Cook searching for that elusive first win at Atlanta

Close finishes are nothing new in the Truck Series. In 21 races this season, 14 of them have been decided by less than a second. When the Truck Series comes to Atlanta Motor Speedway, you can be assured it will be a drag race for the checkered flag.

In six Truck Series races at AMS, the largest margin of victory came this spring when Mike Skinner won by .711 seconds. Back in 2005, Ron Hornaday edged Bobby Labonte at the line by .008 seconds, the closest superspeedway finish in Truck Series history. And in last year's fall race at Atlanta, Terry Cook came up .209 seconds short of Mike Bliss' front bumper. When the green flag drops Saturday on the Easy Care 200 (12:30 p.m. ET, SPEED), Cook plans on making up that minuscule difference.

By the Numbers

With a solid finish at Atlanta, Dennis Setzer can join Rick Crawford as the only two drivers to earn $5 million in the Truck Series.

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"We came up less than a truck-length of winning the race last year," he said. "That was a great race and I really thought we could win it. I feel like the way we have been running lately, we can win this time around too."

Atlanta is relatively new on the Truck Series schedule, hosting its first race in 2004 and holding just six races in all. Cook, one of nine drivers to compete in all six races at the track, has found success despite not finding Victory Lane. He's run 99.7 percent of the laps (791 of 793) posting an average finish of 12.3 and never finishing worse than 18th.

Cook says brains are needed to be successful at Atlanta. With the speeds and wide-open racing, drivers have to be aware of their surroundings.

"Atlanta is a track you really have to race smart at," Cook said. "You can say that about any track, but that's really true at Atlanta. It's extremely fast with multiple grooves. You can race everywhere from the bottom of the apron to the top of the wall. It has about eight different grooves. You just pick the one you want to race on.

"You can drive into the corner and you will be three- or four-wide. You have to understand who you are racing with and what potential problems could arise from that. You just have to keep yourself out of harm's way and be in the top-10 with about 30 laps to go. If you can be in the top-five with 10 to 15 laps to go, you have a shot at winning."

Another driver searching for his first win in his seventh start at AMS is Matt Crafton. The driver of the No. 88 Chevy is coming off his best finish at Atlanta this spring, when he finished third. Crafton agrees with Cook that Atlanta offers some of the most dramatic racing on the circuit.

"I love Atlanta," Crafton said. "It's my favorite track. We've had some success here, and we expect to run well. The track is fast, and you can run anywhere from top to bottom. There's lots of side-by-side racing here, and it's always exciting."

Exciting isn't a word Cook would use to describe that spring race. He blew a tire and smacked the wall, yet the crew of his No. 59 Toyota did an amazing job fixing the damage and Cook brought home a 17th-place finish, ending the race on the lead lap.

After that, Cook rolled off seven top-15s in the next eight races and set the foundation for his 2007 season.

"To even finish the March race at Atlanta with as much damage as we had on our race truck was really something," Cook said. "That kind of got things rolling with our program this year and lately -- the last five or six races -- we've shown that we're a contender to run in the top-10 and the top-five."

Now if he can only make sure that front-bumper isn't inches behind, but well out front.

"We'll be looking to do that at Atlanta this weekend," Cook said. "It's about time we get a finish to reflect the kind of team and effort we've been putting out lately."