Gerald, known as Jerry or "Cookie", Cook was born in Lockport, Western New York on the 31st July 1939. He started NASCAR racing in New York, winning his first race at the age of thirteen, at first locally then moving his racing schedule to the original paved Utica-Rome Speedway in Vernon, New York. This is where he met his future wife, Sue. She knew that he was a race driver and when they got married the couple moved to Rome, bought a house, build a shop and there they remained for the next twenty five years, bringing up their two children, David and Kristi.

Jerry Cook

He won the 1969 track championship at Utica-Rome Speedway. Jerry went on to be one of the best drivers in the modified division of all time, winning six times in the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series, in 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, he took part in 1474 starts with 342 victories giving him an average of winning every four times he got into his car. Jerry finished 64.5% of his starts in a top five position and an amazing 85% of his starts in a top ten position. He finished one of the top three modified racing drivers in the final standing each season from 1969 to 1982 and made over a million pounds in prize money.

1982 was his last racing season, when the season finished Jerry announced his retirement and took a job with NASCAR at Daytona Beach, Florida helping to create the modern NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series in 1982. The changes in the Series was to enable more teams to contend seriously for the championship, it was decided to reformat the Modified division's championship to a limited schedule of races not conflicting with one another. 1987 saw a revised format for the NASCAR Busch North Series (currently the East Series) with many of the drivers on the series gaining experience with the hopes of moving up to one of the major NASCAR series, however some of the drivers are right at home in the series and have no plans of moving on. The series is not only developmental for drivers but for crew members and officials, as well. Jerry drafted the first set of rules for the newly formed NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 1995. This Series later became the Camping World Series that in 2005 the Craftsman Truck Series Championship winning team decided to finish the series. Jerry’s title at present within NASCAR is the competition administrator and is based in the NASCAR Research and Development Centre in Concord, North Carolina and currently lives in Mooresville, North Carolina.

His family are deeply involved with NASCAR racing with his son, David, working on the interior of Sam Hornish, Jr’s No 77 Dodge at Penske Racing South, his daughter, Kristi, the executive assistant to former Cup championship team-owner Robert Yates. Meanwhile, Derek, Kristi’s husband, is an engineer at KB Racing and his eldest grandson, Justin is a machinist at Michael Waltrip Racing whilst attending the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The awards that Jerry has received are: - Inductee into the National Motorsport Press Association Hall of Fame in 1989, Inductee into the New York Stock Car Association Hall f Fame in 1993, named as one of NASCAR 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, named #3 on NASCAR’s Modified All-Time Top 10 list and inductee in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web page may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This page is operated under the assumption that the pictures on this page represent a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any text or images that you feel need to be removed please contact me.

Jerry Cook - Nascar Website
Racin Today Website
Sportales Website
Jerry Cook in Wikipedia

Comments

Be the first person to comment on this item

You must Login to comment on this item.