PHOTO: Jones Brothers Racing
SEASON IN REVIEW
Spanaway, Washington driver Derrike Cope picked up his second LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2003, scoring five last-place finishes eighteen starts during a thirty-six-race season. In doing so, Cope scored the most last-place finishes in a single season since Wayne Gillette and J.D. McDuffie also picked up five finishes apiece in 1969, tying the all-time record.
Cope was competing in his twenty-first season on the Cup Series tour. Yet, unlike the seasons before it, Cope was now competing as an owner-driver on a full-time basis, an extremely risky proposition for a time where practically all owner-drivers sold their shops in the last five years. Cope debuted a new #37 Friendly’s Ice Cream Chevrolet at Daytona Beach, Florida, but fell short of a starting spot in the Daytona 500, resulting in the first of nine DNQs that season. In the eighteen starts that followed, Cope would rack up twelve DNFs and five last-place finishes, resulting in an average finish of just 39.1. His best finish of the year was just 29th, which came at Las Vegas, Nevada on March 2.
The Las Vegas finish was surrounded by the first two of Cope’s last-place finishes in 2003: The first came at Rockingham, North Carolina on February 23, where his Chevrolet burnt the clutch after 34 laps of the Subway 400; the other came in his next start on March 23 in Bristol, Tennessee, where this time engine failure ended his Food City 500 after 31 laps. Four races later came the third finish, another engine failure nine laps into the April 27 running of the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, California, his first race with GBROnline.com sponsorship on his car. Eight races later in the Tropicana 400 in Joliet, Illinois came the fourth finish, where the GBR car broke the transmission after six laps on July 13. Cope’s 2003 ended with the first season sweep of Rockingham’s last-place finishes since John McFadden in 1992 when his Friendly’s car busted an axle after 127 laps of the Pop-Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 on November 9.
Following his 46th-place showing in points, Cope moved to a single-car operation owned by Don Arnold, the team for which he unsuccessfully attempted to make the 2003 finale in Homestead, Florida. As several “start-and-park” teams popped up in the 2004 Cup Series season, Cope tuned in some surprising runs in Arnold’s #50 Dodge, none more surprising than a 5th-place qualifying run for the March 21, 2004 race at Darlington, South Carolina.
However, Cope was out at Arnold’s team following a 34th-place showing in the May 30 Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, North Carolina, which sent Cope floating between eight different teams in late 2004 through 2005. One of those team owners, Raynard McGlynn, then helped arrange another full-time ride for Cope in the 2006 season.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Much like 1994, three last-place finishers in 2003 experienced terrifying wrecks, but fortunately suffered no injuries. 56 laps into the February 16 running of the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida, Ryan Newman’s #12 Alltel Dodge was turned entering the tri-oval, then barrel-rolled in the wet grass, digging up huge clods as the rear wheel assembly ripped free from the chassis. Just seven laps into the June 8 Pocono 500 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, Ken Schrader’s #49 Blair.com Dodge lost the brakes entering the high-speed Turn One and backed into the outside wall, catching fire as it flipped on its side, then landed back on four wheels. Finally, the 62nd lap of the GFS Marketplace 400 at Brooklyn, Michigan on August 17 saw Todd Bodine’s #54 National Guard Ford go airborne, lifting nearly perpendicular to the ground while riding the hood of Kenny Wallace’s #23 Stacker 2 Dodge.
Three drivers who were already making names for themselves in the NASCAR Cup Series scored their first last-place finishes in 2003:
A 28-year-old Greg Biffle joined Roush Racing’s Truck Series team in 1998, scored the season title in 2000, then went on to win the 2002 NASCAR Busch Series title, leading to his first full season in Cup Series competition the next year as driver of the dormant #16 Ford team. Though Biffle finished just 20th in points in 2003, he again surprised with his first career win coming in a rare fuel mileage race at Daytona Beach, Florida on July 5. Biffle’s first last-place finish came at Loudon, New Hampshire on September 14, where his #16 Grainger Ford started 4th, but lost the engine after 108 laps of the Sylvania 300.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Brian Vickers was just 20 years old when he won his own NASCAR Busch Series title in 2003. That year, he also ran five Cup races as Joe Nemechek’s replacement in the #25 Chevrolet, including his first last-place finish at Hampton, Georgia on October 28, where his #25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet also qualified 4th, but overheated after 18 laps of the Bass Pro Shops 500.
Third-year driver Matt Kenseth was the surprise NASCAR Cup Series Champion in 2003, scoring one lone victory at Las Vegas, Nevada on March 2, but churning out twenty-five Top Tens in just thirty-six starts, allowing him to clinch the title with one race to go. Ironically, Kenseth’s first last-place finish awaited him the next week in Homestead, Florida on November 16, when his #17 DeWalt Power Tools Ford blew the engine after just 28 laps of the Ford 400. After the race, Kenseth accepted his championship trophy after running a victory lap in a backup car.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Derrike Cope (5)
2nd) Todd Bodine, Christian Fittipaldi, Larry Foyt, Sterling Marlin, Jeremy Mayfield, Hermie Sadler, Morgan Shepherd (2)
3rd) John Andretti, Greg Biffle, Dave Blaney, Ricky Craven, Bill Elliott, Hideo Fukuyama, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Joe Nemechek, Ryan Newman, Steve Park, Kyle Petty, Ricky Rudd, Elliott Sadler, Ken Schrader, Brian Vickers, Rusty Wallace (1)
