News and Notes

Easy Care Service Contracts 200

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Race No. 2 of 25

 

About Terry Cook, driver, No. 10 Power Stroke Diesel Ford . . .

Making 167th career start in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 149th consecutive

Ninth season as a driver, fourth with sponsor Power Stroke® Diesel

Won pole position at Daytona International Speedway in first 2004 event; led 12 laps and finished fifth

Last event on a 1.5-mile track at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 14th, 2003; Started – 5th, Finished –11th

Moved to new team, ppc Racing during off-season

Making appearance on Thursday, March 11th in Atlanta’s Capitol District starting at 10:00 a.m. with the Paws With A Cause® Simulator

 

Terry Cook on contending for the championship with ppc Racing . . .

“This is the first time in my entire racing career I’ve been affiliated with a top-notch, very well resourced race team.  ppc Racing has the depth of resources second-to-none of any race team I’ve ever been with.  We have a fulltime engineering and fabrication staff, a fulltime race team.  We’re getting engines from Robert Yates Engine and factory support from Ford Motor Company and the best crew chief in the business, Fred Wanke.  Our guys practice pit stops two-to-three times a day every day and I’ve never had the resources like that.  I’m very excited.  They talk about 2002 being my breakthrough year.  I think 2004 is going to be a breakthrough year, even better than 2002.

 

“The expectations here are pretty high.  Having been at the shop and in the Charlotte area, to me being around these people and seeing what they can achieve, seeing what the engineering staff comes up with and what Fred Wanke builds in these trucks.  It just gives me confidence going to each and every race that when we get there, I have one of the fastest race trucks there and it is up to me to give that much more information to Fred to make it that much better.”

 

Fred Wanke, Crew Chief on building a new truck team from the ground up . . .

“ppc Racing decided to build a truck program at the end of last year.  I think since December 1st I’ve taken off Christmas Day.  This is the second time in my racing career I’ve been crew chief with a start-up truck program.  The last time I did something like this was with Ted Musgrave in his first year in a truck.  We finished second in the points.  Everybody at ppc Racing, both on the truck and car teams, have worked extremely hard day and night.  We’ve outsourced our truck bodies to Body Dynamics to help with the workload.  Our performance at Daytona showed just how good this team really is.”

 

Keith Barnwell, Co-Owner and General Manager on spotting . . .

“I’ve spotted for Ben Hur in a chariot race.  It’s been a long time.  I started spotting for Tommy Houston in 1986 and you grabbed a spare radio, went into the grandstands and filtered among the people.  At a short track race, we would stand on top of the duly and turn in circles, letting the driver know where the wrecks were.  I’ve worked with some great drivers and had a lot of wins.  It’s been a lot of fun.”

 

The ppc Racing crew on . . .

A month off between races early in the season . . .

“It’s an advantage because we started later than the other teams.  It gives us time to build more trucks and change the Daytona truck over for the Atlanta race.”

Pete White, Front Tire Carrier

“It’s a disadvantage.  You get out of sequence, out of rhythm from racing each week.”

Ben Chase, Jackman

“With the time off, we’ve been able to prepare and build the trucks for the race season.”

Ron Denton, Engineer

Atlanta Motor Speedway . . .

“It’s not your typical one-and-a-half mile race track.”

Steve Poniatowski, Front Tire Changer

“My first Cup race was in 1973 with car owner Chuck Little.  Richard Brooks qualified the car and Randy Tissot drove in the race.”

Fred Wanke, Crew Chief

Predictions on the NCAA Basketball Tournament . . .

“Most people think that because I’m from Connecticut that I’m a UConn fan.  That is far from the truth.  I went to Central Connecticut State University and UConn is a huge rival.  I would like to see UNCC win because I live around the area and know some people that attend college there.”

Bobby Skinger, Tire Specialist and Catch Can

 “Anybody but Duke.”

John Bruns, Rear Tire Carrier

“Who’s playing?”

Shaun Washburn, Pit Setup

 

Race Information . . .

Event Name: Easy Care Service Contracts 200 @ Atlanta Motor Speedway

Date & Time: Saturday, March 13th @ 1:00 p.m. EST

TV / RADIO Coverage: SPEED TV / MRN Radio (Both LIVE!)

Race Laps & Miles: 134 Laps / 200 Miles