Get Out Of That Pit

St. Helenan Cook qualifies at Infineon; Busch wins

St. Helena High School graduate Chris Cook got a last-minute call from a race team from North Carolina that needed his help qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR race in Sonoma. It’s the kind of call Cook lives for.

Cook specializes in coaching drivers but sometimes gets onto the track himself. On Friday, he was brought out to help a very small, underfunded team — Larry Gunselman’s MaxQ Motorsports — get into the Toyota/SaveMart 350. 

This isn’t an easy task for a team that has to compete with the big dogs like Gordon and Busch. The key, said Cook, is to not worry about the other drivers.

“It’s such a last-minute deal, you don’t even know what you’re driving. You have to be very, very focused on the tool you have to work with, that being the race car. We had very little to work with. It’s so critical that you focus on your tool and not worry about what everyone else has. You have to become a family that you’ve never been before very quickly.”

Cook set out to race in a car that he’d never been in on a track the car had never driven on. The No. 37 Rise of the Planet of the Apes car of Front Row Motorsports wasn’t fit to him, and it didn’t even have an air conditioning system. 

All Cook had was one single lap to get a fast enough time. The odds were against them, but the the team pulled together and qualified 42nd out of 44 spots. 

“You only have one lap to make the show. You have to leave a little on the table but not make a mistake. It is a serious balancing act. You have a tenth of a second to determine wheather or not you’re in the show,” said Cook.

“We were just very thrilled with limited funds to do what we did. It was a huge feat for everybody involved. All we had was three hours to stick it all out and get it in the show at the most competitive level in the world.”

On Sunday, the team did even better, crossing the finish line 27th, even beating out some of the bigger names in the sport. 

“We had such a good run. We’re going up against so much money and I have so much respect for the big teams, but it’s so ungodly difficult,” he said.

It was a special moment for the team, but especially for Cook, who aside from working at the track, brings his NASCAR contacts to the Valley’s wine industry for car tours and corporate events.

“There’s just nothing better than driving a Sprint Cup car. It’s something just so challenging and special and I hope to drive in many more Sprint Cup races. That’s a goal,” he said.

Getting Out of the Pit Slowly: How to Raise Your Credit Score

The definition of debt is: “something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another, a liability or obligation to pay or render something…” Sadly, many people have no idea what being in debt really means.

The fact of the matter is that the second you purchase something with money you don’t actually have you are, at that moment, in debt. Credit cards allow people to “borrow” money from banks with the knowledge that the money is owed back to the bank within a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, irresponsibility or lack of funds leads many people into credit card default at which time they are hounded by collectors, and their credit score takes a nose dive.

So what’s so important about a credit score ? Well, if you ever plan to own a piece of Boulder real estate, or even Denver CO real estate for that matter, you need to have a credit score of 640 or higher (higher is always preferred).

If your credit score has already taken a huge hit, you don’t have to go down with the ship. There are things you can do to raise your credit score and get back on track for homeownership.

One of the easiest things you can do to raise your credit score is to ask someone in your family to add you to their credit card as an authorized user. This family member needs to have exceptional credit and a history of paying their credit card bills on time every time. This will increase your score within a month or so by at least 10 points. Those 10 points may not seem like a lot if you have 100 points to go, but that is 10 points closer to your dream of owning Boulder real estate .

If you’re intentions for getting out of debt are to buy a house, the absolute worst thing you can do is settle your debts for less than what is owed. Many collection companies are willing to settle your debt for less than what is owed, but it will show up on your credit report as a negative mark. This can lower your credit score by five or more points with each settled debt. Settling debt for less than you owe is a great way to get out of debt, but it will kill your chances of owning a piece of Denver CO real estate within the next few years.

Instead of settling, contact the collections companies and work out a payment arrangement. Make sure you get all of the details in writing. Once your debt has been paid in full, ask them to send a letter in the mail stating that the debt has been paid in full. You can also request that the debt be completely removed from your credit report. This will greatly increase your credit score within 2-3 months.

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