Martinsville home, sweet home for Terry Cook
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Terry Cook is just glad to be back home.
When it was announced earlier this month that Cook would part ways with Wyler Racing, the veteran NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver had to look no further than his former team – HT Motorsports – to find a ride.
That team had parted company with Ted Musgrave on Sept. 20 and needed a driver for its No. 59 Toyota.
So while switching rides in the middle of a season is never ideal, it wasn’t a big deal for Cook.
“For me it’s probably been a little easier than most because I raced with this team all last year,” he said. “You never think with five races left to go you’re going be in a different truck to finish out the season, but nevertheless I couldn’t think of a better place to come race for the last five races. … Having raced with the crew chief and the majority of the guys for a full season you feel like you’ve got a little bit of a head start. You’re not just starting all over again, so that in itself is pretty cool.”
Cook will make his first start since reuniting with the Martinsville, Va.-based group in today’s Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway, where he’ll roll off 10th.
“It’s homecoming week of sorts,” he said. “Obviously, the team is based here in Martinsville and we’re racing at Martinsville, so I’m very excited to be back.”
Jack Sprague has taken over Cook’s old seat in Wyler Racing’s No. 60 Toyota, after being released by Kevin Harvick Inc. two weeks ago. Sprague drove that truck all of last season before leaving for KHI at the beginning of 2008.
Cook plans to talk with Sprague about the fact that both ended up with their former teams again because of moves that involved each other.
“We have not yet. I’m sure before the weekend’s out we will,” Cook said. “It’s a situation where you never think that with five races to go you’re going be removed from a ride. … I don’t think Jack probably thought he was going to be relieved at KHI, and I didn’t think I was going to be relieved at Wyler. But I think for both of us it’s opportunities going forward that we look forward to to finish out the season.”
Cook plans to run the remaining five races but isn’t sure of his future with the team beyond that. Part of it, he says, will depend on the team landing a primary sponsor for next year.
“Continuing forward if we can get the right circumstances put together and a right program, I’d love to be a part [of] them moving forward for next year,” said Cook. “But right now, the immediate goals are [a] top-10 driver points finish, finish out the last five races very solid, move the owner points up as high as we can, finishing out on a high note, so we can look forward to putting something together for 2009.”
