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Camping World Trucks - Peters Race Report Martinsville


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Martinsville, Oct. 28, 2012: Returning to his home track for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway , Timothy Peters showed his strength at the .526- mile short track early in the weekend. Peters backed up the fast, consistent laps he produced in both practice sessions by claiming the pole position in qualifying and set a blistering pace from the start of the 200 lap main event. By dodging all of the typical short track trouble all afternoon, Peters held his ground in the championship battle with a seventh place finish.

Intermittent rain during Saturday's qualifying session slowed up the session, but didn't hinder Peters and his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Tundra as he set a new track record with his qualifying lap of 19.641 seconds. Starting the race from the pole position, Peters eased into the lead and kept a strong hold on the field through lap 58. Sliding back into the third spot in the following laps, Peters radioed to crew chief Butch Hylton that he needed minor adjustments to his Tundra on their first stop, but was confident they were still in the hunt.

An extended green flag period of racing held Peters on the track until the third caution of the day on lap 94 gave the No. 17 their first chance to make adjustments. A quick four tire stop by the Red Horse Racing crew helped Peters move up from the eighth spot to fifth on the restart. Peters remained comfortably in the top five for the next long green flag segment of the race and was reminded by crew chief Butch Hylton to be patient and save his equipment for the end.

Under the fourth caution, Peters came down pit road for the final time to get four tires and a slight adjustment, prepared to battle for the win. Restarting third with less than 50 laps remaining, Peters went to work on the leaders but soon reported the new set of tires was not to his liking. Three more cautions came in the closing laps, shuffling the No. 17 to the outside on the second to last restart. The outside lane put Peters in a tight spot as he slid outside of the top five. Despite the situation and late race scramble that unfolded around him Peters fought back and held on to a seventh place finish.

"We had a pretty good day and it's really cool to sit on the pole and lead some laps at my home track, especially with support from Nelson Toyota, Strutmasters.com and Thunder Road Harley Davidson riding with us today. Our Tundra was really good for the first part of the race, but that last set of tires we put on just changed the setup we had on the first two runs and it went away for us a little bit," Peters explained.

"We came home for the most part in one piece which a lot of these guys can't say here, so we did what we had to do today to get a good finish and keep the points battle close heading into the next three races. We'll go get 'em next week at Texas with our new Red Horse Racing chassis 007 and our Joe Gibbs Racing power under the hood. Everyone at Red Horse Racing has been working really hard on all three of our trucks and I'm really proud of what we bring to the track each and every week."

 
 
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