Wyler Racing

Jeff Wyler Racing Team Day at Eastgate

Terry Cook No. 60 Wyler.com Toyota Tundra Preview

Round 15 of 25 – Nashville Superspeedway: Toyota Tundra 200

Terry Cook heads into Nashville celebrating an anniversary: Friday’s activities at the track will coincide with the tenth anniversary of his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win on August 8, 1998 at Flemington (N.J.) Speedway. Cook started fourth that day and took the lead from Stacy Compton before holding off a stout charge by Ron Hornaday to post the victory. It was his 34th career start. At Nashville, Cook will make his 280th career NCTS start, extending his series record for consecutive starts to 264 dating back to the 1998 season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway.

What do you remember about that first win at Flemington? “It all goes back to the year before. I had never been to Flemington before; never even seen the track on TV. But we went there and won the pole in 1997. Unfortunately we had a sway bar arm fall off the truck and we wrecked on the second lap of qualifying and didn’t have a very good finish. But when we went back in 1998 we really thought we’d have a good run. It was a small team then, really like David beating Goliath. We qualified fourth and ran up front all day long. We had halftime breaks then, and (crew chief) Gary Showalter and the crew made all the right adjustments during the break. We were racing with Stacy Compton side by side for the lead and he ended up crashing. I remember looking up in the mirror on the restart and seeing Ron Hornaday. We all know he is the master of restarts now, and he was then too. I just concentrated on making a good restart and we were able to pull away from him. I heard the spotter Chris Showalter call out ten laps to go and I can just remember by knees knocking really hard. I was so nervous. I was afraid I was going to screw something up and give away the win. I rolled up the mirror so I couldn’t see Hornaday back there and just concentrated on driving the truck and went on to win. It was such a special day for everyone involved. There were a lot of people there who helped me get my racing career started and many more that were back at home cheering us on listening on the radio or watching on TV. It meant a lot to see that team win because it was something I helped build from the ground up in a little one car garage in Sandusky, Ohio. It’s still a very special memory for me and I really didn’t realize it had been ten years already.”

Nashville is an important event for your manufacturer. Do you make a special effort for this race? “We’ve had big races at Michigan and Indy, which are my home tracks, and at Kentucky, which is the home track for the Wyler family. This is a big race too because all of the Toyota people will be there watching. We’ll have a lot of the TRD people there too. We are making sure the truck is as sound as it can be. We’re doing practice simulations back at the shop so we know exactly what needs to be done when we make adjustments. Sometimes when you make a change on the front geometry it also affects two or three other things and you need to make those changes too. We’re working on all of that so we can make the best use of our time during the two practice sessions on Friday. This race pays the same amount of points as all the others but we really want to get out there and run up front and have a shot to win for Toyota.”

Is Nashville similar at all to Dover? Can you take what you learn at Dover and apply it to Nashville? “There are three things in common between Nashville and Dover: 1. they are owned by the same company, 2. they are both concrete, and 3. they both change every single lap from the time you unload until the time the checkered flag falls. Other than that there is nothing the same. Dover is the most extreme case in wheel load we see all season, even more extreme than Bristol. Nashville is fast, and you need a good aero package too. You might have some similarities in the shock package but other than that, there’s not much the same between the two.”

Tires have been an issue in the Cup Series lately. Are you confident in the Goodyear tires you’re racing on this season? “I’ve said it a few times this season - Goodyear has done a very good job in the Truck Series this season. The problem with the Cup cars is they are so new and they are changing and evolving week to week. The Trucks have been virtually the same for many years now so instead of a moving target it’s pretty stationary. Except for a couple of the short tracks like Mansfield and Martinsville where the tires don’t wear out – and I think that’s because the tires are too good – they’ve been on target for us each and every week.”

You finally had a top-five truck at ORP after a few weeks of being “just” a top-ten truck. You had an incident late in the race otherwise it would have likely been a fourth or fifth place finish. Did you have to do anything to keep the team morale up after the ORP event? “Actually we didn’t have to do much at all. We were running in the top-five with ten laps to go and got spun out trying to miss an accident in front of us. We dropped back to 18th and everyone was pretty bummed out. Then we raced from 18th to 11th in the final seven laps and the guys started thinking ‘well that wasn’t really as bad as it could have been.’ They know they built a top-five truck. I’ve said it all along that this was a top-five team. We had some struggles and were just running in the top-ten and we were disappointed in that. But you need to be up in the top-five if you’re going to have a chance to race for wins. We didn’t get the finish we wanted at ORP but the guys know they can build top-five trucks and I think we’re going to come out at Nashville and show everyone we’re going to be up in the top-five every week from here on out.”

Nashville Trucks: The primary truck for this weekend is chassis No. 84, which was last raced at Texas in June when Terry finished 16th. The backup truck for this weekend is chassis No. 91, which has been a dedicated backup truck for much of the 2008 season.

Terry Cook Nashville Superspeedway Stats: Terry has made seven career starts at Nashville Superspeedway. He has scored three top-ten finishes with a best of sixth in 2001. His average start is 13.6 and his average finish is 14.7. He has completed 989 of the 1,052 possible competition laps. He led one lap at NSS in 2002.



