PHOTO: McGlynn Racing
SEASON IN REVIEW
Spanaway, Washington driver Derrike Cope picked up his third LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2006, scoring six last-place finishes in nine starts during a thirty-six-race season. In doing so, Cope broke the single-season last-place record set by Jimmy Pardue in 1961 and equaled by six drivers since, including Cope himself in 2003.
Cope was competing in his twenty-fourth season on the Cup Series tour. He began 2006 driving for Raynard McGlynn, a longtime Truck Series owner who started working with Cope toward the end of the previous season. Carrying sponsorship from MyGuardian911.com and Sundance Vacations on an outdated yellow 2005 Dodge Charger, Cope missed the field for the Daytona 500, followed by four more DNQs in their next four attempts. Driver and team made their season debut at Fort Worth, Texas on April 9, but managed only a 41st-place finish due to electrical problems.
Cope’s first last-place finish came in the team’s next attempt at Richmond, Virginia on May 6, when his now blue-painted #74 Sundance Vacations / Royal Admin. Services Dodge fell out with a vibration eleven laps into the Crown Royal 400. The next finish came the following week in Darlington, South Carolina, a loss of oil pressure to blame after eleven laps of the Dodge Charger 500 on May 13. Two weeks later, Cope made the field for the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, North Carolina, but sold his ride to a struggling Michael Waltrip, who only managed a 41st-place finish. Cope’s third finish came three races after the 600 in the 3M Performance 400 at Brooklyn, Michigan, where the #74 overheated after twelve laps.
The final three last-place finishes came in the team’s final three starts of 2006, all of them in a seven-race span. At Bristol, Tennessee on August 26, Cope fell out with handling problems after eleven laps. At Dover, Delaware on September 24, engine failure was the listed cause of a Lap 39 exit. And, finally, the day Brian Vickers scored his controversial first Cup victory at Talladega, Alabama in the UAW-Ford 500 on October 8, Cope overheated after nine laps, scoring the record-setting finish, the 26th of his Cup career. In the end, Cope finished 52nd in points, scoring seven DNFs in nine starts and eighteen DNQs, including one for owner Bob Jenkins for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in Speedway, Indianapolis.
As of this writing, Cope has made just one more Cup start, bringing his career total to 409. That race was a one-off for owner Larry Gunselman in the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, Virginia on October 25, 2009. That day, Cope’s #64 Gunselman Motorsports Toyota fell out with brake failure after 31 laps, but finished 42nd due to Travis Kvapil’s exit one lap earlier. Cope remained active in racing through the 2021 Daytona 500, when he made his 428th and final Cup Series start. He then transitioned into team ownership with such organizations as StarCom Racing and Barrett-Cope Racing.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
One year after nearly taking the NASCAR Cup Series Championship in his first full season, Carl Edwards scored his first Cup Series last-place finish in 2006 when his #99 Office Depot Ford started 5th in the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida on February 19, only to be involved in a multi-car crash after 78 laps. Edwards’ car was so firmly tangled with Kyle Petty’s #45 Wells Fargo Dodge that the front of his Ford was held off the ground by Petty’s car. Edwards endured a tough winless season that year, but rebounded in the years that followed, finishing 2nd in points in both 2008 and 2011.
Rookie of the Year candidate Reed Sorenson scored his first Cup Series last-place finish in 2006 when his #41 Target Dodge crashed after eighteen laps of the October 1 running of the Banquet 400 in Kansas City, Kansas. Six year later, Sorenson would come just one bottom-five finish short of his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship after a tiebreaker with Michael McDowell in 2012.
Road racer Tom Hubert set his own unique LASTCAR record in 2006 when he finished last in his third consecutive running of the Dodge / Save Mart 350 in Sonoma, California on June 25. In all three runnings, Hubert was driving for owner Kirk Shelmerdine. In 2004, Hubert’s #72 was flagged off the track after five laps for running too slow. In 2005, his #27 lost oil pressure after 33 laps. In 2006, Hubert’s #27 Interush Ford failed to complete the opening lap when he plowed into a multi-car wreck in The Esses triggered by a spinning Ken Schrader.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Derrike Cope (6)
2nd) Hermie Sadler (3)
3rd) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Robby Gordon, Kevin Lepage (2)
4th) Brandon Ash, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Marc Goosens, Jeff Green, Tom Hubert, Dale Jarrett, Todd Kluever, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler, Kirk Shelmerdine, Morgan Shepherd, Mike Skinner, Reed Sorenson, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip, Brandon Whitt (1)
