By Dustin Albino

After being in the NASCAR spotlight for nearly four decades, including an upset Daytona 500 triumph in 1990, Derrike Cope tried to get away. Cope was leading StarCom Racing before the team sold its Cup Series charter to 23XI Racing ahead of the 2022 season, giving Cope a chance to breathe for the first time in almost half a century.

Over a three-year period, Cope traveled and played golf. He relaunched StarCom in 2024 to run a limited schedule in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, forming a partnership with Nitro Motorsports, owned by Cope’s cousin Nick Tucker.

“Primarily trying to take a step away and enjoy being at the race track in another vein,” Cope told Jayski.com of his three seasons away from NASCAR. “Road racing was something that [Tucker] was doing. It was a release and something that we could go, travel and try to get away. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere with that type of racing.”

Cope couldn’t stay away from NASCAR, though. Rising road-course talent Thomas Annunziata, who competes for Nitro Motorsports full time in the Trans Am Championship CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series and won the opening two races of the 2025 season, had aspirations of dabbling into NASCAR. He competed in a handful of Xfinity Series races in 2024, splitting time between JD Motorsports and Joey Gase Motorsports.

Annunziata wanted a larger schedule in 2025, primarily filled with road courses. Cope purchased a chassis to help him get off the ground. At the same time, Leland Honeyman Jr., coming off his rookie campaign with Young’s Motorsports, became a free agent and was looking to compete in a limited schedule this season. Thus, Cope Family Racing, with Tucker as the owner and Cope being the general manager, was formed.

“[Tucker] was the one that had the meetings and facilitated things,” Cope added. “I think opportunities just present themselves. Sometimes, you don’t ever make the definitive choice to go do it until you feel like the right elements present themselves. At that point, I felt like we did have the capabilities to go and do it right. I’ve always had to be with less equipment, and I was driving myself.

“When this deal presented itself, I felt like this was an opportunity to come back in a capacity where we could have an outstanding motor program, quality cars and some young, excited drivers that I think are looking to showcase their potential.”

The team acquired many of the chassis that Honeyman was driving last year with Young’s Motorsports. They were in the Brandonbilt Motorsports pipeline before that. The No. 70 team is also running ECR Engines through prior relationships Cope established.

“I felt confident that we would have all the tools necessary to go out and run with the higher echelon groups,” Cope stated. “That’s what we’ve been able to do.”

Throughout the winter, Cope hired four full-time employees. He and wife Elyshia handle the logistics and consider themselves “car rich and people poor.” The team got slightly ahead over the offseason, though they didn’t move into their Mooresville, N.C. shop until mid-December.

The bulk of Annunziata’s Xfinity schedule in 2025 will be at road courses and short tracks, with some intermediates sprinkled in. Through four starts with CFR in 2025, he has a best finish of 28th in his first attempt at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Trying to get involved in this kind of racing, it was a bit intimidating at the time,” Annnuziata stated. “But I look up to [Cope]. He takes it seriously, which means I need to put 110% into it as well. Now that he put me in the race car, I’m going to try to follow in his footsteps and dress the right way, talk the right way and do the talking on the track as well.”

At just 19 years old, Annunziata believes he can make it through the NASCAR ranks. He made his first oval start in 2023 in a late model, being coached by fellow Xfinity competitor Carson Kvapil.

“There are a bunch of NASCAR drivers that come to Trans Am and they don’t win those races,” Annunziata added. “I think I have the talent to be up there, it’s just going to be a different path.”

Meanwhile, Honeyman is taking lessons learned from his rookie campaign with Young’s and applying them to the No. 70 team. He felt he flew under the radar last year, finishing 22nd in the driver’s standings.

Among the biggest reasons Honeyman explored other opportunities for 2025 was the ability to have leased motors each time he competed. His intentions were to return to Young’s, which was also taking the next step with a full-packaged leased motor program. Anthony Alfredo was in need of a seat and took over the No. 42 car.

“We want to be an A-class team,” Honeyman said of Cope Family Racing. “Nick and Derrike want us to be an A-plus team and all they are used to is winning (in Trans Am). Nick is used to winning and that’s what he wants to do. I think he wants to turn this team into a really fast team, structured right and build it up.”

Whatever weeks Honeyman isn’t competing, he can still be found at the No. 70 hauler looking over data and listening to the team’s radio. He admits not being on track those weekends are difficult mentally. But when he is the wheelman, having familiarity with the chassis that he ran last year boosts his confidence.

“There are parts that are going to be better here just because they want to be good,” Honeyman said. “I don’t think Tyler Young was going to put the money into it – the deal. It was a startup deal, so he needed to put money into it, but it’s Tyler Young. No offense to him, but it’s how he’s going to run his program. I feel like this year, I’m going to have better parts and better cars because they go the extra mile.

“I feel like I belong here and that I should be racing every single weekend. It’s something I’ve got to build on towards next year.”

In seven starts this season, Honeyman has a pair of top 15 finishes on superspeedways, highlighted by an eighth-place effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He’s frequently raced inside the top 20, scoring stage points in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway and at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With the Atlanta run, Cope believes the No. 70 team overachieved to begin the season. As the Xfinity Series approaches the second half of the regular season, the team ranks 33rd in the owners standings. Collectively, the group has a bright outlook, believing it could build towards the future.

“I’ve been in the sport long enough to know where it can go and what it takes to get to those levels and how long term it can be,” Cope added. “I think you have to look more at the short side of things and what you can control initially. You are in the infancy of a start-up program, so you have to be a realist.

“Too many times, you can let things overload your ass and can have your expectations way up there and get let down. Trying to keep an even keel approach and be realistic about where you’re at and take the highs when they’re high, but keep a level head about it and don’t get overwhelmed when it gets rough.”

Cope believes that come the third quarter of the season, if the No. 70 team can “weather the storm,” he will have a true barometer of the kind of job the No. 70 group has accomplished in its debut season.