12-year-old Seneca Tedford visited her local Friendlys Restaurant in July, and colored and designed a #37 Chevrolet. Her design was picked as the winner from among thousands of entries. The paint scheme and design was the work of the 12-year-old girl as part of a major promotional contest. The race car with her design as well as driver Cope, a former Daytona 500 winner, will visit her school, Lebanon Middle School, Thursday morning at 9:30am/et. The actual #37 Friendlys Chevrolet of driver Derrike Cope that will run in Sundays Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Raceway in Loudon will be unloaded in the parking lot. Senecas design will be unveiled publicly for the first time, giving her and her schoolmates the first look. Cope and Friendlys will host an ice cream party immediately afterwards for the entire school. Hey, she did a great job with her design, and she deserves to show it off, said Cope, a two-time NASCAR Winston Cup race winner who includes the prestigious Daytona 500 among his major victories. Cope and his Friendlys Chevrolet team will help Seneca do just that the teams huge transporter will stop by Lebanon Middle School at 9:30 Thursday morning and unload the newly-designed car, giving Seneca and her friends an opportunity to see the finished product, meet Cope and his team, and possibly even sit behind the wheel. We might crank it for her but I dont think the school would be too happy with us letting her take a couple of laps around the parking lot, Cope laughed. This is what Friendlys is all about kids and families, said Pete Bell, Senior Director, Marketing. We wanted a promotion within our NASCAR sponsorship that really peaked kids’ interest, and that enhanced their visit to Friendly’s Restaurants. “The results were phenomenal.. Seneca was the winner but thousands of children entered the contest, and were very interested in being a part of our promotion.. Friendly’s Ice Cream and its restaurants have always been dedicated to serving families, especially children,” Bell continued.. “This contest was a way to involve the entire family, kids and parents, in a wholesome promotion surrounding a wholesome sport.” Senecas design will certainly be one of the most unique in motorsports history. The Friendlys Chevrolet at New Hampshire will sport a royal blue base color covered with ice cream cones strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. The Friendlys logo and the number 37 will be a tie-dyed design. I assure you no one has ever seen anything like this on a race track ever before, Cope said. It is really going to show up well for the fans in the stands and those watching on national television. Im excited to be driving it, and Im grateful to Seneca for the wonderful job she did. To be honest, there were a lot of really good designs and color schemes used by thousands of kids. It was tough to pick just one, he added. But this will be one nobody will ever forget. Seneca has already received $100 worth of Derrike Cope gear as part of her prize package. Additional information on Friendly Ice Cream Corporation can be found on the companys web site ( www.friendlys.com ).( Williams Company PR ) ALSO it is posted on the Derrike Cope site that “Derrike will be announcing his sponsor for the 2004 Winston Cup season on this week’s NASCAR This Morning broadcast.”[Sunday on Fox Sports Net at 11:00am/et](9-9-2003)
