Carquest Auto Parts 300 - Derrike Cope Notes

Charlotte’s Jay Robinson Leads Team To Lowe’s
Local knows speedway, importance to Advil Ford team

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jay Robinson’s first knowledge of big-league stock car racing came because of what is now Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the 1.5-mile speedway in Concord, N.C., which has hosted NASCAR events since 1960. That knowledge carries into Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at the speedway, where Robinson’s #49 Advil Ford with Derrike Cope behind the wheel will be one of the top entries.

“Of course, I’m not much different than a whole lot of people in that regard. If you grew up in the Charlotte area, Charlotte Motor Speedway was the place,” said Robinson, who owns three NASCAR Busch Series teams and fields them from his shops in Indian Trail, N.C.

Robinson, a graduate of Independence High School in Mint Hill (just outside the Charlotte city limits, fed on racing at the speedway.

“Concord, Hickory . . . those were the bullring tracks, the weekly tracks where the cars would run every Friday or Saturday night,” he recalled, “but you kind of set your calendar around those two Cup races and the two Busch races – back then, they were called Late Model Sportsman – at Charlotte.”

Now, with his teams ready for Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, led by the #49 Advil Ford team of former Daytona 500 winner Cope, Robinson’s adrenalin has already kicked into overdrive.

“Everybody I know, all of my neighbors and friends, they know about 600 week and the Busch Series week, even if they don’t know another thing about racing,” Robinson said. “To them, all of racing revolves around Charlotte week. I have always been the same way, so I understand where they are coming from.

“But I’ll see one of the little old ladies from the neighborhood, and she probably wouldn’t know Richard Petty from Richard Simmons, but she’ll ask, ‘Are you ready for that Charlotte race?’” Robinson laughed. “And I always smile and say, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ And she says, ‘Well, that’s the big one,’ and then walks on.

“To the guys on our race teams, the races at Charlotte are the big ones. It’s something you can talk about all year long. These are the races everybody points toward. If you run well at Charlotte, you’ve done something pretty special because everybody brings their best stuff.”

Cope, a native of Spanaway, Wash., has learned the importance of the Lowe’s Motor Speedway events.

“Of course, I knew what the place was all about when I was running weekly tracks on the West Coast but seeing it firsthand shows you exactly how big these races are to everybody,” Cope said. “Because they are so close to where everybody lives, everybody throws their very best at them, works their very hardest. Every race is important, sure, but the races at Lowe’s tend to take on a special meaning, at least with the guys on the crew. Any driver with half a brain knows if something is important to your crew, then it had better be pretty important to you too.”

The growth of the Charlotte market, and the Carolinas in general, have made the NASCAR events even more important to the sponsors too.

“We’re working every day to be as competitive as we can be as a race team but the support of Advil and our sponsors are a key component of that,” Robinson said. “Doing well is important but doing well in a key market like Charlotte adds to that. We want to get as much positive exposure for Advil as we can, to remind race fans they are a major part of our sport and that they play a big role in NASCAR racing and in the NASCAR Busch Series.”

The next opportunity to do just that for Robinson, Cope and the #49 Advil Ford comes Saturday at the near-legendary 1.5-mile speedway.

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.