Cook Attempts Cup Debut on Home Track

Chris Cook has driven thousands of laps on the 1.99-mile road course at Infineon Raceway as a driving school instructor. But he is trying to keep his goals realistic for his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut in this week's Dodge/Save Mart 350.

Cook is driving a Chevrolet for owner-driver Joe Nemechek's NEMCO Motorsports in the two road races in Cup and the two road races in the Busch Series this season. He qualified 16th and finished 26th in the Busch race earlier this year in Mexico City.
On Friday, he will attempt to qualify for the 43-car field for Sunday's Cup race at his home track. With the top 35 cars in the owner points guaranteed starting spots, that leaves little room for error

"The one thing I think about every day is how I have to get a clean lap in qualifying," Cook said. "I'm going in confident though, and I think we're going to be fine. I don't want to say that too boldly, but I have every confidence in the guys here at NEMCO and I'm focused on one clean lap with no mistakes.

"Qualifying in the top 15 would be a good effort. Once we get qualifying behind us, then we can focus on the race."

Cook, a native of Sonoma, Calif., served as an instructor at the Bondurant Road Racing School from 1992 to 2002, where he worked with such NASCAR drivers as Tony Stewart, Dave Blaney and Tim Fedewa. Before this season, Cook had one previous Busch start, running as high as second place at Watkins Glen, N.Y., in 1999 until a mechanical failure ended his race. He also has several SCCA wins at Infineon.

"We're giving Chris the best equipment we have and, with his strong road racing background, we're looking forward to seeing what he can do," Nemechek said.

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