Food City 250

August 22, 2008
Bristol, TN

Derrike will drive the #4 Chevrolet for Jay Robinson Racing in Michigan. Derrike's owned #73 Dodge will be driven by Kevin Lepage and #78 will be driven by Nick Tucker.

Derrike and Nick Tucker did not participate in the first practice. Kevin Lepage was 12th fastest with a time of 15.991 and speed of 119.992.

In the second practice, Derrike was 50th fastest with a time of 16.816 and speed of 114.106. Kevin Lepage did not participate in the second practice. Nick Tucker was 41st fastest with a time of 16.351 and speed of 117.351.

In Qualifying, Derrike ran his fastest lap of 16.509 with a speed of 116.228. At the end of the round, the #4 Chevrolet was in 41st position where Derrike will start the race. Kevin Lepage ran his fastest lap of 15.922 with speed of 120.512. This put the #73 Dodge in 13th position to start the race. Nick Tucker ran his fastest lap of 16.284 with speed of 117.834 but this only put him in 48th position so the car did not make the show.

Derrike started the race in 41st position and finished in 39th position. Kevin Lepage started the race in 13th position and finished in 41st position.

Derrike updated us with the results from the weekend. He said, "This past weekend went fairly well. I am very excited and optimistic about our operation. We have been working very hard on every aspect including our engine program which seems to be moving in the right direction despite not having any sponsorship to aid in the process. Kevin Lepage is a very talented race car driver and is a very integral part of the success also. Rick and Del Markle are really making it all come together. We had an old friend and past crew chief helping out this past weekend also, Barry Dodson.

"We practiced very well with the #73 car, 12th fastest overall and qualified 13th. The car was a bit tight and we really need a taller gear and we believe we could have qualified better! As for the #78 car with Nick Tucker driving, we were still working the bugs out of the chassis during practice and he had only used tires on before qualifying. This was the first time the car had been on the track and we thought it would have a good chance of making the event, but Nick spun out qualifying and hit the wall. Nonetheless it was a good effort and we know that car has a lot of potential as well. It is an obvious setback for us because we will not be able to take it to California but hopefully we will have it ready for Dover.

"As for myself, you are probably wondering why I am not driving my own car? Well, I have made a commitment to Jay Robinson to drive his car and I do not want to go back on my word. I also know that owning my own team and driving for it sometimes means you do not always pay yourself if the team needs something. But we all have to pay the bills to keep going! We want to build this team up this year and properly prepare for the future and that means having backup cars in case we have a problem like this past weekend.

"This past weekend I only got one or two laps of practice in the #4 car which really put me at a disadvantage. I qualified on the #49 car's tires that he practiced on in both practice sessions. We were not very good in the couple of laps I ran and they changed a number of things before qualifying with no practice to sort things out. The car was very loose in qualifying, so I just was very careful since the car was locked into the field with a guaranteed starting spot.

"All the cars were going to be starting and parking because of the lack of funding. We continue to search for sponsorship and some relationships that will eventually allow us to actually run the races. But for the time being, this is allowing us to showcase our potential as a race team against the larger and fully funded operations. We are averaging a 22nd place starting spot with the #73 car in the four races that it has attempted. I would say that is pretty good for no sponsorship and a small team!"