	Cook Rallies to 11th in Indianapolis Cook Runs Eighth in Wyler Racing’s Home Race at Kentucky Jeff Wyler Racing Team Day at Eastgate Terry Cook No. 60 Wyler.com Toyota Tundra Preview Round 15 of 25 – Nashville Superspeedway: Toyota Tundra 200 Terry Cook heads into Nashville celebrating an anniversary: Friday’s activities at the track will coincide with the tenth anniversary of his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win on August 8, 1998 at Flemington (N.J.) Speedway. Cook started fourth that day and took the lead from Stacy Compton before holding off a stout charge by Ron Hornaday to post the victory. It was his 34th career start. At Nashville, Cook will make his 280th career NCTS start, extending his series record for consecutive starts to 264 dating back to the 1998 season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway. What do you remember about that first win at Flemington? “It all goes back to the year before. I had never been to Flemington before; never even seen the track on TV. But we went there and won the pole in 1997. Unfortunately we had a sway bar arm fall off the truck and we wrecked on the second lap of qualifying and didn’t have a very good finish. But when we went back in 1998 we really thought we’d have a good run. It was a small team then, really like David beating Goliath. We qualified fourth and ran up front all day long. We had halftime breaks then, and (crew chief) Gary Showalter and the crew made all the right adjustments during the break. We were racing with Stacy Compton side by side for the lead and he ended up crashing. I remember looking up in the mirror on the restart and seeing Ron Hornaday. We all know he is the master of restarts now, and he was then too. I just concentrated on making a good restart and we were able to pull away from him. I heard the spotter Chris Showalter call out ten laps to go and I can just remember by knees knocking really hard. I was so nervous. I was afraid I was going to screw something up and give away the win. I rolled up the mirror so I couldn’t see Hornaday back there and just concentrated on driving the truck and went on to win. It was such a special day for everyone involved. There were a lot of people there who helped me get my racing career started and many more that were back at home cheering us on listening on the radio or watching on TV. It meant a lot to see that team win because it was something I helped build from the ground up in a little one car garage in Sandusky, Ohio. It’s still a very special memory for me and I really didn’t realize it had been ten years already.” Nashville is an important event for your manufacturer. Do you make a special effort for this race? “We’ve had big races at Michigan and Indy, which are my home tracks, and at Kentucky, which is the home track for the Wyler family. This is a big race too because all of the Toyota people will be there watching. We’ll have a lot of the TRD people there too. We are making sure the truck is as sound as it can be. We’re doing practice simulations back at the shop so we know exactly what needs to be done when we make adjustments. Sometimes when you make a change on the front geometry it also affects two or three other things and you need to make those changes too. We’re working on all of that so we can make the best use of our time during the two practice sessions on Friday. This race pays the same amount of points as all the others but we really want to get out there and run up front and have a shot to win for Toyota.” Is Nashville similar at all to Dover? Can you take what you learn at Dover and apply it to Nashville? “There are three things in common between Nashville and Dover: 1. they are owned by the same company, 2. they are both concrete, and 3. they both change every single lap from the time you unload until the time the checkered flag falls. Other than that there is nothing the same. Dover is the most extreme case in wheel load we see all season, even more extreme than Bristol. Nashville is fast, and you need a good aero package too. You might have some similarities in the shock package but other than that, there’s not much the same between the two.” Tires have been an issue in the Cup Series lately. Are you confident in the Goodyear tires you’re racing on this season? “I’ve said it a few times this season - Goodyear has done a very good job in the Truck Series this season. The problem with the Cup cars is they are so new and they are changing and evolving week to week. The Trucks have been virtually the same for many years now so instead of a moving target it’s pretty stationary. Except for a couple of the short tracks like Mansfield and Martinsville where the tires don’t wear out – and I think that’s because the tires are too good – they’ve been on target for us each and every week.” You finally had a top-five truck at ORP after a few weeks of being “just” a top-ten truck. You had an incident late in the race otherwise it would have likely been a fourth or fifth place finish. Did you have to do anything to keep the team morale up after the ORP event? “Actually we didn’t have to do much at all. We were running in the top-five with ten laps to go and got spun out trying to miss an accident in front of us. We dropped back to 18th and everyone was pretty bummed out. Then we raced from 18th to 11th in the final seven laps and the guys started thinking ‘well that wasn’t really as bad as it could have been.’ They know they built a top-five truck. I’ve said it all along that this was a top-five team. We had some struggles and were just running in the top-ten and we were disappointed in that. But you need to be up in the top-five if you’re going to have a chance to race for wins. We didn’t get the finish we wanted at ORP but the guys know they can build top-five trucks and I think we’re going to come out at Nashville and show everyone we’re going to be up in the top-five every week from here on out.” Nashville Trucks: The primary truck for this weekend is chassis No. 84, which was last raced at Texas in June when Terry finished 16th. The backup truck for this weekend is chassis No. 91, which has been a dedicated backup truck for much of the 2008 season. Terry Cook Nashville Superspeedway Stats: Terry has made seven career starts at Nashville Superspeedway. He has scored three top-ten finishes with a best of sixth in 2001. His average start is 13.6 and his average finish is 14.7. He has completed 989 of the 1,052 possible competition laps. He led one lap at NSS in 2002.