By Jerry Jordan, Editor
Kaulig Racing is changing the leader on Ty Dillon’s pit box for the final two races of the season, announcing Wednesday that technical director Mike Cook will serve as interim crew chief for the No. 10 team beginning with Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Cook replaces Andrew Dickeson, who joined the organization ahead of the 2025 season and had called the shots for Dillon ever since. There was no reason given by Kaulig for the move in its pre-Martinsville race announcement.
Dillon finished 37th at Martinsville in the spring, when brake issues ended his race with 100 laps remaining after he had earned the free pass to return to the lead lap. He said the track rewards a calm approach. Dillon has started all 34 races so far this season but his average starting spot has been 30.5 and his average finish has been 26.3, leading only three laps through the entire season. His best finish this season was 12th at Nashville Speedway.
“Your mindset is that it’s going to be a battle,” Dillon said. “You’re always going to be surrounded by cars. It’s important to have patience, try to stay calm, and not get yourself in trouble there. At the end of the day, hopefully we go out there, have a good practice, and qualify well. Track position is so important there.”
The highlight of the Dickeson pairing came last summer, when Dillon finished eighth at EchoPark Speedway and rode the momentum through the inaugural In-Season Challenge to the championship round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Cook joined Kaulig Racing prior to the 2025 season as the team’s first technical director. He spent more than a decade at Stewart-Haas Racing as a winning lead engineer alongside Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola and Chase Briscoe. It was a run that included victories in the Daytona 500 and the Southern 500.
His path to the pit box started away from the racetrack. Cook was a drummer in a band at 18 and ran a live-audio production business to help pay for college. He then switched from mathematics to mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland after finding the school’s Formula SAE program. He entered NASCAR through a 2006 internship at Dale Earnhardt Inc., earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and did vehicle testing for the U.S. Army before joining Stewart-Haas Racing as a race engineer in 2014.
Cook will also be on the pit box for the season finale on November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.