Jerry Cook looking forward to Toledo Speedway visit
10/3/2009Sylvania native Jerry Cook makes a trip home this weekend to take part in the Glass City 200 Late Model event at Toledo Speedway. Cook, a three-time former track champion at Toledo Speedway, will drive the No. 06 car owned by Gary and Sheila Slocum.
Cook, who has been a crew member at Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for a number of years, won the Sportsman class championship here in 1985, 1990, and 1992. Cook moved up to Late Models and recorded several wins at tracks in the Ohio-Michigan-Indiana area.
Cook is the son of former Toledo Speedway champ Harold Cook and the older brother of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Terry Cook. He relocated to North Carolina and started work with Gibbs and was an integral part of the No. 20 Home Depot crew when Tony Stewart won a pair of Cup titles with that car. Cook works in the Gibbs shop these days.
"It's great to come home and jump in a race car, and especially for the Glass City 200," Cook said. "I try and keep up with what's going on at the tracks I grew up at. To be at the Glass City 200 for the 50th anniversary season of Toledo Speedway is historic.
"We spent a lot of time there with my dad as kids, working on his car, and eventually Terry and I were racing every weekend at Flat Rock and Toledo."
The Glass City 200 runs at 5 p.m. today. Practice begins at noon, followed by qualifying at 3 p.m. Tickets are available from the speedway office at 419-727-1100.