Terry Cook celebrates in victory lane after taking his first win in nearly 4 years. (Nate Mecha/High Sierra Photo)

It had been since August 2002 that Terry Cook scored a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory. After his fourth win of 2002 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Cook would embark on a 94-race streak that spanned nearly four full years without taking the checkered flag. After a flat tire just 18 laps into Saturday's O'Reilly 250 at Kansas Speedway, it appeared Cook's winless streak would stretch at least one more race. But Cook kept calm, used superb pit strategy, and rode a fast truck to claim his sixth career series victory.

Cook dropped into line behind early race leaders Mike Skinner and Rick Crawford, but was sent to pit road early on when the right front tire went soft on the No. 10 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford. A quick two-tire change left Cook a lap down, but with the free pass given to the highest scored non-lead lap truck on each caution, Cook quickly rejoined the lead lap. His march through the field was complete when the lead group pitted for tires and fuel with 35 laps to go. From there, Cook was able to open up a several second lead - even after a late caution allowed the field to close the gap.

"When we had that tire go down, I was actually pretty calm in the truck," Cook said. "In the past I would have gotten myself all worked up and upset, but Dennis Connor really kept me calm and led us back to the front. He has so much experience, he's won almost 30 races and three series championships. I actually thought we were two laps down, but we were just one. We picked up the free pass and my spotter Tony Hirschman guided me through the field. I knew we had a truck that could do it. It just seemed like we'd never get back here, I am so excited I can't stand it!"

Cook's win was also the first NCTS win for ppc Racing, a team that has multiple wins and a series championship in the NASCAR Busch Series.

Terry Cook takes his first checkered flag since Aug of 2002. (Steve Snoddy/High Sierra Photo)

"I'm so happy to get this win for the team," Cook said. "ppc Racing has a lot of wins with Jeff Green, Scott Riggs, and Jason Keller in the Busch Series, but throughout the three years of this program we've not been able to get that first Truck Series win. We were finally able to bring Dennis on board to be the crew chief and that's what we needed."

Cook led a Ford 1-2-3 sweep at the finish, with Rick Crawford coming home second and Australian Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Marcos Ambrose crossing the line third.

"We made some bold moves out there today, I just wish we could have passed one more truck," Crawford said. "We were strong from the get-go. The key to our success is our payroll. The people we have on staff at Circle Bar Racing are what makes us what we are. I knew those guys that pitted with 60 laps to go and got fuel only would need to come down for tires with 30 laps or so if we had a caution. Once they did that, the Fords were up front to stay."

Ambrose, who became the first Australian to lead a series event, charged through the top ten late in the going to pick up his first career top five finish.

"I came over here with no oval experience or stock car experience," Ambrose said. "There have been a couple of guys that helped me out whenever I had a question, Todd Bodine and Brendan Gaughan. It was a real treat to get out there and race them for position today, and to beat them. I owe it to the guys on this team, they have stuck behind me."

Ambrose nipped Brendan Gaughan's Harrah's Dodge for fourth by inches at the stripe, with Mike Skinner fifth in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Tundra. David Ragan was sixth in the No. 6 Scott's Ford, series championship leader Todd Bodine seventh in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota, David Starr eighth in the No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota, Johnny Benson ninth in the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota, and David Reutimann rounded out the top ten finishers in the No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota.

The race was red flagged for 9 minutes and 25 seconds after a hard crash on the backstretch involving Kelly Sutton. Sutton got loose off turn four and struck the inside retaining wall with the driver's side of the No. 02 Sutton Motorsports Chevrolet. With the relative drought conditions in Kansas, the accident started a grass fire in the infield which took several minutes to contain as safety officials cut the roof off the truck to remove Sutton from the wrecked truck. She was awake and alert following the crash, and has been admitted to the KU Med Center in fair condition where she will be kept overnight for evaluation.

There were a total of eight caution flags for 36 which held the average speed to a record low 111.581 miles per hour. Ryan Moore, Kraig Kinser, Mike Bliss, Joey Miller, Justin Allgaier and Boston Reid were all involved in incidents throughout the afternoon. Cook's margin of victory was 2.040 seconds.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series moves on to the Kentucky Speedway for Saturday's Built Ford Tough 225. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting with practice updates on Friday 7th, with Live! Bud Pole QUalifying and complete race coverage on Saturday July 8th.