NASCAR Trucks: Terry Cook Interview: A banner year with new team
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
September 26, 2001Terry Cook has had a banner year in his first season with veteran owners Bob and Kay Keselowski. The six-year Craftsman Truck Series veteran captured his third career pole at Nazareth in August and currently sits seventh in the point standings, poised for his first top-10 points finish. The one thing that has eluded Cook this season, however, is his first win with the K-Automotive team. Cook, whose last win in the series came in 1998 at Flemington Speedway, has produced five top-5 and 13 top-10 finishes in the season's first 19 races. In the first five short-track events on the schedule, Cook has finished in the top 5 twice and the top 10 three times, and is looking to build on that record when the series makes its first ever visit to the .4-mile South Boston Speedway for Friday's running of the Net Zero 250.
TERRY COOK-29-Power Stroke Diesel Ford F-150 - SOUTH BOSTON IS A NEW VENUE ON THE CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES SCHEDULE, BUT YOU'VE PERFORMED WELL AT THE SHORT-TRACK EVENTS IN THE PAST. "If you look at the schedule and you look at the last fives races of the season, and not to say the Power Stroke Diesel team cannot contend for a win at any of the tracks upcoming, because I think we can, but if you look at our past performances and how good we've run at the short tracks, this is probably our best chance out of the remainder of the races to get a win. We've run really well on the short tracks from Martinsville to IRP. We seem to run really well on the short tracks. We're taking the same truck that we ran at both of those tracks and a very similar setup because we've never been there, but just having watched races there on TV, it looks like a combination of Martinsville and IRP. It has corners that aren't as big as IRP, but it looks like a progressively banked track, like IRP, so you can run on the flat or you can run up a little bit. It has long straightaways and tight, little corners like Martinsville, so we're trying to go with that kind of a setup there."
YOUR CREW CHIEF, BOB KESELOWSKI, HAS A LOT OF SHORT-TRACK EXPERIENCE OF HIS OWN, BUT EVEN HE HASN'T TURNED A LAP AT SOUTH BOSTON BEFORE. WHO DO YOU TURN TO FOR ADVICE? "Actually, Bob has talked with Dennis Setzer, and even though he's a under a different manufacturer's banner, Dennis having driven for Bob the last three years, shared a little bit of information with him from some stuff that they learned from testing there back in the fall. We can probably parlay that over to our team, and all that does is help us get a little closer on the gear combination. The Chevrolets, the Fords and the Dodges are so much different aero-wise, even at the short tracks. You'd be surprised how much aero will come into play there. A lot of people say that aerodynamics doesn't mean much at a small track, but all I can tell you is to drive down the road at 55 mph and stick your hand out the window and pretend it's like a spoiler and change the angles. When you start doing that, you find out real quick that the air is downforce, so no matter how slow you're going, downforce is pushing on the front fenders and nosepiece. What that says is the main thing at a track like South Boston is to keep the front fenders attached all day long. If you get too aggressive and you don't qualify well and you want to get to the front in a hurry and you end up knocking the nosepiece off the truck, well now you've lost a little bit of downforce and that's going to hurt you."
WITH FIVE RACES LEFT IN THE SEASON, DO YOU START TO TAKE A FEW MORE CHANCES WITH PIT STRATEGY OR ON-TRACK RACING TO GET YOUR FIRST WIN OF 2001? "Here's the way we're looking at it. We felt that before we went into Richmond that we had a legitimate shot at winning the championship. It was going to take some luck on our side and a little bit of bad luck on some other people's sides, but knowing how many points we reeled in the past two to three weeks prior to that, we thought that we had a pretty good chance there. But, with the outcome of the Richmond race, it's really made it a point to where before we were climbing up the Rocky Mountains and now we're climbing up Mt. Everest. To get to the point where we're going to win a championship is going to be tough, but the main thing that we've focused on all along, is we've not points raced once this season. We're more concerned with winning a race, and we've done that week-in and week-out. We feel as though we can win races and if we can't win a race, we'll run in the top five and let the points accumulate and fall wherever they may fall. Our focus has not changed and it won't change for the balance of the season. We're just trying to choose the right pit strategy to put us in a position to win each and every week. At South Boston, I think the pit strategy there will be to stay on the track as much as you can. Basically, fuel and as little of tires as you've gotta have to stay on the track will win that thing because I think track position is going to be huge."
