Cook Survives at St. Louis to Finish 21st

Madison, Ill. (September 12, 2009) – Terry Cook spent much of the early stages racing in or near the top ten in Saturday’s Copart 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Gateway International Raceway, but a late race wreck involving several trucks racing down the backstretch swept up the No. 25 Cajun Industries/Harris Trucking Toyota and left Cook with a 21st-place finish.

Cook and crew chief Danny Rollins spent the first half of the race working on chassis issues as Cook reported the truck to be tight through the corners. After two rounds of pit stops and several adjustments to the truck, Cook reported back in to Rollins that the chassis was unresponsive and still tight through the corners. Just five laps past halfway in the 160-lap race, Cook and Rollins quickly changed their race strategy. They decided the best way to have a chance to win was to pit for fuel and stretch the fuel mileage to the end; they would pick up positions as drivers in front of them pitted for fuel later in the race.

As Cook logged laps after his final stop of the afternoon, he was hit by another competitor on lap 109 and went sliding into the backstretch grass and then into the inside wall. The damage to the left front of the truck forced Cook to the garage area for repairs.

“I heard Dave (Fuge, spotter) say we were three wide and then I felt contact from behind and into the grass we went,” Cook said. “It happened pretty fast. I told everyone all weekend that the field gets spread out here, but with all the cautions we had we were all just stacked up on top of each other. The later in the race we got the more crazy it was getting out there. I think that’s what happened there once we were in the garage; they could see that carrot dangling from the stick and they got excited. That’s how it was in 2004 when we had four green-white checkered finishes here and it was like that today.”

Cook was disappointed since several drivers he spent the afternoon racing with ended up in the top five.

“I think the results show our strategy was right on target,” Cook said. “The truck was decent but we didn’t have the track position to get up and race for the win. So we adjusted our strategy a little and did what we could to win the race. There were guys that we were in front of all day that finished up in the top five. It’s a shame we got wrecked because we were in front of them all day long.”

The next race for Cook and the No. 25 Cajun Industries/Harris Trucking Toyota Tundra is the Heluva Good! 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH on Saturday September 19. The 19th race of the 2009 season is scheduled for a 3 P.M. green flag and will be shown live on SPEED.