COOK, POWER STROKEŽ DIESEL FORD WIN the GNC Live Well 200 in Milwaukee

West Allis, WI (June 29, 2002) - Terry Cook used a late race caution to full advantage motoring past Jason Leffler with just one lap remaining to win the GNC Live Well 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at The Milwaukee Mile Saturday. The win was the second of the season for the driver of the No. 29 Power Stroke Diesel Ford by International and jumped him from ninth to sixth in the 2002 NCTS championship standings. 

"We unloaded this truck and it was perfect all weekend," said Cook. "It was flawless. It was like no matter what we did to it, we couldn't screw it up."

Cook started off the weekend by rolling to his fourth career pole position turning a lap of 30.054 seconds (119.784 miles per hour) on the flat, one-mile Milwaukee track. At the drop of the green flag, the Indianapolis, IN resident ran off and hid from the rest of the 36-truck field leading the first 79 laps before surrendering the point by coming to pit road for routine service.

"The most impressive thing was how the truck ran during the long runs," said Cook. "For the most part, I could drive the truck wherever I wanted to. Over the course of a run, it would start getting a little tight, but I'd look in my mirror and we would still be pulling away from second place. I'm in the seat whining to the crew chief to make the truck better and we're still pulling away. Shows what I know about it."

Cook wasted little time pushing his red, black and silver Power Stroke Diesel Ford back to the front of the pack retaking the lead from Mike Bliss on Lap 105. Again, Cook set sail on the competition leading the next 50 circuits before again pitting under caution on Lap 154. 

On the restart, Cook was fourth in the running order and watched helplessly as Leffler got the jump on the pack while Cook was mired in lapped traffic. Finally clear of the field with just over 25 laps to go, Cook set his sights on Leffler's tailgate. Closing to within five truck lengths, it appeared Cook was going to run out of time as the laps quickly ran down.

"Man, I was frustrated," said Cook. "I was going to be heartbroken. I was going to tell the guys to open up the back gate and let me drive this thing home to Indianapolis. They could come and pick it up there. I thought I was going to catch Jason, but then with about five laps to go, it kind of leveled off. All I could think of was how it was going to suck running second when we had such a dominant truck."

Cook's second-place then turned into a last chance for victory when Brian Rose spun in Turn 4 with just three circuits remaining. Since a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race cannot end under caution, Cook got one remaining shot at the win and made the most of it rocketing by Leffler on the restart.

"I just yelled 'yeeha' when that caution came out," said Cook. "That gave us one last shot to win the race and I have to give Bob Keselowski credit. He gave us a great transmission with the restart package and that Ernie Elliott motor just accelerated us up off the line at the restart. I was able to put an outside-inside move on Jason in Turn 1 and got underneath him for the win."

The win, which earned Cook $48,960 in prize money, was particularly satisfying for the driver given it came at track where he has a lot of history.

"I love racing at Milwaukee," said Cook of the venerable facility. "I made my Craftsman Truck Series debut here in 1996 and we announced our Power Stroke Diesel sponsorship here almost a year ago to the day. We visited the Power Stroke plant here in Waukesha earlier in the week and there were a lot of Power Stroke VIPs and associates here today to cheer us on. We couldn't have pieced a better weekend than this one to showcase out Power Stroke Diesel Ford."