Mechanical Problem Saddles Cook With 29th-Place Finish At Memphis

Over the past nine races, Terry Cook and his HT Motorsports team had avoided mechanical problems, riding a string of solid performances to climb from 29th to 11th in the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season standings.

On Saturday, that run of good fortune came to an end as a mechanical problem saddled Cook and the team with a 29th-place finish in the O’Reilly 200 at Memphis (TN) Motorsports Park.

“The front sway bar bolt bent and it eventually bent far enough where it just snapped off,” said Cook after the event. “We had to pit under green and we found out the bar was damaged and there was nothing we could do to fix it. I could still drive the truck, but not at a competitive speed. We basically rode out the final 40 laps or so without a front sway bar trying to stay out of the way and get whatever finish we could out of if.”

Cook’s bad luck might have started earlier in the day when the random draw for qualifying placed him third out of 36 trucks to go out in time trials. Despite the poor qualifying position, the veteran Sylvania, OH driver was able to turn a lap of 23.328 seconds on the three-quarter mile Memphis oval. Unfortunately, those with a later draw in the qualifying session were able to take advantage of better track conditions and when the dust settled on time trials, Cook’s time was only good enough for 22nd on the starting grid.

“You don’t want to go out early in qualifying at Memphis because the track hasn’t had any activity since happy hour the night before,” said Cook, who had posted the sixth-best practice time in one of Friday’s two practice sessions. “The trucks that go out early wind up being the ones to blow off the dirt off the racetrack. You could see tonight the trucks that went later in qualifying had both the benefit of a good racetrack and cooler weather. The early draw didn’t help our effort and pretty much set the stage for the race.”

Despite the less than desirable starting position, Cook was able to work his way into the Top-15 by Lap 80 of the 200-circuit event. The forward push was aided by a pair of stellar pit stops that Cook stated were the best his HT Motorsports team had performed all season.

“We had very, very good pit stops tonight,” said Cook. “We added a couple of new team members this week, full-time people, not weekend warrior types. That was a very big positive that came out of this weekend for us. That’s definitely going to improve our efforts the rest of this season. Going to the track each weekend knowing that we are going to be competitive on pit road and be able to pick up spots there is huge.”

A final chassis adjustment on the second pit stop of the night on Lap 115 gave Cook’s No. 59 Toyota Tundra the boost it needed. Now running lap times equal to the leader of the race, Cook was marching through the field when the sway bar problem ended any hopes of a top finish.

“The truck really took off and I really thought we had something to run up into the Top-10,” said Cook. “Unfortunately, it ran really good for about 20 laps and then it started to give up. It got worse and worse and finally all heck broke loose. It got to the point where I made the call to come in and see if we could fix it.”

The green flag pit stop cost Cook four laps and saddled the team with its worst finish since the second race of the season at California. It also dropped Cook two positions in the season driver's standings to 13th – 62 points out of the Top-10.

“You try to put a race like this immediately behind you as quickly as possible,” said Cook. “You try to figure out what happened and why so it doesn’t happen to you in another race. Then you move on. There’s no crying over spilled milk. You can’t get down in the dumps and be dejected about what happened. Racing has a lot of highs and lows and if you take a low and make it lower, it will just drive you into the ground. You have to put it out of your mind and move on to the next race.”

That race will come in two weeks when the Truck Series heads to Kentucky Speedway and the Built Ford Tough 225. The Saturday, July 14 event will be telecast live on The SPEED Channel at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. The event will also be broadcast live by Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio.

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