POWER STROKE DIESEL BY INTERNATIONAL CHARLOTTE POST-RACE REPORT
 
Series: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Date: Friday, May 20, 2005
Event: Quaker Steak and Lube 200
Track: Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.
 
QUALIFYING RESULTS:
1. Mike Skinner, Toyota, 183.051 mph
2. Rick Crawford, Ford, 182.100 mph
3. Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 181.843 mph
4. Robert Huffman, Toyota, 181.641 mph
5. Bill Lester, Toyota, 181.299 mph.
29. Terry Cook, Ford, 178.636 mph
 
RACE RESULTS:
1. Kyle Busch, Chevrolet
2. Terry Cook, Ford
3. Ted Musgrave, Dodge
4. Johnny Benson, Toyota
5. Steve Park, Dodge
 
About the Race . . .
Kyle Busch won his first-career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race with Billy Ballew Motorsports.  Busch ran down second place, Terry Cook and then leader, Mike Skinner with 18 laps to go in his first NCTS race of the year.
 
Tracking the Power Stroke Diesel by International race team . . .
A second-place finish reached expectations for the Power Stroke Diesel by International race team Friday night.  Driver Terry Cook passed nearly half the field in the first 20 laps on the 1.5-mile tri-oval speedway.  Garnering second place moved the nine-year series veteran three spots up to 11th in the NCTS driver points standings, 21 out of 10th place.
 
"The Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford was just awesome,” said Cook.  “When they dropped the green this truck went straight to the front.  I've never had a truck here that you could drive it into the corner that deep and that's what made this thing so good tonight.  We could go into the corner two or three wide.
 
“The Roush-Yates guys told me at Fontana that when we get to Charlotte that we're going to have something for them and we sure did.  This is a brand new truck and everything we've had until this date was stuff we built from last year.  We were running Mike Skinner down at a pretty high rate of speed and Kyle was slowly running us down.  We were having trouble getting it right through the center so I had to lift.  Up until then we were almost wide open around this place.  When it started tightening up I had to protect the bottom and unfortunately I couldn't race Kyle as hard as I wanted."
 
The Power Stroke Diesel by International race team has one week off before eight-consecutive weeks of racing beginning at Dover International Speedway and ending in mid-July at Kentucky Speedway.  Catch all the action on SPEED Channel.
 
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES DRIVER POINTS STANDINGS:
1. Ted Musgrave            1088
2. Bobby Hamilton         1047     -41
3. Ricky Craven             1029     -59
4. Jimmy Spencer          993      -95
5. Dennis Setzer            940      -148
11. Terry Cook             837      -251
 
NEXT RACE:
Event: MBNA NASCAR RacePoints 200, No. 8 of 25
Track: Dover International Speedway
Date: Friday, June 3rd
TV: SPEED TV, 4:30 p.m. EST
RADIO: MRN and XM Satellite Radio, 4:30 p.m. EST
 
In other news . . .
Making a 20,000-person Impression . . .
Cook made an appearance at the 15th Annual Harris Teeter Race Festival on Monday, May 23rd, where an estimated 20,000 people attended for driver autographs, show cars and trucks, food and games.  The event began at 5 p.m., however, the first race fan showed up at eight o’clock in the morning.
 
Practice Makes Perfect . . .
The Power Stroke Diesel by International race team knows any given race can be won or lost on pit road.  Three times each week, the seven crew members that go over the wall practice for hours to perfect the ideal pit stop.  Race fans in town for the Memorial weekend stopped by to watch pit practice.