Terry Cook No. 60 Wyler.com Toyota Tundra Ohio 250 Preview

Terry Cook will make his fifth start in his home state in the Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Park. Cook is a native of Sylvania, Ohio (about 90 miles to the northwest) and spent five years living in Sandusky (about 45 miles due north). Cook has run in all four previous Mansfield races and finished third in the inaugural race in 2004. 

You have several “home” tracks – places like Michigan, Indianapolis, Mansfield and Charlotte. Does racing at Mansfield have a true “hometown” feel?  “It really does. I spent five years living in Sandusky and have a lot of friends and family that make the short trip down to come and watch. It is pretty special to run in Ohio, especially since the Truck race is the only national-level NASCAR race in Ohio. It would be pretty big for me personally to win one in the Buckeye State.”

 What does it take to get around Mansfield? “Talk about typical short track racing - that is what you have at Mansfield. You have a lot of beating and banging. We started off really good in the first race there in 2004 but since then we really haven’t been able to close the deal. We had the radiator knocked off once and burned the brakes off another time. Last year we just had a setup that didn’t work. They key to Mansfield is that you run the middle groove. If you want to pass someone, you have to look low and you just don’t have the traction down in the low groove that you do in the middle. You really have to work to make a pass. Another thing is the tires we run on here just don’t wear out. You run the same strategy here as you do at Martinsville. You pit as early as you can and hope to get track position. What we really need is a tire that wears out and loses three tenths of a second after 75 laps. As it is now the tires are probably too good, they don’t give up anything at all. I think the key for our team this weekend is to have a problem-free race, and that includes no rain.”

 Is Mansfield a track that a driver can pay back someone for something that happened earlier in the season? “We always talk about the three tracks on the schedule that we need to check our feelings at the gate: Martinsville, Bristol, and Mansfield. You have to know going into it that you are going to get bumped. You also know that you are going to have to do some of it too. But the thing is, if someone is carrying a grudge this is the place he might be able to pay it back. You don’t want to go hitting someone and turning them sideways at 180 miles per hour, but at Mansfield you might see someone get into someone and make a withdrawal on something they’ve had banked up for a couple races. If they are really good they can make it look like it was just a racing deal. Hey, that’s all part of racing at a short track, right?”

You’ve lived in Indianapolis and know all about how important racing on Memorial Day Weekend is in the Midwest. What would it mean to you to win in your home state this weekend? “It doesn’t get any more special than winning a big race on Memorial Day weekend. The great thing for me is all of the friends and family that come out to see me race close to home. Another great aspect of it is the fact the Wyler’s are from Ohio too, just down the road in Cincinnati. We aren’t going to put any more pressure on ourselves than we do any other week, but it would hold a lot of meaning for us to get a win this weekend.”

 Terry Cook’s stats at Mansfield Motorsports Park: In four previous races, Terry has one top five finish and one top ten finish (third in 2004). He also led 34 laps in the 2004 race. After finishing outside of the top-20 in 2005 and 2006, he rebounded with a 12th-place finish in 2007. He has two top ten starts – fifth in 2006 and sixth in 2007. His average start is 16.5 and his average finish is 17.0. Terry has been on the lead lap in three of the four races and has completed 962 of the 1006 possible laps (95.6%).

Introducing the 2008 Wyler Racing Over-the-Wall Crew:

Led by Crew Chief, John Quinn: