New Recipe: Chase Cook Joins Dad Scott Cook In Late Model Division At Stafford Speedway

Chase Cook (left) and Scott Cook during Friday’s open practice in preparation for this weekend’s NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler

STAFFORD – There’s a competitive streak that burns in all realms of life it seems between Chase Cook and his father Scott Cook.

So it’s hardly shocking that when Chase Cook decided he wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps onto the racetrack, he decided he wanted to do it right alongside his father on the track.

When the 2015 season kicks off this weekend with the running of the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway, 16-year old Chase Cook of Oakdale will be one of the drivers chasing Rookie of the Year honors in the Late Model division at the track.

“One day he just said to me, we were coming home from dinner one night. He said ‘In a couple years I’ll be going to college, and I want to do something with you,” Scott Cook said. “I want to do a father-son deal.’ So we were down at the shop a few nights later and he said ‘You’re going to be buying [Michael Bennett’s old car] right?’ And I said ‘Yeah.’ And he said ‘If I raise the money, can I race the 99?’ And he went out and got his own sponsorship.”

So this year Scott Cook will give up his familiar No. 99 to his son and be behind the wheel of his new No. 5 ride.

Chase Cook hasn’t raced competitively since he was eight years old in a Quarter Midget at the Little T at Thompson Speedway. Scott Cook has run in the Late Model division regularly since 2001. He got his only win in the division on June 1, 2007.

Chase Cook – a sophomore in high school – has been named two a pair of All-American football teams already as a nose guard on the field, and is drawing interest from a handful of Division I programs, including Nebraska and UMass.

“There’s always a competitive going on between us two,” Chase Cook said. “We always want to outdo each other with everything. I thought, why not get back into racing in the same division and have some fun with my dad and have some competitive edge back there with him. I get to spend time with him and we do a lot together helping each other out doing this.”

Scott Cook isn’t worried of any clashes on the track between the two.

“I think for us right now it’s more about the relationship in the garage, prepping the cars and getting them ready, and then at the track before we get in the cars,” Scott Cook said. “When we’re on the track, I just told him, gain respect from the other drivers and challenge himself. He’s very competitive in everything he does and he’ll do well.”