Texas II: Cook post-qualifying interview

TERRY COOK-10-Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l F-150 (Qualified 3rd) "Listening to Bill (Lester) talk, it's kind of the trend. We brought a brand-new truck here as well. It's the first time ever on the race track. Similar circumstances, we took ...

TERRY COOK-10-Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l F-150 (Qualified 3rd)

"Listening to Bill (Lester) talk, it's kind of the trend. We brought a brand-new truck here as well. It's the first time ever on the race track. Similar circumstances, we took it to the wind tunnel, evaluated it and it was a good truck. But, I think the true credit comes from not only my crew building a great truck, but the Yates-Roush horsepower is unbelievable. They've built some really good racing engines this year, but this by far was the strongest engine that I've had. We rolled off the trailer and it's been good, and I don't know where that lap came from. We were expecting, or I was, to qualify 20th. We did a simulated qualifying run and it was about 19th fastest. I'm very surprised with that lap. The truck is a better race truck than it is a qualifier, and the fact that it qualified third, I think speaks highly for us tomorrow."

"It was strictly race setup for us, and with it being an impound, it's hard. In our camp, we focus 100 percent on race-run stuff. We actually scuffed all of our tires getting ready for the race; we didn't want to leave anything to chance. Earlier this summer, we were leading the race at Kentucky with four laps to go, and had a straightway lead and blew a tire, and we attribute that to too many heat cycles on a sticker tire. So, we purposely came here with 100 percent race mode in mind and scuffed everything that we had. We qualified on stickers, but in essence now they'll be scuffs to start the race, so we're in full race mode."