Sam's Town 300 - Derrike Cope Notes

DERRIKE COPE NOTES, QUOTES: Sam’s Town 300
‘Big weekend for everybody – potential sponsors included’

Derrike Cope and the #28 Jay Robinson Racing Ford team head to the1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week for Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series race. Cope, a winning veteran of NASCAR racing, is with a team currently ranked 12th in the NASCAR Busch Series car owner’s standings.

A native of Spanaway, Wash., Cope is a former winner of the Daytona 500 and 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 fifth 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 thoughts of #28 Jay Robinson Racing Ford driver Derrike Cope heading into Las Vegas:

“The races this weekend are big for everybody, regardless of which division. Because of the attention on the races there – from the fans, the media, sponsors – you can feel a little extra pressure to run well. The Vegas area is a major market for anybody doing anything, so it’s obviously very important to the race teams.

“The best way to get that positive attention is running up front or near the front. We know by doing that more people are going to see our team than just about anything else we do. Some 100,000 or so people in the grandstands, another couple of million watching on national television, all of that is important to our sponsors.

“The neat thing is our goals are pretty much the same. We want to do well in front of potential sponsors but we want to do well because that’s why we’re in this business. We are here to compete. Jay Robinson, Derrike Cope, the guys on our race team, we’re here to run hard and to run well. But we know by doing that, it helps our cause too.

“Sponsorship is what makes this whole business go. We are here to race and to compete but we know, too, that we’re rolling marketing machines. We want to expose the products for our sponsors and encourage people to buy them.

“Sponsors want us to run well because we are marketing partners and they like us, but it all boils down to how much product they can sell through motorsports. I think some teams, all through motorsports, have lost track of that. Sponsorship isn’t determined by how many races you win; it’s determined by how well you help market the sponsor’s product.

“That’s one of the reasons I believe Jay (Robinson) has been successful. He is a businessman. He’s a racer, sure, but he is a businessman, and he keeps that businessman’s hat on when dealing with every sponsor. He knows what it takes to make their programs successful and by utilizing that knowledge with his race teams, he has been able to make things work for everybody.

“This isn’t the highest-funded team out here by any means but Jay is one of the very few owners in NASCAR who can take a little and make a lot out of it. We aren’t as highly-funded as some of these teams out here but he makes sure we look like we are. We’ve run in front of a lot of multi-million dollar teams, and everything we bring to the track is top-notch. He’s pleased with the support from the sponsors but he knows how to make things first-class.

“A good run this weekend would add to that, and this team is certainly capable. We have a solid engine program and good people as far as chassis and aero work is concerned. You have to be fast at Las Vegas, and I believe we can be fast. You have to have good racing luck too and, if life is fair, Jay Robinson and this race team should have some good luck coming.

“I think we can run pretty well at Las Vegas, and we’re excited about getting there.”