NASHVILLE RECAP: COOK PLACES 28TH AT FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 300

NASHVILLE, TN, June 10, 2006 -- Chris Cook, driver of the No. 43 Rio Grand/Shift Into Gear Dodge, made his debut in NASCAR Busch Series circle-track racing Saturday night, and placed 28th in the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway despite a broken wheel spacer bolt that forced an unscheduled pit stop.

The race was the first Busch Series event on an oval track for Cook, a road-course specialist who has competed at Watkins Glen, Infineon and Mexico City for the Christine Marie Motorsports team.

“I had never been to Nashville,” said Cook, “so all things considered, it went pretty well.”

The Christine Marie Motorsports team was working under the guidance of a new crew chief, Mark Durgin, who recently took over the team’s operations.

Durgin and Cook had the team poised for a solid showing after the first 90 laps, when the No. 43 Dodge was nestled in the top 25. But when Cook heard a vibration that needed to be taken care of, the team fell three laps behind while taking a green-lap pit stop to fix the broken bolt.

That pit stop ultimately cost Cook any realistic shot of a top 15 finish.

“I really believe that if everything had gone according to plan, we could have finished in the top 15,” said Cook, who qualified 29th just a few hours before the race.

Cook’s turn at Nashville was the next in a series of steps he is taking toward earning his superspeedway license. With that in hand, the Christine Marie Motorsports team hopes to race as often as possible in 2007, beginning with the season opener in Daytona.

Up next is the Busch Series Meijer 300 Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

“My plan was to qualify, stay out of trouble, finish the race and move on to Kentucky,” Cook said of the Nashville race. “We did all those things, so I guess it was a good showing for the team.”

About Christine Marie Motorsports, Inc. (CMM)

Christine Marie Motorsports, Inc. was founded in 2004 by Chris Evans, a successful Western Pennsylvania businessman and amateur racer. Evans met veteran driver Chris Cook while attending the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, where Cook was an instructor. The two developed a friendship and later a business relationship that led Evans to form Christine Marie Motorsports, which is named after Evans’ youngest daughter, for the purpose of competing in NASCAR with Chris Cook as the driver. The team is based in Indiana, PA. More information about the team is available at http://www.christinemariemotorsports.com.

###END###

Back to news articles.