Meijer 300

June 14, 2008
Sparta, KY

Derrike will drive the #4 Chevrolet for Jay Robinson Racing in Nashville.

Monroe, N.C. (Wednesday, June 11, 2008) - You’d be hard-pressed to find a race track in which Derrike Cope hasn’t raced at. After all, he’s one of the more experienced drivers in the garage area, with extensive seat time in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. But there’s one track Cope hasn’t competed at – Kentucky. He does have experience at the track from various testing sessions. However, he’ll get an entirely new look in the heat of battle as Cope and the JVC Everio team trek to Kentucky for Saturday night’s race.

Cope said he’s eagerly anticipating his first racing experience at Kentucky. “I’m looking forward to it,” said Cope. “I’ve tested there before, but I’ve never had the opportunity to race there before. It’s always fun to run a new race track.”

Cope and the JVC Everio team will get their first opportunity to tour the track during the two Nationwide Series practice sessions on Friday. The final practice session on Friday will be televised by ESPN2, with coverage beginning at 7 p.m. On Saturday, ESPN2 will also provide coverage of qualifying, starting at 5 p.m. They’ll begin their coverage of Saturday night’s Meijer 300 at 8 p.m.

In the first practice, Derrike was 43rd fastest with a 32.739 time and 164.941 speed.

In Qualifying, Derrike produced his fastest lap of 32.238 with a speed of 167.504. At the end of the round, the #4 Chevrolet was left in 35th position.

Derrike started the race in 35th position and finished in 31st position.

After the race, Derrike said, "I got a few hard laps with the #4 car prior to qualifying. It was not very good. It was bouncing a lot and not utilizing the coil bind very well, so we struggled in qualifying and the half of the race that we ran. We ran used tires and did the best we could to put points on the board."