Championship contender finishes fifth
BRISTOL, Tenn. (August 26, 2011) —Timothy Peters qualified eighth, but had to come from the rear of the field in a backup truck to earn his career-best finish at Bristol. Peters hit the wall hard off turn four during the final practice session for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Wednesday. The team assessed the damage and decided to pull out a backup truck. Peters fought a tight-handling truck during the majority of the 200-lap contest, but held on to finish fifth.
“I’m so proud of this team and the effort they put in today,” said Peters following the race. “Our No. 17 Toyota Tundra was tight throughout the race, but we made some wholesale changes on the second pit stop that helped the balance. I really wanted to finish fourth, but I just couldn’t hang on, the truck was simply too tight. Our run tonight is just a testament to the hard work and dedication of this team here at the race track and at the shop. We are just taking it one race at a time and I’m excited to get to Atlanta next week.”
Peters qualified in the eighth starting position, but was required to drop to the tail end of the longest line on the start due to the fact the team had pulled out a backup truck and were not going to start the 200-lap event at Bristol with the same engine they practiced with. As the race started, Peters slowly and patiently began working his way toward the front of the field. The first caution of the night flew on lap 10. The team decided it was too early in the event to come to pit road and chose to remain on track.
The second caution of the night waved on lap 31. Peters reported to the team that the truck was too tight and wanted changes. Peters brought the No. 17 Toyota Tundra down pit road for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments. The race restarted on lap 36 with Peters scored in the 24th position. The driver of the No. 17 Toyota Tundra quickly moved up the running order, but he reported to the team his truck had gone from too tight to loose with the changes. On lap 52, the caution waved for the third time. After much discussion crew chief Butch Hylton called Peters to pit road. The team bolted on two tires, added fuel and made a host of chassis adjustments. Following the stop, Peters was asked to save fuel, because the team was very close to be able to make it to the end of the event on fuel and the team had no plans to come back to pit road.
Under the second set of pit stops, Peters was able to get in sequence with the leaders and restart from the 11th position. The caution flew again on lap 61. Peters was committed to staying out the remainder of the event, but continued to save fuel during the caution period to ensure the No. 17 Toyota Tundra could make it to the end, even with a green-white-checkered finish. Peters continued to make forward progress and was scored in the seventh position on lap 80.
The race went on a long green-flag run. Peters battled on track to maintain his top-10 running position. The No. 17 truck ran in seventh until the final caution flew on lap 186 when several of the lead trucks began to run out of fuel on the track. With some of the leaders having issues, Peters was able to move up in the running order and challenge for the third position. The No. 17 truck was too tight to grab the position. Peters battled until the checkered flag crossing the finish line in the fifth position. The run marked Peters’ career-best Truck Series finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. The run also moved Peters up one position in the Truck Series point’s standings to third only 15 markers shy of the lead position.
The Truck Series returns to action next week on Friday, September 2, 2011 at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Atlanta 200 which can be viewed live on SPEED at 8:00 p.m., EDT.
About Red Horse Racing:
Founded in 2005 by former Mobil Corporation executive Tom DeLoach and NASCAR veteran Jeff Hammond, Red Horse Racing aims to be a professional racing team that strives for excellence on and off the race track. Red Horse Racing hopes to build and maintain solid, mutual relationships with its partners to win races and championships and to represent itself in a professional manner. The team has four victories and five poles in its brief existence. DeLoach and Hammond also own Performance Instruction Training (PIT), the number one pit crew training center in the world that also has many corporate training options that include team-building, lean manufacturing, motorsports demonstrations and more.
