Terry Cook is the son of Harold Cook, a former driver and mechanic, and Laureen Cook. He also has a brother Jerry (not to be confused with the NASCAR Hall of Famer of the same name), who competed in a single Truck Series race and seven ARCA Racing Series events. The two brothers worked on father Harold's car as teenagers.[1]
Cook's No. 88 truck (in the background) racing Lance Norick's No. 90 in 1998.
Cook began racing on a professional level in 1987 at Flat Rock Speedway and Toledo Speedway,[1] collecting eleven wins in his first year of competition. Cook doubled his win total in 1988 before he moved up to super late models. He won the track championship in 1989 and 1990 at Flat Rock Speedway. Cook then went on to win the Super Late Model Championship at Toledo Speedway in 1992 and again at Sandusky Speedway in 1995.[2]
Cook ran the full schedule in 1998. He won his first career race at Flemington[2] and had six top-ten finishes, ending the season twentieth in the final points. Due to a lack of primary sponsorship in 1999, Cook only posted three top-ten finishes before Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce came on board towards the end of the season, when he finished fifteenth in the standings. In 2000, PickupTruck.com became the team's primary sponsor, and despite seven top-tens, Cook was released with one race to go for Matt Crafton. He drove for K Automotive Racing at the season finale, finishing seventh. He drove K Automotive's No. 29 Ford F-150 full-time in 2001, winning the pole at Nazareth Speedway and finishing a career-high seventh in points.
Cook's 2003 truck.
In 2002, Cook won a career best four races and two poles, but dropped to eighth in points. He won an additional two poles in 2003, but did not finish in the top-five all season. He joined ppc Racing's fledgling truck team in 2004. Despite winning the pole at the season-opening Florida Dodge Dealers 250, he dropped to sixteenth in the standings. He moved up one spot in points in 2005 after posting two top-fives.
In 2006, Cook grabbed a win at Kansas Speedway and finished eighth in points. With no sponsorship at ppc, he left the team after the 2006 season to replace Chad Chaffin at HT Motorsports. He had four top tens and finished fourteenth in points, but was released at the end of the season. He signed to drive for Wyler Racing in 2008 and had an additional seven top-tens but was released before the season was over in favor of Jack Sprague. He immediately rejoined HT Motorsports for the remainder of the season. At the end of 2008, HT renumbered his truck to the No. 25, and Cajun Industries and Harris Trucking shared sponsorship duties of the truck. With two races to go in the season, Cook was released from HT. He drove the next race in the No. 02 Koma Unwind Chevy for Corrie Stott Racing, but was unable to find a ride for the season-ending Ford 200, ending a streak of 296 consecutive races started in the Truck Series.
In addition to his Truck Series efforts, Cook made several starts for MSRP Motorsports (now Phil Parsons Racing) in the Nationwide Series. In 2008, Cook ran seven Nationwide races with MSRP, followed by twenty 2009 races, failed to qualify for three races. All of Cook's Nationwide starts were start-and-parks.[3][4]
Cook started the 2010 season running for Rookie of the Year in the Cup Series in the Whitney Motorsports No. 46 car, shown here in 2011.
Cook was signed to drive the #46 Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series for the newly formed Whitney Motorsports in 2010. The cars were former Richard Petty Motorsports Dodges purchased after RPM's switch to Ford. Cook would run for Rookie of the Year against Kevin Conway.[4] The team failed to make the first four races of 2010. Cook made a total of three starts in the #46 while failing to qualify for 7 races. He parted ways with Whitney Motorsports after Richmond.[5] He attempted one race with Phoenix Racing but failed to qualify. He then attempted Martinsville in the fall with Prism Motorsports, but he failed to qualify.
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