Terry Cook Earns First Pole At Daytona
With ppc Racing and Power Stroke Diesel

(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.) - Terry Cook made a statement in Bud Pole Qualifying with the ppc Racing No. 10 Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150.  His speed of 183.643 mph earned Cook his eighth-career pole for Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Daytona International Speedway.  The Sylvania, Ohio native is entering his ninth as a driver and fourth with sponsor Power Stroke Diesel.

"ppc Racing knows how to build race vehicles," said Cook, driver of the No. 10 ppc Racing Power Stroke Diesel Ford.  "Including the two laps qualifying, we have made five laps total today.  We've been out three times and each time we've been out we've only made one lap.  That's how good this program is and how good this truck is.  It rolled off the trailer fast and we haven't had to do anything.  That's just a tribute to what a good race program ppc Racing is."

Cook, who has finished every NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event in the top 10 at Daytona International Speedway, took only a handful of laps during the first two practice sessions, setting the pace early in qualifying.  He admits the ppc Racing crew did little to the truck's setup Wednesday morning, however, a lot went into meeting NASCAR's rules for this event.

"Robert Yates is doing the motors this year for a new team and this is the first time that a truck was ever built in the ppc Racing shop," said Cook.  At any given time over the last three weeks, I can count 14-to-15 employees at ppc Racing working on that race truck at the same exact time.  It's just a credit to all of those guys for the amount of work and hours that they put in to get that truck to where it is today."

Crew Chief Fred Wanke was all smiles as the crew congratulated one another in the garage area.  Wanke agrees how stout this ppc Racing team can and will be for 2004.

"It's strictly a team at ppc Racing," said Wanke.  "The whole organization, the Busch team, all the fabricators, Body Dynamics, Robert Yates Engines; it's a team effort.  Terry did an excellent job testing at Talledega and here at Daytona.  I'm extremely happy for everybody.  It's a lot of hard work and it's paid off.  We were ready coming down here.  It will be a good race to watch."

Cook will lead the field down to the green field Friday, February 13th in NASCAR's first Craftsman Truck Series event under the lights.  Coverage of the event will be live on SPEED Channel and MRN Radio starting at 8:00 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. EST, respectively.