Kroger 200 - Derrike Cope Notes

Familiarity Will Help Younger Drivers At IRP
Saturday Busch Race anybody’s to win, Cope says

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Indianapolis Raceway Park, site of Saturday night’s NASCAR Busch Series stock car race, is anybody’s to win – and for a good reason.

At least, that’s the opinion of #49 Advil Ford driver Derrike Cope.

“Older, more experienced drivers don’t necessarily have an experience advantage over the younger guys at tracks like IRP,” Cope said. “Most of the younger drivers either have experience there or they have enough flat-track experience that it evens out.”

Because of where younger drivers are coming from, Cope says, certain type tracks can be to their advantage.

“Where I grew up racing in Washington, flat tracks were just the norm. Every track out there was a flat track. The most banking you saw anywhere was very slight, at least, compared to what you see through a lot of the southeast,” Cope said. “When I first started running flatter tracks, it was no big deal. That’s what I knew.

“Look at where a lot of the younger drivers are coming from today, the Midwest and the West Coast. Those short tracks and weekly tracks are almost all flat tracks,” he continued. “They have a familiarity with them, and these types of tracks are intimidating to them. The young drivers have a great chance at doing well at IRP this weekend, and I feel they’ll do well at the big speedway too for the same reason.”

Still, Cope and his Advil Ford team feel they have something to show at IRP as well.

“We’ve had a few humps to work our way over but we feel we can be pretty decent Saturday,” Cope said. “The guys on this team work pretty hard. Nobody gives up. If we run through some adversity, we just take a deep breath, take a couple of Advil, and keep moving forward.”

A two-time winner on NASCAR’s Cup Series, including the 1990 Daytona 500, Cope knows success, and what it takes to get there.

“Jay (Robinson, who owns Jay Robinson Racing) is building a program here, and everybody is taking things one step at a time,” Cope said. “He is a good businessman but he is a racer too. I think that’s one of the reasons he has been successful as a car owner, and will continue to be successful. There are a lot of good racers in our sport who aren’t good businessmen. There are a lot of good businessmen in our sport who just aren’t racers. A guy like Jay who can be both and do well at both is pretty rare.”

Cope, a native of Spanaway, Wash., is a two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup race winner. A top athlete whose professional baseball career was cut short by a knee injury in college, he has become one of the top athletes in NASCAR racing, and has become one of the top public spokesmen for the sport.

Jay Robinson Racing, in its fourth season of operation, is one of the fastest-growing teams in NASCAR. Robinson, a Charlotte, N.C., native who is a successful businessman, founded the team as a high-value endeavor that offers high-end equipment and efforts, while proving to be one of the most cost-efficient teams in the sport. Robinson fields two sponsored cars fulltime on the Busch Series: the #49 Advil Ford and the #39 Yahoo! Ford, and runs a third car in many Busch Series events.