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ROCKINGHAM, NC - There are a number of reasons Derrike Cope, driver of the #41 Kodiak Chevrolet, brings a very positive attitude to North Carolina Speedway this weekend for the running of the Pop Secret Popcorn 400 race.
For one, Cope enjoys racing there. "Rockingham is definitely a place I like to race," said Cope. "You have to battle there. It's a difficult place to race, but if your car is running good and is productive, it's a pleasure to race around that track.
"It's really not like any of the other tracks. I can't compare it to another. It's different and interesting. It's a combination of a big track and a short track. Tires can give up pretty quickly, so during the race, you might be searching for a different line. When you get a pretty good line with one set of tires, pretty soon it's time to put on another set, and that set may be different from the set before, so you have to go searching for another good line again."
Continued Cope, "Over the years I've gained a pretty good sense of what I need to race there and what changes the car may need during the course of a race, so from that angle, I feel good about it."
Another reason for Cope's confidence; he has had decent success at making qualifying attempts on the Rockingham, NC, one-mile track. Six times in the 21 races he has run there, Cope has qualified in the top-10, with his best effort being a fourth-place starting spot in the October race in 1994. Last fall, Cope earned eighth place on the starting grid.
Said the 41-year-old veteran Winston Cup driver, "Rockingham is a track where if you qualify well, it's a lot easier to maintain your position and try to stay on the lead lap. I typically do pretty well there in qualifying, so I'm looking forward to trying to get this Kodiak Chevrolet up near the front on Friday."
Another confidence booster; Cope has finished races in the top 15 seven times in 21 races, and thirteen times he has posted top-20 finishes. His best finishes at Rockingham were eighth place twice, in February of 1995 and again in the February race in 1996.
Still another reason for Cope's positive feeling about Rockingham this week, " I was down here a couple of weeks ago testing the #15 car, and that helped me get better prepared for this week. Just getting used to the track again, making laps and getting a good feel for the lines I'll try to use, I'm sure will help this Kodiak Team this week. It sure helped boost my confidence, too."
Reflecting on his run in the Kodiak car for the first time last week at Talladega, Cope commented, "I was really pleased with our effort last week. This Kodiak Team had prepared a good car for Talladega and it didn't take long for us to get a good set-up on it for that high-speed track. When Happy Hour time was over on Saturday, the car felt really good and I felt like we could race good Sunday. And we did. The car was real productive. I could move up on other cars and we gained spots toward the front. Then we'd get shuffled back, but that's typical at Talladega. I could run really good in the middle groove, but when I tried to take the low line a few times, no one went with me, so I'd have to drift back up to the high side.
"I felt like we had a real good chance of posting a strong finish at the end of the race, but we never got the chance to dice with those guys in the last 30 laps. I would love to have been in that pack with them. But the accident took all that away. I felt really bad for the guys on the Kodiak Team. They had done a great job getting the car ready for qualifying and for the race.
"But I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was running high when the cars in front of me went four-wide. I could see the wreck coming when the spaces between the cars closed up. They started spinning in front of me. I saw a spot I thought I could get through, but one of the cars spun up the track, caught me and squeezed me into the wall. We got the car repaired and got back out, but of course weren't competitive anymore."
"This is a great bunch of guys on this Kodiak Team," Cope stated. "They're working hard and putting a lot of effort into giving us a strong car for Rockingham. So from that standpoint, and all the other reasons, we're looking for a good run this weekend."
EVER WONDER HOW COPE GOT THAT UNIQUE SPELLING OF HIS FIRST NAME?
DERRIKE Cope. DERRIKE? How did that name come to be? As Cope says, "From my Mom. She was a great big fan of movie star John Derek, and when I was born, she wanted to call me Derek, but she told me she wanted the name to be different. There were a lot of Dereks around, so she came up with the spelling of my first name. A lot of people want to put a 'c' before the 'k,' but that's wrong. You can't believe how many different spellings I've seen of my first name."
Watch various newspapers, magazine articles and TV shows. Many times you'll see a misspelling of Cope's first name, many writers thinking there's been a miss-typing of his name on something they've seen, and they'll try to correct it, and still get it wrong.
Has it bothered Cope over the years, or have people made jokes about his name as he grew up? "No, it's never bothered me. I'm proud of my name. If anything, it brings up a lot of comments and keeps people interested. Everybody has got to have something unique about them. I guess my first name makes me stand out a little."
In Friday's first
practice, Derrike was 41st fastest of the 47 drivers with a time of 23.930
and sped of 152.996. In the second practice, he had moved up to 26th fastest
with a time of 23.758 and speed of 154.103.
In first round qualifying,
Derrike was the 32nd out on the track and produced a time of 23.806 and
speed of 153.793. This put the Kodiak Chevrolet in 29th position. At the end
of the round, Derrike was left in 43rd position.
In Saturday's first
practice, Derrike was 24th fastest with a time of 24.524 and speed of
149.290.
In second round qualifying,
Derrike pulled off a time of 23.591 and speed of 155.195. This put the
Kodiak Chevrolet in 29th position and in the show.
In Happy Hour, Derrike
was 43rd fastest with a time of 25.177 and speed of 145.418.
Derrike started the
race in 29th position. Derrike finished the race in 25th position, 4
laps down.
| Start |
Finish |
Status |
Money
Won |
Laps |
Laps
Led |
Race
Points |
Standing |
| 29 |
35 |
Running |
$27,300 |
389/393 |
|
88 |
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