Terry Cook with his wife Amy and their son Cody. Ronda Greer Photo

In a sport that is all about momentum both on and off the race track, Terry Cook has it all on his side leaving Dover International Speedway.  Cook led the first 13 laps of the rain-delayed MBNA Race Points 200 after starting from the front row, and ran in the top-5 the majority of the day before coming home a "best in class" third behind NASCAR Nextel Cup Series regulars Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart.  After finishing second in the last series race in Charlotte, Cook leaps from eleventh to eighth in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings.

"I am a believer that you are only as good as your last race," Cook said.  "We really hit on something in our test at Chicagoland a few weeks ago.  We have been able to translate that into all of our setups.  It helped us in Charlotte and it helped us here in Dover."

Cook is no stranger to hitting on the magic combination and lighting the NCTS on fire.  In 1998, in a space of two months, Cook landed his first career Truck Series top-10 finish, backed it up with his first series win, two more top-5 finishes and a pole position.  Four years later, Cook's hot streak carried him to four wins, nine top-5 finishes and eighth in the overall series points at the end of the season.

"We've hit the combination before," Cook said.  "I am really starting to get the feel like we had back in 2002 when we won four races.  We rolled off the trailer really fast and we were strong all day long.  You have to be on your mark to run with these guys and the Power Stroke Diesel by International crew is really showing they can run with any one of these guys."

While Cook's run was impressive, he was lucky to come through the 200-miler without any damage.  One incident early in the going saw Cook and David Starr scrape together coming out of turn two, with Cook fighting for control as Starr slid down and pancaked the inside backstretch barrier.

"We came out of turn two and we didn't make any contact but it was really close," Cook said.  "David was trying to get position on me and he pushed me up the track, but he lost control and slid down the track.  We never lost control and that was good, but it was unfortunate for him."

Cook said that while he can't quantify what momentum is, but he's certain he has it on his side.

"I can't even tell you what momentum is or even how you get it," Cook said.  "The best I can say it is it is about winning races and running up front.  Hopefully we are at the first of 18 races in a row where we are going to run well.  We have a twin to this truck to take to Texas, and we'll be taking this one as a backup.  Things are really good in our camp right now."