COOK, POWER STROKE DIESEL FORD DISAPPOINTED AT DARLINGTON

 DARLINGTON, SC (March 15, 2002) - Terry Cook was headed to the front of the field when his No. 29 Power Stroke® Diesel Ford suffered an engine failure in the Craftsman Anniversary 200 Friday at Darlington Raceway. The mechanical problem relegated Cook to a disappointing 29th-place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.

"Unfortunately, we dropped a cylinder," said a dejected Cook afterward. "We battled back to run in the Top-5 and I was just sitting there waiting to make my move. l had plenty of time to charge the front. It's unfortunate because all we could do after that was park it."

Cook battled an ill-handling truck throughout the early portion of the 147-lap event using pit stops at Lap 29 and at Lap 57 to make chassis adjustments. On the second stop, NASCAR penalized Cook ruling his gas catch can man was not in the correct position during the stop. The infraction dropped Cook from the ninth spot to 22nd in the running order.

"I told the guys our luck is going to change," said Cook. "I felt like we had a truck to beat because we were on the move, but we just had some difficulties in the pits. Every time we had a problem, we still had the truck to race back to the front."

By Lap 91, Cook rocketed into the Top-5 with leader Ted Musgrave firmly set in his sights.

"My crew chief, Bob Keselowski, was reading times off and we would be a click faster than the leader almost every time," said Cook. "Once I could see Musgrave, I felt confident we had a shot at a win. They call Darlington 'The Lady in Black' and today she just dealt us a hard hand.

"It's just a shame because the Power Stroke Diesel Ford had been running great since we unloaded," Cook continued. "We seemed to figure things out and had a really good package this weekend."

Cook completed 114 of 147 laps earning the 29th-place finish. He earned $6,990 for the effort and is currently 28th in the season standings, 229 points out of first-place.

Cook will next head to Martinsville (VA) Speedway where he hopes to repeat or better his third place finish at the .526-mile speedway in the Truck Series race last season.

"We had back to back third-place finishes at Martinsville and Gateway last year," said the six-year veteran of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. "Our luck has to change. We're looking to gain some momentum to get us going in the right direction again."

Cook and his No. 29 Power Stroke Diesel Ford will take the green flag in the Advance Auto Parts 250 Saturday, April 13 at Martinsville. The event will be telecast by ESPN and broadcast live on MRN Radio at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.