Derrike Cope: Alan Kulwicki 250 preview

CHARLOTTE, N.C.- - The only driver in the field to have raced consistently with the honoree of the race, Derrike Cope leads the #49 Advil Ford team this weekend in the Alan Kulwicki 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at The Milwaukee Mile.

"Alan Kulwicki was the epitome of what sports is all about," said Cope, the 1990 Daytona 500 winner. "He was focused on his goal, which was to be the best in his sport, and he worked as hard as he could to get there. He didn't have as much money as a lot of teams but he and his guys outworked everybody else, and they won races and they won a championship.

"That gives hope to everyone, from the biggest teams to the smallest. Even today, great things can be done by anybody. It's hard but as long as you keep working, you have hope," he added. "It reminds me a lot of Jay Robinson Racing and the Advil Ford team."

Jay Robinson has made a name for himself in the Busch Series by putting together competitive teams with less sponsorship support than many. Still, his cars are high-end efforts, making it appear as if his corporate sponsorship is a lot greater than it actually is.

"We do the best we can and our guys work hard," Robinson said. "Our goal on the track is to run competitively. Our goal on and off the track is to take whatever our sponsors invest with us and give them twice as much in return. For every dollar we get in sponsorship, we want to give them two dollars back in exposure, in how our cars look, and in response from the race fans. I know that for every dollar in sponsorship we get, we give back five dollars in effort. Nobody outworks us."

That, Cope said, is the spirit of Alan Kulwicki.

"NASCAR racing was built on that kind of thinking, giving back more than you get," Cope said. "Guys like Jay Robinson are built from the same mold as an Alan Kulwicki. Your goal is always to do the best you can and to finish as high as you can on the track, but giving back to the sponsors and the fans should always be your top goal."

Robinson, for example, has already put together a large-scale sampling program for Advil, in which thousands of samples have been given to race fans.

"Advil is the type of product that, once people try it, they know it's great," Robinson said. "By giving samples to race fans, they can hold onto it for their next headache. No doubt in my mind, once they try it, they'll start buying it. I knew if we could get a good at-track sampling program started, it would work for Advil."

Again, said Cope, ingenuity in the spirit of Kulwicki.

"You have to be thinking all of the time in this business, and you have to be creative," Cope said. "We've seen creativity on the track for years, but Jay Robinson offers creativity off the track as well. He makes things work for sponsors, and that's why they love him.

"In this business, you can have some great moments, some exhilarating moments," he added. "But good things are short-lived. If you win 10 races, that means you lost 25. In other words, there are a whole lot more 'Advil moments' than anything else in this sport. Having a car owner like Jay around helps tremendously in those Advil moments."