Cook, HT Motorsports Toyota Battle To
15th-Place NCTS Finish At Martinsville

Terry Cook rolled to a hard-fought 15th-place finish in Saturday’s Kroger 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. The effort proved to be roller coaster experience for the driver of the No. 59 Harris Trucking Toyota as he overcame a number of issues to post his best finish since joining the team prior to this season.

“We practiced in the Top-5 on Friday, qualified in the Top-10 and finished 15th,” Cook stated. “We fought a little adversity all day long today. The chassis wasn’t quite perfect, but we kept working on it getting it better on every pit stop. We also suffered a pit road penalty that got us a lap down and we got spun out too. We were as deep in the field as 27th late in the race and still came back to finish 15th. We’ll take that.”

Cook and his Martinsville-based HT Motorsports team showed they were ready for some home cooking running near the top of the speed charts during Friday’s early practice session. On Saturday morning, the Sylvania, OH driver backed up Friday’s effort with a lap of 19.987 seconds on the .526-mile oval - good enough for the 10th starting position in the 36-truck field.

Cook was content to hold his starting position over the first 100 laps of Saturday’s 250-circuit event. Just past the midway point, Cook steered his mount toward pit road for fuel and four fresh tires only to be penalized one lap by NASCAR for running the stop sign at the end of pit road upon returning to the track.

“Unfortunately, we lost a lap in the pits,” said Cook. “NASCAR made a call that didn’t go in our favor, but it is what it is. You can’t go back and change it now. Fortunately, that’s when the team rallied together. We passed a bunch of trucks to get the ‘Lucky Dog’ and get back on the lead lap.”

The solid on- and off-track effort put Cook in position to notch his first Top-10 finish of the season, but contact from behind on Lap 213 sent Cook’s Toyota spinning in Turn 3 bringing out one of the 15 caution flags that punctuated the race.

“It’s Martinsville – single file, beatin’ and bangin,’” said Cook. “It’s all about track position, it’s tough to race side by side. As a driver, that’s not much fun. You are going to see a lot of cautions at a place like this.”

Undaunted by the spin, Cook managed to stay on the lead lap and over the final 30 circuits picked up nearly a dozen positions to finish 15th. The veteran pilot was quick to give credit to the Toyota research and development team for his performance.

“I have to give kudos to the TRD people back at the engine shop,” said Cook. “A lot of people talk about horsepower and how much they have, but I have never had an engine that accelerates like the one I had here today. It was unbelievable.”

The 15th place finish earned Cook $11,600 in prize money. More importantly, the solid recovery and finish boosted him from 25th to 19th in the NCTS season championship standings, just 112 points out of the Top-10.

“Our HT Motorsports team is making progress,” said Cook. “We were 17th at Atlanta and now 15th here at Martinsville. I know that’s not a lot to jump up and down about, but we’re in a building mode. We’re making progress and that’s what’s important.”

Next up for Cook and his HT Motorsports mates will be the O’Reilly 250 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, April 28 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Cook is the defending champion of the event that will be telecast live on The SPEED Channel and will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio.

“We’re looking forward to going to Kansas,” said Cook. “Whenever you won the last time you were at a racetrack, you’re always excited to go back there.”

For more information about HT Motorsports and driver Terry Cook, please log on www.htmotorsports.com.

Team and driver interview or information requests should be directed to John Close at closefinishes@aol.com or by calling 704-236-9986.