TIMOTHY PETERS QUICK FACTS
Daytona International Speedway
NextEra Energy Resources 250
February 18, 2011
Defending champion! …Timothy Peters is the defending race winner of the NextEra Energy Resources 250, making a last-lap pass for his first victory at Daytona International Speedway. Peters has made three starts at Daytona, with one victory, one sixth-place finish and one 12-place finish in three starts.
Career Season in 2010 …Timothy Peters finished a career-best sixth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings a year ago, up from eighth in 2009. He won once and posted five top-five and 16 top-10 finishes, in addition to winning two poles.
Tidbits about Timothy … Peters’ wife Sara Tweeted recently about Timothy’s love for hair gel. Really? “Just on the weekends,” Timothy admits. Why? “That’s like asking, ‘Why do you put on underwear every morning?’ It feels good.” Timothy’s brand of choice? Big Sexy Hair.
K&N On Board At Daytona… K&N Engineering is the inventor and leading innovator of reusable cotton gauze filter technology for automotive applications. From humble beginnings as a family run business over 40 years ago, K&N Engineering is now a truly global company with offices in the U.K. and the Netherlands.
Timothy Peters Quotes
What does it mean to return to Daytona as defending champion?
“It sounds good. It feels like we just left Daytona yesterday, and now we’re going back for the 2011 race. We’ve got a lot of momentum, we’ve got a lot of confidence. Hopefully we can go there and have a great run. I sure would love to go back to where we left off last year. We want to go to Daytona, complete all the laps, miss the Big One, be there at the end, and we’ll be able to have a good finish. Daytona’s such a crapshoot, you don’t want to come out of there with the truck torn to pieces, especially the way the new points are, because if you have a bad day, it really hurts you in the points.”
Does the new point system change the way you race Daytona?
“It doesn’t change the way we approach it. Any time you have a bad day, it’s not great, because you take a hit in owners points, drivers points. But now, you’re really going to take that hit. We just want to do whatever we can to not have bad days.”
There’s a new surface at Daytona. What do you expect out of that?
“I think it’s going to be like Talladega. I’m hearing that it’s smooth. I’m looking forward to it. We’re taking a different truck than what we won with last year, and all the upgrades over the winter have been done to it. We’re taking chassis 108, and I think it’ll be a great truck. We’re approaching it like we do every other race. Hopefully, we can stay out of trouble, miss the big one and try to repeat. If not, we’ll try to bring home a top-five finish.”
What’s something that sticks out about the race last year?
“I remember taking the white flag, sitting there riding in second and just hoping to make it back and finish second, knowing that would’ve been a great start to the year for the points. Lo and behold, coming back and taking the checkered flag in first place is just amazing.”
Winners get asked a lot, “Has it sunk in yet?” When did it sink in for you that you won at Daytona?
“Pulling into victory lane and seeing the guys standing on the stage and pumping their fists. Not only was it cool to roll into victory lane as a Daytona winner, but it was cool for the crew to pump their chests out to know they’re Daytona champions as well.”
Growing up, what was your first memory of Daytona?
“I remember Darrell Waltrip winning the ’89 500. That is my first memory. I remember as a little kid when Buddy Baker drove the 88 Crisco car. My family never missed a race.”
Now, having raced at Daytona, can you put into words how important Daytona is to you?
“It’s very important to me. It’s important to anyone who goes down there to compete. They want to bring back a trophy, regardless if it’s a Cup car, Nationwide car, truck, ARCA, bicycle – it doesn’t matter. It says Daytona champion on that trophy, and that’s something no one can ever take away from you.”
Where is your Daytona trophy?
“It’s in my house, in a safe spot. My wife and her father fixed a room, and Tom was very generous to get a replica trophy of the races I’ve won and the poles that we’ve sat on. I’ve got a nice little collection room, and I just hope we can keep adding to it.”
You were picked to finish ninth in the points, according to a poll conducted on NASCARmedia.com. What’s your reaction to that?
“Everybody has an opinion. We’ll just let them have their opinion, and I hope to prove them wrong. I always like being the underdog. It’s fine. Actions speak louder than words.”
Crew chief Butch Hylton Quotes
Why bring a different truck than the one that won the race last year?
“We qualified 27th, and by lap 15, nine of the best trucks in the field were out (from wrecks). At the end of the day, once the drafting starts, it doesn’t really take a lot of truck to win. It just depends on being in the right spot. Like at Talladega last year in the fall, Kyle (Busch) qualified 18th and won the race. It’s about being in the right spot at the right time. Our truck didn’t run really good by itself, and Tom wanted to qualify a little better, so we took a shot at building something new.”
Timothy is the defending champion of this race. Any added pressure for you coming in as a new crew chief?
“No, no. I’ve won a lot of races, man. This is just another one, you know what I mean? The biggest pressure of the whole deal is we need all 45 points.”
What do you expect of the new pavement? How will that change how you approach the race?
“It’s a huge difference from what the track used to be. I don’t know if a lot of people understand this, but when you measure bumps, we measure what the shock will move in inches per second. Before, it moved at 25 inches per second. That’s a lot of velocity. And now we’re less than 2 inches per second. Basically, what we’re doing is unloading with our Talladega setups because Talladega is a 2-inch-per-second race track, too. It’s very smooth. It will be a raw speed deal; it won’t have anything to do with handling. Last year, if you could get your stuff to drive pretty good, on a longer run, you could hang in there better. It won’t be that way this year. It’ll be one big pack and it’ll be crazy.”
Fun to watch, but probably not much fun to drive or crew chief.
“It is what it is. When I get up on the box, I just try to help him get in position so he can make one good shot at the end. He did a great job last year of putting himself in position to be there at the end. That’s’ what he’s got to do again this year if he wants to win. It’s the same old deal down there: You’ve got to get just right, being third or fourth taking the white to have a chance. You can’t be leading. Most of the time, the leaders (at the white) don’t win the races. I always look at it as it’s my job to build something that qualifies good, and it’s his job to race it.”
Equipment Information … Primary truck: Chassis No. 108. This truck was completely rebuilt from the frame up, and Hylton calls it, “Basically a brand new truck. It’s got a new front clip, the ride height’s changed. We’ve totally rebuilt it.” Backup: Chassis No. 85
