Derrike Cope's Thoughts on 1998

On Bahari' Racing

"I spent more time at the Bahari' shop in the last few weeks of 1997 than I did at my shop all of last year. There is a family atmosphere here, and we have taken some enormous steps, like building our own cars and initiating some promising engineering projects. Building the chassis in-house enables us to keep all of our Gumout Pontiacs consistent. We can make changes to the race car knowing that all measurements are exact, and we can duplicate the measurements and chassis changes from one car to another. This team has taken the step needed to get to the next level. This lets us control our own destiny. The one thing I can draw a parallel to is when I drove for the Bobby Allison team. There, Jimmy Pfennig, Keith Almond, and the others created a tight-knit family atmosphere where everybody worked together with the main purpose of making the car the best it can be. This is the best situation for Derrike Cope in my entire career."

On Pontiac

"Obviously some of the Pontiac teams have stepped up their programs and put an enormous effort into improving the performance. Because we were a bit deficient before, we had to work very diligently to rectify some of the problems we were having at the first of the year. Our main problem was balancing the handling of the race car. Late in the year, we did get a little bit of a concession from NASCAR allowing us a quarter inch more of air dam and more rear spoiler. I think if we can continue to make improvements on the balance, then you will see Pontiac in victory lane more, but I'm not ready to say the Pontiac is on a par with the Monte Carlo just yet."

On the roles of a driver

"I have always said a driver has two jobs. One is inside the car, and the other is outside the car. I have worked very hard to be effective in both jobs and I think that is why I have been a stable fixture in Winston Cup racing. When I'm not sweating in the Gumout car, my job is to look presentable representing a company in a class fashion and sell its products. Their job is to put product on the shelves, and it's my job to make the customers want it."