New England 300 - Derrike Cope Notes

Cope, Friendly’s Head To New Hampshire ‘Home’

Team One Of Few To Test New Asphalt

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. - One of the few teams with testing time on the new asphalt, Derrike Cope and the #37 Friendly’s Chevrolet team head to the 1.058-mile New Hampshire International Speedway for Sunday’s New Hampshire 300.

“The new asphalt is going to be good in the long run but, for the short run, I’m glad we have the testing time,” said Cope, a two-time NASCAR Winston Cup winner and a Daytona 500 champion.

New Hampshire, which has fought criticism from other drivers in the past regarding its track surface, repaved for this season. Cope’s Friendly’s Chevrolet was one of just five teams who tested.

“It looks to me like they did a really good job with it. The main problem they have run across in the past is a whole lot of sunshine and unseasonable temperatures in July, and part of the track would come up. I don’t think they are going to have that problem this year,” Cope said.

“Having the Busch North cars on the track Thursday should help lay some rubber down, and that will make things a little bit better for Friday,” he continued. “Qualifying and racing Friday and Saturday should really help things for Sunday.

“By Sunday, assuming there are no weather problems, the track should really start coming in. I’m hoping the testing time we had at New Hampshire will give us a better idea of how the track will change than the teams who did not test there.”

The race is an obviously important one for the team. Friendly’s Ice Cream Company is headquartered in nearby Warburton, Mass., and the event is an important one for the company because of its location.

In addition, Friendly’s Restaurants are conducting a unique promotion that began a few weeks ago. Children in the restaurants can enter their own design for Cope’s #37 Friendly’s Chevrolet. Not only will the winning entry be used for Cope’s car in the September race at New Hampshire, but the newly-designed car will also be taken to the winner’s school. The promotion is a first in its entirety, and one of the very few in major league auto racing to be directed at school age children.

“Finishing up a very successful promotion - the ‘Ultimate Race Weekend’ - this is a really nice promotion for Friendly’s and for race fans,” said Cope.

“For Friendly’s, motorsports is a marketing vehicle. For our team, motorsports is a way of life,” he added. “For us to be able to race, Friendly’s needs success through our race car. So if we are going to be successful, Friendly’s has to be successful. Anybody who looks at corporate sponsorship in motorsports any other way is just fooling himself.”

Cope teamed with Friendly’s for several NASCAR Winston Cup races this season. The company is obviously most focused on its marketing base around the northeastern U.S., mid-Atlantic states and some midwest and Florida areas. Friendly’s Ice Cream, a family restaurant company serving signature sandwiches, entrees and ice cream desserts, has sponsored four races already this season, and has at least one more scheduled - the September event at New Hampshire.

“Friendly’s has jumped on motorsports and pursued some unique and creative marketing initiatives,” Cope said. “The ‘Ultimate Race Fan’ sweepstakes at racing.friendlys.com has been very successful for them. They are very encouraged with the response they have seen on the children’s coloring promotion - design a race car.

“This is the type of thing NASCAR racing needs - family companies marketing to families through our sport,” Cope added. “Friendly’s knows it needs to continue building its customer base, and racing needs to do the same thing. By bringing in younger customers, by exciting them and giving them something fun to do, it helps all of us.

“Marketing through NASCAR became successful because companies realized the importance of the fans. Forget the customer and you’re sunk. Friendly’s keeps the customer at the forefront all of the time, and we do that with our race team as well. That’s the key to success,” he added.

Cope is considered one of the top business minds among drivers and owners in the sport. Winner of the 1990 Daytona 500 and one of a handful of veteran drivers with multiple wins in the major leagues of stock car racing, he also has background as a television commentator and does commercials through an endorsement with Avocor. Great Barrier Reef Online and nextstudent.com have sponsored his car at times this season, and another San Francisco-based sponsor is expected to be announced in the near future.

“You have to show these companies the value. There has to be a return on investment,” Cope said. “Every time I stand in front of a board of directors or a corporate chairman, I have to keep that in the front of my mind. These people got there because they know business. If I can show them how sponsorship for my race team is good for their business, they are going to jump on board, no matter what they think about racing personally. But I can’t show them that, no matter how much they like it, they aren’t going to do it.”

For Friendly’s, Cope found the right approach.

“We want race fans to see the ‘Friendly’s’ on the side of our car and realize they are supporters of our sport,” Cope said. “If they haven’t eaten at Friendly’s lately, we want them to go inside and try it. My feeling is once they eat there, they will be back. The food is great, the service is great and it’s a place for families.

“Families is what our sport is all about. We need more family-type, family-supportive companies like Friendly’s involved in our sport, and we’re working towards doing that,” he added.

Friendly Ice Cream Corporation is a vertically integrated restaurant company serving signature sandwiches, entrees and ice cream desserts in a friendly, family environment in more than 550 company and franchised restaurants throughout the Northeast. The company also manufactures ice cream, which is distributed through more than 3,500 supermarkets and other retail locations. With a 67-year operating history, Friendly’s enjoys strong brand recognition and is currently revitalizing its restaurants and introducing new products to grow its customer base. Additional information on Friendly Ice Cream Corporation can be found on the company’s website (www.friendlys.com).

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