LEBANON, Tenn. (July 24, 2011) — There is nothing like going home. When Timothy Peters landed in Smyrna, Tennessee on Thursday he didn’t take the highway to get to the race track. Instead he opted to drive the back roads that were all too familiar to the 30-year old driver. Peters calls Nashville his second home and it showed on the race track. Qualifying fifth, Peters dominated the majority of the 150-mile event. However, the caution flew late in the race and a mishap on pit road mired him deep in the field relegating him to a third-place finish.
“That is tough,” Peters said after the race. “We are just so happy to have run that competitively. We have had a rough past few weeks and it felt really good to be running up front leading all those laps. We just had a hiccup on pit road. These things happen. We have a good solid team. We will definitely build off this momentum and head to Indy next week.”
After two solid practice sessions Peters and the No. 17 Toyota Tundra team felt confident as the race began. Within three laps Peters took over the third position when the first caution of the night flew. It was too early in the race to come to pit road and Peters had no complaints with his truck at that juncture. By lap 15, Peters had moved into the second position and took the lead for the first time on lap 30. The No. 17 truck looked to be on a set of rails as Peters pulled out to over a four second lead on second place. On lap 58, the No. 17 team called Peters to pit road for a scheduled green-flag pit stop. Quick work by the pit crew allowed Peters to reassume the lead only a few laps later, again accruing an over four second lead.
The No. 17 team held their breath on lap 71 when a lap truck crowded leader Peters causing the No. 17 truck to snap sideways. Quick work in the cockpit by Peters saved the truck. However, a few laps later at the half-way point in the race Peters had stretched his lead to seven seconds. Crew chief Butch Hylton radioed to Peters on lap 100 telling him they had approximately 20 laps until they would return to pit road for the final pit stop of the day. Just as he said those words, the second caution of the night waved on lap 102. Peters brought the No. 17 down pit road for four tires and fuel. A slip by one of the pit crew members resulted in a slow pit stop. The trouble on the stop plus the fact that several trucks took only two tires relegated Peters to restart from the fifth position. Peters fought hard to climb back to the lead position, but fell two positions short finishing the race in the third position.
Peters led the most laps during the race as he paced the field for 67 circuits. Peters also matched his career-best finish of third at Nashville Superspeedway and moved up one position in the Truck Series point standings to fifth. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action next weekend on July 29, 2011 at Lucas Oil Raceway for the AAA Insurance 200 presented by J.D. Byrider which can be viewed live on SPEED at 7:30 p.m., EST.
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, mutal realtionships 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 deomonstrations and more.
July 22, 2011
Nashville Superspeedway
Race: 12 of 25
Started: 5th
Finished: 3rd
Truck Series Point Standings: 5th (-47)
Next on the Schedule for the No. 17:
Track: Lucas Oil Raceway
Event Name: AAA Insurance 200 presented by J.D. Byrider
Broadcast Time: SPEED, 7:30 p.m., EST MRN 7:15 p.m., EST
Follow Red Horse Racing and its drivers on Twitter! @RedHorseRacing, @TimothyPeters17 and @MiguelPaludo
