MARTINSVILLE, Virginia – Since Chicagoland Speedway in September, Red Horse Racing’s Timothy Peters has earned the best average finish of any NASCAR Camping Truck Series (NCWTS) driver on the tour.
A third place finish at Chicagoland followed by a fourth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway then a second place finish at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway was trumped last Saturday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway with his ninth career series victory.
The success from the driver of the No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra has also allowed him to climb from seventh to fifth in the championship standings with four races remaining.
“That’s a cool accomplishment and I’m proud of that,” said Peters. “It just goes to show what our team is about. A lot of the guys on the team this year are new and we’ve had everything there, it’s just we haven’t hit it yet. Pocono kind of turned the corner this year, but Chicago really turned the corner and from there to present it’s just unbelievable.
“The guys do a great job, Triad horsepower has been great – we just hope we can keep this fire rolling. It’s so cool when you can show up to the race track and you race in the top-five and there in the closing laps you have a shot to win and then actually win and go to victory lane. Winning fixes a lot of things and momentum and confidence is key, especially coming in here for the weekend.”kR
And while managing a 2.5 average finish during that stretch has been impressive, a 100 point deficit may be difficult to overcome in the next month to earn his first championship, but the Danville, Virginia won’t give up easily.
Peters proved that Friday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway where he paced both practice sessions in preparation for Saturday afternoon’s Kroger 200. Still, while considered a local favorite, the 35-year-old knows that the final short track race of the season is still a wildcard.
“I still feel like you can have a really good day and when it comes down to it something may happen not of your doing and you get involved with it and it kind of takes the result you feel like you could have gotten away from you,” added Peters. “We’re 50 laps shorter (compared to spring event) so probably the first lap everybody might be nice and then the rest of the race is just very aggressive. That’s what you expect when you come to a great short track like Martinsville.”
While the recent performance surge has been a welcoming sign for the Mooresville, North Carolina-based team, the team is racing with heavy hearts Saturday. A week after dedicating their victory to crew chief Marcus Richmond’s sister Ashlee who is battling cancer, she lost her courageous battle Wednesday.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
