Cook has more than enough left to win

LOUDON, N.H. -- Terry Cook made the most of a bizarre closing sequence Saturday and won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series New England 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway in front of an estimated crowd of 47,000.

Terry Cook had enough fuel left to win a race that went seven extra laps. Credit: Nate Mecha/HSP

Cook's No. 29 Power Stroke Ford held off Dennis Setzer's No. 46 Axciom Chevrolet by .189 seconds to win his third race of the season, $48,710 and his second green-white-checker finish in the last four events.

"I love pressure -- that's what the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is all about -- the green-white-checker finish," Cook said. "What an awesome day. We have our flat track program together."

Cook won in May at Gateway International Raceway, another low-banked track, and he passed Jason Leffler from second on a similar finish three races ago at the Milwaukee Mile, another flat track. At NHIS, Cook is the seventh different winner in as many Truck Series races while Bob Keselowski became the first two-time winning owner.

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Keselowski owned the K Automotive truck that Setzer won here with in 1999, and that experience caused the North Carolina veteran to cut Cook some slack when he caught him in Turns 3 and 4 on the last lap. He tattooed Cook's rear bumper but didn't upset the truck enough to make a pass.

"This Morgan-Dollar bunch is a great team (and) I think we had a truck to do it with," Setzer said. "The last lap, coming off the (fourth) corner, (Cook) was really protecting the bottom. We got together but it was just hard racing.

"I raced with those (K Automotive) guys for a long time and they gave me some great opportunities (so) I am proud for them, too."

"Terry did that one on his own," Keselowski said. "We didn't give him a truck to win with today but those other guys had problems and Terry did a good job -- I have to give all the credit to him."

"The leaders started dropping like flies and we were able to make it to the end," Cook said. "Right there at the end we probably didn't have the fastest truck but the key to this race was to finish first, first we had to finish.

"Bob always gives me a great restart package. There was a lot of speedy dry and oil in Turn 1 so I was trying to tiptoe through there. In 3 and 4, if they were gonna go by me they were gonna have to do it up top."

Cook took the lead with 31 laps remaining when Bud Pole winner Leffler's No. 2 Team ASE Dodge tangled with the lapped No. 03 Team EJP Chevrolet of Tom Carey in Turns 3 and 4.

	Terry Cook holds the winning trophy aloft. Credit: Nate Mecha/HSP

Cook remained on the track without pitting and had a half-second lead when Brian Rose crashed his No. 4 PerryConnection.com Dodge in Turn 1 with four laps remaining in the original 200-lap distance.

The race restarted with 205 laps in the books and Cook concerned about his fuel load. He had pitted for the final time with 84 laps remaining in the original distance. The race finally ended with 207 laps completed.

David Starr in the No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet, point leader Ted Musgrave in the No. 1 Mopar Dodge and Brendan Gaughan in the No. 62 NAPA Dodge rounded out the top-five finishers.

Gibbs raced up to sixth after regaining the lead lap on Leffler's caution. Travis Kvapil, Kevin Harvick, Robert Pressley and Bliss followed him across the line.

Harvick, making his first Truck Series start since he was parked at Martinsville in April, led 89 of the first 111 laps but had a problem on a pit stop at lap 112, when he only got one can of fuel on a 27-second visit. He ran out of fuel at lap 155 and lost a lap, which he regained.

Musgrave unofficially bumped his point lead to 35 over Bliss, who appeared on the way to winning his third straight race in the No. 16 IWX Chevrolet when he had an engine problem with less than 60 laps remaining.

The complexion of the race changed three times in the last 60 laps. First, leader Bliss suffered an engine problem in his Express Motorsports Silverado and fell off the pace.

Leffler, who won his seventh Bud Pole of the season Friday, assumed the lead and had sprinted away to an almost seven-second lead over Cook. But on lap 169, after racing down the 1.058-mile oval's backstretch, he got hooked up with Carey in Turn 3.

"I was alongside of him going down the backstretch and he drove down into Turn 3 like I wasn't there," Leffler said. "We had a great truck and we have nothing to show for it, again."

Leffler, who has finished second three times and has eight top-10 finishes in 12 starts, unofficially fell to seventh in the standings despite leading 53 laps. Saturday's crash, a broken oil line while running third at Darlington and a crash at Texas have badly hurt his Ultra Motorsports team.

Cook moved to fifth in the standings, 102 points behind Musgrave. Cook was penalized 100 points after the Daytona season-opener for an engine infraction.

"We ran out of gas on the frontstretch and we lost a lot of time, but we fought hard all day long," Musgrave said. "The way the rules are it sucks -- but we'll just have to try to get top-fives. There's no front downforce on these Dodges (so) if they won't give us rules we'll just have to race dirty."