying, Derrike came out on the track as the 31st of 46 cars and produced a time of 23.613 and speed of 155.050. This put Derrike in 6th position at the time. At the end of the round, the Gumout Pontiac only slid to 8th position where it will start the race. After his qualifying run, Derrike said, "Not bad. It's not the pole, but we're inching closer everytime. We're consistent, that's one thing I'm happy about. I know that Jimmy Dean, Bryan Foods, and State Fair are happy about that too. A good lap, a good starting spot, but it's a tough little girl on Sunday. We've got to find a little better setup for the race tomorrow." Derrike was asked about the race setup. "It will change drastically from this," he replied. "You've got to abuse the tires here. You get one lap on the tires and that's it. Now you've got to go out and you got to set up for 30 to 40 laps and try to see if you can keep some sense of grip in the car and driveability. We'll test the high side too a little bit and see what's there, but we got a lot of work ahead of us."
Derrike also stated, "The lap felt good. The motor ran good. We put a little something to it for qualifying that we didn't do for our banzai run. The motor picked up and I hit turn one really good. That's really what keyed the run. We freed the car up a little bit and I got through one so good that I knew if I didn't make a mistake in three and four I'd have a good lap. I like this place. I enjoy it. Since it's lost its grip you've got such a diverse amount of lanes that makes it fun. I like it because you can go around the high side and run around the rim and find a place to run. It's not always fun, not always enjoyable, but at least you can find some place to run when it's not working. We struggled here earlier and we freed the car up and I think Ron Puryear got more out of the motor. I got in turn one good and I knew we'd have a good lap then. It's been a struggle, but we've been getting better each week. It's a good track for me if we can hang out all day and find a lane to run, we'll be all right."
Saturday morning Derrike said, "You've got to work on one aspect at a time. Obviously, we're getting the motor program to where it's starting to be pretty productive. We're starting to learn what the cars need for qualifying. That aspect of our program is starting to show some consistency. We're trying to draw that over to the race and we haven't been as successful there. Our race stuff, motor-wise, has still not been quite where I like it. This motor here feels a little better at race pace and I'm pleased about that so far. Aero-wise, we still haven't found quite the combination that we're looking for. We're starting to hitch up one. We're starting to find out where our tendencies are at. We're starting to get a little more sense of what we need, but we're still not where we'd like to be. "We're trying to get set up for the long runs. We're going to try and keep the tires under the car and we're searching for a couple of places to run on the race track. We've run some 60 laps on a set and they're decent. We were pretty pleased with the one run we had. I still think we can do a little better. This afternoon after the Busch race this race track will take on a whole different conception. You lose a bunch of speed on one set of tires over the run. You start out around 24.40 or .50 and you'll be up in the high 25s or 26 depending on how your car handles. "It's just a relief to put new tires on. You're fighting it with no sense of grip (on old tires) and you're searching the race track and you're just on the ragged edge. Then you put new tires on and I can't tell you how wonderful that feels. But it doesn't take long for it to start getting ugly again. You feel like Superman for a time because you think you can haul in anybody. That's probably how Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin feel every week when they're sitting in the seat. It's a welcome feeling. I'd like to feel it on their end for a while. "Pontiac has won 11 of the last 22 races here, but I think it's just a deal where the Pontiac teams know what they need here. Some drivers just happen to get around here well and it so happens a lot of them are in Pontiacs. The Grand Prix is a good race car. You just have to find out what it wants in order to get it done. "I like to look at what we've been doing since I've been feeling better. I feel comfortable sitting in the seat and I feel confident right now. That's just because I feel good. I'm getting a lot out of the car and my motors are running well. Doug (Hewitt) and I still have a good relationship even though he's leaving. We work well together and we're starting to see progress. The team has come together. The road crew has really worked hard. They have a lot of confidence in me and me in them. I think that collectively has helped us get more out of the car. We've worked on the chassis, worked in the wind tunnel and refined our product. I think that's been the biggest difference. We're qualifying better than we're racing, but we're still having some good runs. We have run well from where we've been to where we are now and that's come in a short period of time. That says a lot about the character and the ability of this team."
In the two practices on Saturday with the race setup, Derrike was 33rd and 39th fastest respectively.
Derrike started the race in 8th position. This is where he was during the race among the 43 drivers:
Derrike finished the race in 25th position, 3 laps down.
(Nov. 1, 1998) -- Gumout Pontiac driver Derrike Cope had brake problems late in Sunday's ACDelco 400 at North Carolina Speedway, spoiling a stellar eighth-place qualifying run with a 25th-place finish. Cope was the top qualifying GM car in Friday's time trials. He rose to seventh-place early in Sunday's race before gradually falling back. "We managed to get the car back decent and try to run as best we could," Cope said. "We had a bad pit stop towards the end when an air gun broke. I couldn't run with anybody there at the end. I had a bad vibration on the brakes. If felt like the whole front end was coming loose when I touched the brakes. We had some obvious problems." Derrike continued, "We were tight at the start and then we got it too loose the next time. The leaders were about two or three tenths better than us every lap. It was just tight and I couldn't get any grip. I got a bad set of tires or we didn't make enough of an adjustment for the track. The car went dead tight. They'll just have to go back to the shop and see if they can find them. "I think adding more spoiler for Atlanta would be a good idea. I think we've been needing that all year long. I'm glad NASCAR is considering that. We need something like that. It will give us more control and grip on the race car. I think Atlanta is a good place to do it." Next up for the Gumout Pontiac Racing team is Sunday's NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the final race of the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup season. |
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