Primestar 500

March 28, 1999
Fort Worth, TX

(March 23, 1999) -- Jimmy Dean Pontiac driver Derrike Cope felt something like a participant in a laboratory experiment at Texas Motor Speedway last season, but he hopes the facelift given to the 1.5-mile superspeedway proves to be just what the doctor ordered in Sunday's Primestar 500.

Cope re-broke two ribs after crashing in a wet turn one during an aborted time trial session at Texas last year. Nine cars attempted to qualify and both Cope and Lake Speed crashed before NASCAR officials finally postponed the qualifying session due to water seeping up through the asphalt in turn one. To make matters worse, NASCAR ruled the nine drivers who qualified couldn't go the following day after the problem was fixed.

"NASCAR and the race track were really tough on us there last year," Cope said. "They never gave the team the opportunity with another driver to try and get into the field. I would have thought at the very least they would have given everyone an option at qualifying again. The race track was in no condition to go out and qualify."

Now Cope is set to return to Texas for Friday's time trials. He hopes extensive changes to the racing layout will prove beneficial. Since last year's race the track has been significantly widened in areas and transitions from corners to straightaways improved.

"I'm hoping to go down there and get myself in the race and have a better experience at Texas this time," Cope said. "I've left there disappointed a number of times and I'd like to experience leaving there on a good note for a change."

Cope is hopeful of driving some competitive muscle at Texas. Superspeedways like Charlotte's similar 1.5-mile layout have proven to be kind to Cope and the Bahari' Racing team. Cope won the pole in last October's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, another 1.5-mile track. He also led four laps under green at Atlanta last March. Those performances boost Cope's confidence.

"I hope we can go down to Texas and run well," Cope said. "I'll guarantee you I'll drive that Jimmy Dean Pontiac as hard as I can."

Jimmy Dean is one of four Sara Lee companies rotating as primary sponsors on owner Chuck Rider's Pontiacs this season. The others are Bryan, State Fair and Rudy's Farm.

Derrike commented on how the Pontiac is faring this year. "I don't think the rules are that far off. I think every make is fairly competitive right now. It just depends on your own team situation. We're capable of qualifying better and we aren't. Many of the other Pontiac teams seem to be doing well and running competitively. This is probably the best Pontiac as a group has been in awhile. A lot of the Pontiac teams have remained in the stable for a few years now. It's important to work with the same car year in and year out. You have to stay up on so many fronts that evolve or you can fall behind and look worse than you really are. Pontiac has some good teams that are working hard. The resources are there. I think at this point with the rules the makes are about as even as you could make them. I think the rules are in good shape. I think they're as good as you could ask for until the Monte Carlo comes in and then we'll see from there."

In first round qualifying, Derrike was 16th on the track and produced a time of 29.10 and speed of 185.567. At the end of the round, the Jimmy Dean Pontiac was left in 39th position.

After the round, Derrike said, "We freed our car up because we had been tight.  We got loose in turn two.   I slid around and kind of held on.  The track is in far better shape than it was last year.  At least you can race at this place now."

In second round qualifying, Derrike produced a time of 29.033 and speed of 185.995. This was good enough for 30th at the time but by the end of the round it had fallen to 36th, just good enough to make the show.

Derrike wouldn't have qualified for a provisional.  He paced inside his trailer after his second round qualifying run and couldn't bare to watch the computer monitor tracking time trials.

Derrike said, "I don't know what to say really.  It's been a struggle since we got here.  It's actually been the worst our car has driven this whole year.   After yesterday, we made some changes, a lot of changes to the car.  I'm talking about from shocks, to truck arms to everything because we just couldn't seem to get through the corner.  This morning I got to where I had some feel in the car.   Then I could drive it through the corner.  We had to qualify on cold tires and I had a couple of moments out there where the car turned completely sideways when I went to the throttle in three and four.  I just turned right and stayed in the throttle.   We're fortunate.  I'm happy for Jimmy Dean and Bryan.  I'm happy for State Fair because their headquarters are here and we've got a big hospitality program planned for tomorrow with all the sponsors.  We've been struggling.  We just need to get some races under our belt and keep trying to put some points on the board so we have some recourse when we make a mistake or have a poor day.  Right now, we don't have that.

