A FORMER GATEWAY WINNER RETURNING FOR REDEMPTION:

~          Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International driver, Terry Cook is a former winner of the Ram Tough 200.  Cook won the 2002 edition after starting eighth and running the race with a terrible flu.  He led 59 laps en route to his second-career NCTS win

~          Cook is traditionally a fast qualifier at Gateway International Raceway (GIR).  Five of his eight NCTS starts at GIR have been in the top 10

~          GIR is Cook’s 202nd consecutive NCTS start and 220th overall in his 10-year career racing trucks.  Cook is on pace to set to break the all-time consecutive streak of 210 starts later this year at Kentucky Speedway.  Fellow Ford Racing driver, Rick Crawford currently holds the honorary title

~          New To The Team : Dennis Connor is the team’s crew chief.  He has three NCTS championships to his name (1997, ’99 and 2001) and twice was runner-up (1996, ’98).  Tony Hirschman III (spotter) is the son of five-time NASCAR Whelen Modified champion, Tony Jr.  Hirschman has spotted since 1994 in modifieds, open-wheel and stock car racing.  2005 marks his first year spotting in the NCTS.  Finally, Nicole Addison (rear tire changer) is the only female over-the-wall crew member in NASCAR’s top-three divisions.  This is her second year in the NCTS

 

COOK AT GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY:

DATE             START          FINISH          STATUS        EARNINGS

04/30/05            11                  23               Running            $  9,615

07/17/04            18                  26               Accident           $  8,315

07/18/03            9                  9               Running            $12,475

05/05/02            8                  1               Running            $52,160

05/06/01            2                  3               Running            $31,840

05/07/00            4                  9               Running            $11,395

08/20/99            4                  15               Running            $  9,275

09/19/98            18                  22               Running            $  7,800

Averages         9.3                 13.5

 

COOK ON RETURNING TO

“I look a lot at this year similar to what happened in 2002.  It’s ironic that we are at 83 races without a victory because I think in 2002 we were at 86 races or 87 whenever it was when I won my second race in my career and first of the four races that season in 2002.  Definitely, I feel like this year is a breakout season.  The new crew chief, Dennis Connor, is just a workaholic but he works so smart.  We don’t put in 80 hours a week but he puts in probably mentally 120 hours a week.  We are in the process of rebuilding all of our equipment and actually to be honest with you we’ve built three or four new trucks at least and new bodies hung during the off season and even had them through the wind tunnel.  That just shows you the degree that Dennis Connor is going to make sure that this team is poised and ready to go to the race track. We feel like Gateway will probably be the first race of the season that we can truly show our true potential and I’m looking forward to going back to a track that I’ve won at and Dennis Connor has won as a crew chief.  Who knows, it might be race 86 and we might get that monkey off our back right back there at Gateway like we did once before.�

2006 RACE RESULTS:

Date       Race                                          Site                                                        Start      Finish      Laps  Total Laps Status   Points  Earnings

Feb. 17  GM Flex Fuel 250                     Daytona Int’l Speedway                       31           10          102         102     Running     134     $18,725                ....