Terry Cook
No. 25 Cajun Industries/HT Motorsports Toyota Tundra
MemphisTravel.com 200 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts
Memphis Motorsports Park

MILLINGTON, Tenn., (June 27, 2009) – After qualifying on the outside pole, Terry Cook held his own in the front of the field most of the race in the MemphisTravel.com 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park.  The HT Motorsports Racing Team used the same pit strategy as race winner Ron Hornaday but it didn’t pan out the same for Cook as he got pushed up the race track making him lose several spots and was not able to regain them.  Cook finished the event in the 13th position under the extreme heat conditions. 

The No. 25 Cajun Industries/ HT Motorsports Toyota Tundra Race Recap

  • Cook qualified his No. 25 Cajun Industries Toyota Tundra on the outside pole with a lap time of 23.058 seconds at a speed of 117.096 mph.
  • Once the race got started Cook stayed right with the leader.  Under the first caution on lap 13, Cook told Crew Chief Danny Rollins, “I’m a little free on entry and loose to the throttle, but it is not bad.”
  • Then the second caution came out on lap 51.  Cook was still in the second spot.  By now the heat in the region known as the birthplace of rock and roll was extreme making Cook’s No. 25 Tundra tight on entry.  The team pitted on lap 53 for fresh tires.  Then on the following lap they pitted once again for fuel and to make track bar and wedge adjustments.  Cook restarted fifth.
  • Under the third caution with Cook running fourth, he told Rollins, “I didn’t like those adjustments at all.”  The team agreed under the next stop they would take them back out.
  • The fourth caution came out on lap 74 and Cook echoed the previous statement saying, “We really need to take those adjustments back out.”
  • Then on lap 109 the fifth caution came out.  The team was now in their fuel window to make it till the end of the race.  Cook pitted on lap 112 for tires and again on lap 113 for fuel.  The HT Motorsports pit crew took out the previous adjustments trying to help Cook work his way back to Hornaday. 
  • Cook restarted in the 11th spot on lap 116.  In the next few laps as the field was sorting out into their positions, Cook got pushed up to the outside wall when Todd Bodine washed up into him.  He fell back to the 14th spot. 
  • Under the sixth caution on lap 195 Cook told Rollins, “It just will not turn.  I don’t know if that set of tires was bad or what, but I feel like I have two flat front tires.  It will not go at all in the corners.”
  • The race was set for a green-white-checkered-flag finish.  Cook went three-wide coming across the finish line trying to get all the positions he could.  He finished the event in the 13th spot.

 
“Man we had a good truck until that last set of tires,” Cook said.  “I don’t know what happened but it would just not turn then.  I would go into the corners and it would stop it felt like.  Our tire pressures built up a lot during the race but it didn’t affect me at the beginning.  Track position was key today and when I got shuffled back it was too hard to get by people.”

Ron Hornaday won the MemphisTravel.com 200.  Brian Scott, David Starr, Aric Almirola and Matt Crafton followed in the top five.