"I've been getting grayer and grayer (hair) by the moment.  You hate to be that far back, but yet you're elated to be in the race because we've just struggled so much.  We've got a lot of work to do.   We're trying to attack it like a football player.  We're trying man for man to go to each area and find the problem and accomplish your assignment.  That's all you can do.  Right now we're really pounding the pavement hard.  It's an extremely difficult race track.  It's one of those race tracks where the margin for error is very, very little.  If you're off just a little bit some where, it magnifies the situation.  We've come a long way since we first unloaded.  I'm tickled right now."

The Primestar 500 is now in the record books and DC has a decent finish as well.

DC started 36th as the race began on a cool and overcast day. Unfortunately for DC, he and the other second-day qualifiers didn't have any Saturday practice to re-set the cars for racing. It showed. By lap 7, DC was back in the 41st spot. He hovered around that spot until NASCAR called for a mandatory caution on lap 31.

At lap 69, Jeff Gordon ran into a wall after losing his right front tire. This is the first time in his Winston Cup career he has finished dead last. What, no tears?

At lap 76, DC was running 34th and he stayed around 34-38th position until lap 123 when Mike Skinner followed in Jeff Gordon's footsteps (except with a little more oomph)!

At lap 132, there was a multi-car wreck which brought ou the 3rd caution of the day. DC escaped that unscathed from what I could see on the ol' boob tube. The announcers didn't bother to mention his name/number.

At lap 141, DC was up to 31st position, but was now one lap down. At lap 152, Randy Lajoie had a mechanical failure which brought out another caution and at just after the restart at lap 161, Randy Nemechek hit a wall ending his day. In an interview shortly thereafter, Nemechek pretty well laid the blame on all the lap-down cars who "were running so slow." What's the proverb about patience being a virtue? Not on race day, eh?

From lap 168-217, DC was running in the 29th position. At that time, Mark Martin went into the wall ala Gordon/Skinner. Unfortunately for Ward Burton, who was leading at the time, he had just gone into the pits. He never recovered and finished well out of the race as the rest of the leaders made their pit under the yellow.

Now, we have DC running in the 23rd position from lap 261-272 when the leaders began making their final pit for the day. This gave DC his best position of the day as he slowly inched his way up to at least the 8th spot. Unfortunately, when all the pitting was over, DC was back in the 24th spot.

At lap 324, Terry Labonte, the ultimate winner for the day, passed Dale Jarrett. At lap 331, Robert Pressley and Jimmy Spencer tangled bringing out the final caution effectively ending the race as it finished under caution.

Derrike finished the race in 22nd position, 3 laps down. Derrike moved up 2 spots in the point standings to 41.

Note: Thanks to Darryl Gumz for providing the TV report.

(March 28, 1999) -- Jimmy Dean Pontiac driver Derrike Cope fought his way into the starting field for Sunday's Primestar 500 and continued to fight the good fight before settling for a hard-earned 22nd-place finish.

Cope, who started 36th, fought a tight-handling car through the first half of the race and went a lap down. More than half the field raced at least one lap down and for much of the race Cope led that pack. In the final round of green flag pit stops, Cope worked himself as high as eighth-place on lap 285 of the 334-lap affair, but he could get no higher.

Cope was still heartened by the finish, despite finishing three laps down. He earned $58,075 and moved from 43rd to 41st in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings.

"We did what we wanted to do," Cope said. "We needed a 100-point day and to bring the car back in one piece. We had good stops and our guys really did a good job. We battled. We were off early. We tried to stay calm and took our lumps early and got the car good. We dug hard through the middle of the race to stay one lap down. We learned a lot today. We had a good effort for Jimmy Dean and Bryan and everyone involved and now we'll go on and have a good run at Bristol."

Next up for owner Chuck Rider's Bahari' Racing team is the April 11 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Jeff Cope was at the race and provided a live report. Jeff's Live Report