UPDATE: Reports from the hospital are positive, but nothing official has been released yet. A replacement driver for tonight has not been named.
UPDATE 2: Josh Richeson will be in the #49 tonight. Cope is alert.(BGNRacing.com)
See more details at the St Louis Post Dispatch.(5-8-2004)
UPDATE – Sunday: Derrick Cope [#50 Cup, #49 Busch] was injured in a crash Saturday morning at Gateway International Raceway [while practing for the Busch race held Saturday night]. Cope, 45, of Spanaway, Wash., who pilots the #49 Jay Robinson Racing Ford Taurus, slammed into the wall in Turn 3 on the driver’s side in the first of two practice sessions on the 1 1/4-mile oval in Madison. Safety workers had to cut the roof off Cope’s car to remove the injured driver, who was momentarily knocked unconscious by the accident. Cope was wearing a head and neck restraint (which is required). Busch Series spokesman Rick Houston said Cope “was awake and aware” when he was airlifted to St. Louis University Hospital. When he arrived at the hospital, Cope was “awake and alert and responding appropriately,” Houston said. Cope was in stable condition after reportedly suffering a concussion and was kept overnight for observation. NASCAR officials immediately impounded the vehicle, covered it with a trap and were carefully inspecting the engine compartment as well as the cockpit looking for obvious mechanical problems. Cope was practicing for the Charter 250 when his brakes locked up entering Turn 3, causing the car to spin 180 degrees. It went up the track and hit the wall smashing the driver’s side of the car from front to back. “It would be speculation to say why, or how or what caused the crash,” Houston said. “But we are looking into the accident.” Robinson Racing used Josh Richeson, 22, of Davidson, N.C., to drive the team’s backup car. Richeson finished 27th.(St Louis Post Dispatch.(5-9-2004)
UPDATE – Monday: Derrike Cope shook off a rough weekend and is ready to go in the #49 Advil Ford in Friday night’s Funal 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at the .750-mile Richmond International Raceway. Cope was taken to a St. Louis, Mo., hospital following a crash in practice Saturday at Gateway International Raceway. Though his injuries were diagnosed as minor, he was held a few hours for observation and released Saturday evening, about the time of the start of the race. Josh Richeson substituted for Cope, driving the Jay Robinson-owned car. “It was ‘Praise the Lord and pass the Advil,'” Cope said. “The brakes didn’t burn in the way I thought they had. They locked and spun me around, and I hit the wall there pretty hard. I’m grateful everything turned out okay, but I’m ready to get back in the car. You never know how easy you have things. I wanted a good run at Gateway, and didn’t get to drive at all. I thought it was going to be bad enough watching the race on television Saturday night but the hospital didn’t have cable. I was on a flight anyway, so missed hearing any of it. Believe me, I’d much rather have been driving,” he said.(Williams Company PR)(5-10-2004)