YOU'VE HAD A BREAKOUT YEAR, BUT THE ONE THING YOU'RE LACKING IS A WIN. IF YOU FINISH OUT THE SEASON WITHOUT A WIN, WILL THAT DIMINISH THE SUCCESS? "Well, I think it will. It will be a disappointment. If we can't get a win this year, it will definitely be a disappointment. You take an IRP and a Nazareth race, we ran a strong second place at both of those. Both of those races possibly could have been two wins under our belts this season, but that's racing and we weren't the best those days; we were the second-best truck. In the five races that remain, we need to be the best truck that day. When I say we need to be the best truck that day, that doesn't mean I need to be the best truck all day long, it means I need to be the best truck in the closing laps. I don't care if I lead 10 laps or 200 laps and dominate it, we need to be there at the end. We've already captured our pole for the season, and sure, it would be nice to get a pole at the remainder of the races this season, but we've already accomplished that goal and we need to accomplish the goal of getting a win this season. I don't care how we do it because it sure would be nice."
WITH THE LAST FOUR RACES COMING ON TRACKS ONE-MILE OR LARGER IN LENGTH, DOES THAT PUT A STRAIN ON YOUR TRUCK SUPPLY IN THE SHOP? "We only have three trucks that we've been running all season long. Those we feel are our three best trucks and we're not in a situation where we've gone to the track where we've saved a truck and said, 'We really want to put this truck aside because we can win with it down the road.' We feel that every race is as important as the next one, so we put our best equipment on the track each and every week. We're not going to be conservative at any race and say, 'We really want to win Phoenix, and I think we have a better chance at Phoenix than we do at Vegas, so we're not going to run this truck.' Or we do run this truck at Vegas and say that I'm going to be real cautious here because I don't want to tear it up for Phoenix. That's not at all the case. Racing is racing and circumstances are circumstances. You can't control that and if I could I would be a millionaire with a crystal ball. You just try to do what you can each and every lap of every race and try to make the outcome the best you can, and you do that by bringing your best equipment."
AFTER SOUTH BOSTON, THE TRUCK SERIES RETURNS TO TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. IT HAS BEEN REPAVED SINCE THE SERIES' FIRST VISIT AND THE THREE DRIVERS THAT TESTED THERE TURNED FASTER LAP TIMES THAN THOSE IN THE SPRING. DO YOU SEE THE SPEEDS AS BEING A PROBLEM? "It might be a little more dangerous, but Texas is a track where you need to be a little bit patient as well as aggressive. It's a very, very fast track even as it was, but we've been there two or three times and they've repaved that tracks two times already. They've at least repaved it twice since we were first there, and each time we return it seems like we're always running on fresh pavement there. I can't see where from the first time to the second time to the third time that it's going to make that much of a difference. Texas is such a good facility and the people that put that asphalt down do such a good job, that I don't see it being a problem at all. I think it will be the same old Texas, but maybe a little quicker. Honestly, the bumps that I felt on the track before they rapaved it here, those were superficial bumps for us. Yeah, they were bumps and you knew you were going over a bump, but it really didn't seem to upset the handling of any of our race vehicles. It was more towards the IRL the CART series, if they ever race there."
THE LAST THREE RACES ON THE SCHEDULE ARE BASICALLY WEST COAST VENUES. DO YOU FEEL INSECURE TRAVELING CROSS-COUNTRY THREE TIMES IN THE NEXT SIX WEEKS IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT EVENTS? "Not really. Personally, I wouldn't have had a problem getting on an airplane the very next day after what happened. I think that when your number is us up, your number is up, and it doesn't matter if you're on an airplane or on a bicycle, that's just the time you're going to go. I don't think anybody at this point should be frightened to fly. I don't want to say that what happened was a freak day, and it was tragic what did happen, but you don't wan to put yourself in a fear factor. We don't want to live our lives in fear, and if we do that then the terrorists have won. I don't fear at all going to the West Coast."
WILL YOU AND THE TEAM TRAVEL HOME AFTER PHOENIX AND BEFORE THE SEASON FINALE AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY? "We haven't made up our minds yet. With the tracks being close in proximity and the fact we would lose two days traveling back and forth, we may just stay out there. We're contemplating taking our motorhome out there and we might turn it into a vacation, but we're not too sure. I know the team is coming home after Las Vegas. They're going to transport the truck and trailer back home and do some repacking and restocking for the last two races. We'll go to Texas and Las Vegas and stay out there for those two races, and after the Las Vegas race, everybody is coming home and we'll refurbish the trucks and head out to Phoenix and stay out there for Phoenix and Fontana. In effect, it will be two weeks, break and then two weeks."
NOT A BAD WAY TO END THE YEAR. "Yeah, especially if you're caught up on your trucks. It's a nice place to end the season, in the sunny, warm California. The Winston Cup Series, on the other hand, they're already calling snow trucks."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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