Cook Overheats In Hot Bristol NCTS Race

Terry Cook was well on his way to a Top-10 finish in the O’Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway when his HT Motorsports Toyota Tundra went up in smoke.

“We were running well driving up to 12th when I noticed the engine bogged down a little bit on a restart,” said Cook. "Later, the engine started pushing a small vapor out the overflow. Eventually, it was that cooling issue that got us because the engine expired some laps later. It’s a shame because I think we’d have gotten a good finish. If you look back at the finishing results, we would have been in the eighth to 13th range if we’d have just finished with the guys we were racing with all night.”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for the Sylvania, OH driver as the mechanical problem saddled him and his HT Motorsports mates with a 32nd-place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.

From the time they dropped the green flag on the initial test session on the new Bristol concrete surface to start of the 200-lap race, Cook had positioned himself as one of the favorites to win the event with Top-10 lap times. Rolling off 19th in the 36-truck field, Cook quickly worked his way toward the front thanks in part to the newly paved and re-configured Bristol racing surface.

“It was definitely more fun to race at Bristol than it has been in the past,” said Cook. “Having a top groove there really gave you a lot of options on where you could run your truck. There were plenty of options to pass high or low, and when you give a driver options, they’ll usually love a track. Personally, I give it double thumbs up. They did a great job of making the track much better.”

By Lap 75, Cook was running just outside the Top-10 when he started to notice a fine mist coming out of the engine overflow during one of the 10 caution flag periods that slowed the race. As the mist grew heavier, Cook knew his truck would eventually run out of water unless he pitted for service.

Despite solid work by his HT Motorsports team, the problem was too severe and Cook parked for the night on Lap 120. Cook earned $7,250 for the effort and has now earned $184,960 for the year. Cook is 14th in the NCTS driver’s point standings – 175 out of the Top-10 with nine races remaining in the season.

Cook hopes his fortunes will take a turn for the better when he and his Harris Trucking Toyota Tundra take the green flag in a 200-mile Truck Series event at Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis, MO this weekend. The event will take the green flag at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time and will be telecast live on the SPEED Channel. The event will also be broadcast by Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio.

For more information about Terry Cook, please log on to www.terrycook.com

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