Cook, HT Motorsports Looking For Another
Top Truck Series Finish At Charlotte

The last two times the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has visited Lowes Motor Speedway, driver Terry Cook has come up one spot short of winning the race. The consecutive runner-up finishes have Cook looking forward to returning to the Charlotte, NC area oval when the Truck Series takes the green flag in this Friday’s Quaker Steak and Lube 200.

“When you run second, it isn’t a bad deal,” said Cook (left), who finished behind Kyle Busch in each event. “But when you run second to the same guy two years in a row, you start wondering what you have to do to beat that guy. In reality, it’s about beating 35 other drivers, not just one of them. There’s some great competition in the Truck Series right now, so we’ll really have to be on our game again to get that same kind of Top-5 finish Friday night.”

Cook’s comments came after he and his HT Motorsports No. 59 Toyota Tundra team had just completed two days of testing at Charlotte last Friday. The team, which tested a pair of Toyota Racing Development powered trucks, posted a solid effort earning eighth-best time in the all-important final Friday evening session.

According to Cook, it’s the additional testing that has helped him to get comfortable on the ultra-fast 1.5-mile Lowes oval.

“You develop a feel for a racetrack over time,” Cook stated. “I have always like racing at Lowes Motor Speedway because, in addition to our four races here, we seem to have a test day, or in the case of this year’s race, two test days leading up to the race. Because of those tests, I’ve had a lot of track time here. When you get those kind of laps and you find a track that you like, you typically run well at it.”

Cook also noted that this Friday’s 200-mile event should again go to the team that can best adapt to the historic Charlotte track.

“Lowes is a track that changes a lot,” said Cook. “From the morning practice to race time at night, this track will change many times over because of changes in weather conditions. It can change in an instant – just because of a cloud during the day or a couple degrees drop in temperature at night. You can go from handling well to being junk in a matter of minutes. Teams and drivers have to be able to race smart and make the right kind of decisions to take advantage of what they think the conditions will be when we race. Those who are able to adapt to make the necessary adjustments and changes usually do well here.”

Cook is coming off his best finish of the season - a ninth-place performance at Kansas Speedway April 28. The veteran driver joined HT Motorsports at the start of the season and has roared his No. 59 Toyota Tundra from 29th in the championship standings after the first two events to 16th (just 128 points out of 10th) with three-straight solid finishes capped by theTop-10 effort at Kansas.

“Our HT Motorsports team has been together only five races – the first five of this season – and our goal is to get better every race,” said Cook, shown at right with crew chief Danny Rollins and team owner Jim Harris. “So far, we’ve done that and we want to continue that. We’re all about running consistently well and if we can do that, the wins will eventually come. To win any race at this point of our development would be amazing. But to win at Charlotte, in front of all our family, friends, media and everything else that makes winning a Charlotte a big deal -that would be unbelievable.”

Cook will take the green flag in Friday’s Quaker Steak and Lube 200 at Lows Motor Speedway at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. The event will be telecast live on The SPEED Channel and will be broadcast by MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.

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