Funai 250 - Derrike Cope Notes

Cope Shakes Off Gateway, Heads To Richmond
‘Praise the Lord and pass the Advil’

CHARLOTTE – Derrike Cope shook off a rough weekend and is ready to go in the #49 Advil Ford in Friday night’s Funal 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at the .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

Cope was taken to a St. Louis, Mo., hospital following a crash in practice Saturday at Gateway International Raceway. Though his injuries were diagnosed as minor, he was held a few hours for observation and released Saturday evening, about the time of the start of the race. Josh Richeson substituted for Cope, driving the Jay Robinson-owned car.

“It was ‘Praise the Lord and pass the Advil,’” Cope said. “The brakes didn’t burn in the way I thought they had. They locked and spun me around, and I hit the wall there pretty hard. I’m grateful everything turned out okay, but I’m ready to get back in the car.

“You never know how easy you have things. I wanted a good run at Gateway, and didn’t get to drive at all. I thought it was going to be bad enough watching the race on television Saturday night but the hospital didn’t have cable. I was on a flight anyway, so missed hearing any of it. Believe me, I’d much rather have been driving,” he said.

For Cope and the Advil Ford team, the return to Richmond will be important.

“We lost a little continuity with the driver change but being able to get right back on the race track should help us a lot,” Cope said. “Racing can be a lot like baseball – you need to do it regularly to make things work right. Having that routine is important to any race team.

“Running the schedule the way we do, whether it is Busch or Cup or Trucks or whatever, is helpful in a lot of ways. It helps being busy like that,” he added. “You can’t get too excited in either direction. You can’t be too happy after a great race and you can’t be too down after a bad one. You don’t have the time!”

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: Cope’s #49 Advil Ford and the #39 Yahoo! Ford, which Cope is helping mentor.