Todd Peck, behind the wheel of his No. 40 Arthritis Foundation Chevy, will be making his first ever run at Pocono Raceway, as well as his first start at a track larger than a mile and a half. And he has just one word to describe how he feels about it all: “incredible”.
“Without using expletives, it is incredible all the way around,” Peck said of his Pocono debut. “It’s incredible that we’ve made it this far.”
“It’s incredible that we’ve had the opportunity to do this,” Peck continued. “Anybody would trade us places in a heartbeat and we’re just so incredibly lucky to be able to do this.”
“To be here, to get this opportunity, I feel like I’ve reached the pinnacle,” Peck said. “To be able to race with these guys and be part of this organization is incredible.”
Peck is finding Pocono Raceway pretty incredible in and of itself, in spite of its reputation and three challenging turns.
“I’ve had a whole lot of fun with this place so far,” Peck said. “I am very tempered in my expectations for coming here because I know it has a reputation as the ‘Tricky Triangle.’
“This is my first time on a two and a half mile track,” Peck continued. “I’m not a speedway racer…yet.”
“It’s proven to be a whole lot of fun,” Peck said. “The long straightaway gives you a whole lot of time to think about what am I going to do better this time or what am I going to hit if it doesn’t work out.”
“Our whole goal coming into this weekend is to whip the ‘Tricky Triangle’ into one straight line.”
While Peck has incredible expectations for himself, he also is realistic in understanding that the three-turned track can give the best of racers pause and concern.
“Of course we come to win, but that being said, we do know better than that,” Peck said. “Our goal every week is to be better than where we were last week.”
“If we can finish top-20, that would be great,” Peck continued. “If we finish top-15, we’ll be giving high fives and anything on top of that, I’ll do a back flip off the top of the hauler.”
Peck also admitted that being at a larger venue affords him and his team the incredible opportunity to continue to improve so they can not only move on to the next race but also to the next level of the sport.
“Where we are as a team, we’re growing,” Peck said. “We ran at Kentucky and thought we needed to pounce on this opportunity to get on something bigger here at Pocono.”
“If we come to the race track and we’ve made gains from where we were last week, that’s a victory,” Peck continued. “We need to run all the laps, be as competitive as we can, and improve upon our previous performances.”
“Our expectations all year are to either be fast or be spectacular.”
Peck also feels incredibly fortunate to race on a track that he considers ‘home.’ The driver, who hails from a racing family, is originally from a small south-central Pennsylvania town just outside Hanover, a municipality known for producing Utz Potato Chips.
“Racing goes back in my family and we ran dirt tracks in the area,” Peck said. “I can remember being a little kid sitting on the golf cart and driving along the front stretch was the coolest thing.”
“Coming to these places is what made me want to race and to do this.”
“That’s what I grew up with and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world,” Peck said. “That’s what I fell in love with and it was places like this that made me feel that way.”
“You remember those things from your past and that has formed me into what I am,” Peck continued. “I love where we are in Pennsylvania.”
Another incredible aspect to Peck’s Pocono debut is the cause that he carries on his race truck. For his inaugural race, he is sporting an Arthritis Foundation paint scheme, featuring helmets designed by children impacted by the disease.
“That’s one of my favorite parts of all of this deal,” Peck said. “The relationship with the Arthritis Foundation was borne out of a necessity for me.”
“When I was 15 years old, I was diagnosed with arthritis,” Peck continued. “I thought that can’t be right.”
“My grandparents have arthritis not me so I knew it had to be wrong,” Peck said. “But we learned that it wasn’t wrong and that kids get arthritis too.”
“And that’s one of the messages we send out, that arthritis affects so many people,” Peck continued. “The Arthritis Foundation helped me to learn about it and cope.”
“We now have a bigger stage with NASCAR racing to get the message out,” Peck said. “People want to talk about it and it’s an opportunity to give back, whether through awareness or donations or if they just need somebody to talk to.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Peck continued. “It’s gratifying for me because it not only helps the Foundation but it helps me help people.”
Peck is also giving some children with juvenile arthritis an incredible experience. They will be able to see the race from an insider’s point of view, be honorary crew members, tour the garage, watch the crew prepare for the race, and see the main event from the team’s pit stall.
“Everywhere we go, we extend the invite to the Arthritis Foundation staff and most importantly to kids who are suffering from arthritis and their families in the area,” Peck said. “We give them the gear and all the swag and the experience.”
“It gives the kids a break from having to go to hospitals and just be a kid,” Peck continued. “If we can give them inspiration, that is important.”
“I don’t let my arthritis slow me down and if we can inspire them to go out and maybe make the baseball team or whatever, that’s awesome.”
“That’s my favorite part of this,” Peck said. “The racing is great but working with the kids is the best.”
Peck will also be sporting an incredible newly designed helmet, thanks to the winner of the Arthritis Foundation’s design contest.
“The cool thing about my helmet is that it was designed by one of the kids with arthritis as part of a contest,” Peck said. “They sent in their designs, everyone at the shop voted on their favorites, we put them on line and Brianna Hutton was chosen as the winner.”
“Her design is on my helmet,” Peck continued. “The response was so awesome and not everyone could win so we took the available space down the bed rails of the space and put the rest on the truck.”
As incredible as helping children cope with the same disease that he has had to live and race with is, Peck cannot wait to take the green flag on his first-ever Pocono run.
“It’s exciting,” Peck said. ““I need to maximize and learn everything I can and I’ll give it one hundred percent.”
“And wherever that shakes out at the end of it, we’ll all go back to the shop Monday morning and say let’s go do it again.”
