Who is Derrike Cope? Everything about the 1990 Daytona 500 winner who appeared on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s podcast

Former NASCAR driver, Derrike Cope, who won the 1990 Daytona 500 in a surprise victory, recently appeared on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s podcast to talk about his racing career.

Derrike Cope was born in San Deigo but grew up in Spanaway, Washington. His father raced in NHRA and Cope worked as a mechanic on the West Coast. He initially pursued baseball but switched to racing after an injury ended his baseball career. He began racing in local short tracks and raced at late model events before moving to the NASCAR Winston West Series in 1982.

Cope's big break came when he won the Daytona 500 in 1990 after Dale Earnhardt Sr. encountered trouble on the final lap. He was winless in 71 Cup starts before the victory, and it made him famous. He even appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman" that week.

After that, Cope raced for Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison and won his first Busch Series race in 1994. He later managed and formed his own team, StarCom Racing. Moreover, he ran in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series, and returned to the Cup Series in 2017.

His team last competed in the Cup Series in NASCAR in 2021. In recent years, Cope has focused on managing and working with Nitro Motorsports in the Trans-Am 2 and GT America Series.

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Derrike Cope's first NASCAR ride

On the 570th episode of "The Dale Jr. Download" podcast, Derrike Cope talked about his early years working as a mechanic on the West Coast and starting as a NASCAR driver. The 62-year-old reflected on how George Jefferson from the Winston West Series helped him get his first Cup ride.

"Chuck Bowen, who made it to the Experience Series, Jimmy Insolone, and those are the guys that, you know, were kind of the top echelon of the Winston West Series. And so, they would go to Riverside and run, and my aspirations were, you know, to get to that point," Cope said (14:02).

"George Jefferson, who was the only Ford on the West Coast, and Harry Jefferson, they'd been to Daytona, Rockingham, Charlotte, and been successful, you know, decent, and they didn't want to travel no more, so I ended up getting [an opportunity]. I ran my first year in the late model, won a race in 1980, and then George offered me a ride in 81, and that was my springboard to really getting myself into a position to go Grand National Race," he added (14:15).

Derrike Cope later partnered with Purolator and Bob Whitcomb to build a successful racing team. He also shared stories about his time racing for teams like those led by Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison, as well as his current activities and role at StarCom Racing.