Cook Struggles To 26th-Place Truck Series Finish At ORP

With a win, four Top-10s and a seventh-place finishing average in his last seven NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts at O’Reilly Raceway Park, there’s little wonder why Terry Cook was disappointed in his 26th-place finish in this year’s Power Stroke Diesel 200.

“This is a very neat racetrack – one of my favorites,â€ù Cook (right) stated. “Unfortunately, we just weren’t very good today, from the time we unloaded to the end of the race. We just had a problem with the race truck all day long.â€ù

Cook’s day matched the weather as a gray overcast turned to rain after he and his HT Motorsports team struggled throughout the morning practice session. The wet weather eventually washed out qualifying and delayed the start of the race two hours. The field set by points, Cook rolled off 14th at the start of the race and began experiencing problems before the 36-truck field even took the green flag.

“Two-way radio is obviously pretty important and the radio in my truck went dead as we were coming to the green,â€ù said Cook. “The team could hear me, but I couldn’t hear them or my spotter. It was pretty interesting out there the first 25 laps or so, but we were able to replace it on a pit stop. It wasn’t a major loss, but it could have been a lot worse.â€ù

Cook was right – things could get worse – and they did at Lap 40 when the right side of his No. 59 Harris Trucking Toyota made contact with the Turn 3 wall. The impact wrinkled the rear quarter sheet metal and moved the rear deck spoiler. It also knocked the rear end housing out of square making an already tough to handle racer even tougher to drive.

“I was trying to hustle the truck as best I could and I just got up into the wall,â€ù said Cook. “After that, it was all about getting out of here with what we could.â€ù
Cook eventually soldiered his way to the 26th-place finish earning $8,175 for the effort – enough to provide the only bright spot of the day as it pushed the veteran driver’s career earnings mark past the $3.5 million mark.

“In past weeks, we’ve been able to work on the truck and get it better as the weekend and race went on,â€ù said Cook. “We weren’t able to do that this weekend. That was a big disappointment, but we’ll work on it and come back stronger next time.â€ù

Cook and his HT Motorsports team will now regroup and head for the next race on the schedule – the Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville Superspeedway. The event, set for Saturday, August 11, will take the green flag at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and will be telecast live on The SPEED Channel.

The race will also be broadcast worldwide on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio.

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