Derrike Wayne Cope (born November 3, 1958) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner.

While being scouted by Major League Baseball teams, Cope suffered a knee injury that ended his playing career.

[3][4] Cope progressed through the short-track ranks in the Northwest, and later made his Winston Cup Series debut at Riverside International Raceway in 1982.

He ran part-time in the Winston Cup Series after that, making an attempt at Rookie of the Year in 1987.

During the last lap of the 1990 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt, who dominated the race, ran over a piece of debris and cut a tire in turn three.

After narrowly avoiding most of the resulting debris, Cope went underneath, passed Earnhardt's slowing car, assumed the lead and earned his first win, as well as his first Top 5 (his best finish prior to the 1990 Daytona 500 was sixth) in NASCAR competition.

He became an overnight sensation as a result of the win, appearing on Late Night with David Letterman that week.

At Dover later in the 1990 season, Cope rallied for another win after running out of fuel and falling off the lead lap.

Following the 1992 season, the Whitcomb team closed down, and Cope drove an originally unsponsored No.

Midway through the 1994 season, Cope was replaced by Jeremy Mayfield and began driving for Bobby Allison's No.

During this season, Cope won his first career Busch Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway, driving the No.

When Allison's team shut down after the 1996 season, Cope signed on with the fledgling MB2 Motorsports operation, driving the No.

Despite missing some races due to an injury, Cope won his first career pole position at Lowe's Motor Speedway, although he failed to post a Top 10 finish in the No.

He made sporadic appearances for LJ Racing and Larry Hedrick Motorsports, and later signed on to drive the No.

Cope became unhappy when the team only ran a part-time schedule, and quit after a few races.

Cola-sponsored Dodge Ram at Impact Motorsports at the end of the season in the Craftsman Truck Series.

In 2001, Cope announced the formation of Quest Motor Racing, a team he would co-own with drag racer Warren Johnson.

37 Friendly's Ice Cream-sponsored Chevrolet, Cope merged the team with Arnold Motorsports.

74 trucks with Nick Tucker and Jennifer Jo Cobb being the primary drivers, while in the Nationwide Series he fielded the No.

75 Cope/Keller Racing Dodge in the Sprint Cup series with BluFrog Energy Drink coming on board as a primary sponsor during Daytona Speedweeks.

Cope has decided to field his cup car in select races with manufacturing backing from Chevrolet instead of Dodge.

After missing the opening race at Daytona, Cope would return to Jay Robinson's team for Las Vegas, and later Darlington for ML Motorsports.

In January 2015, Cope announced that he would return to the Xfinity Series for the part-time 2015 season with Charlie's Soap as the sponsor.

It was later discovered that the explosion was caused by tire failure triggered by excess heat from a broken spindle.

In February, it was announced that Cope would return to the NASCAR Cup Series, driving for Premium Motorsports.

[11] On March 3, Cope qualified for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his first race since 2009 at NASCAR's highest level.

Sundance Vacations and the United Way of NEPA partnered to sponsor Cope at the Overton's 400 at Pocono.

On September 10, 2017, Cope announced that he and Premium Motorsports had agreed to part ways, saying, "I'm thankful to Jay Robinson and the folks at Premium for the opportunity they have given me this season to return to the Cup Series but the timing is right to pursue other opportunities.

[13] However, on September 26, 2017, StarCom Racing announced they will withdraw from Dover due to personnel hiring and timing.

Angela still competes part time, while Amber quit driving in 2012 after an incident with Kevin Harvick.