Hometown victory: Timothy Peters wins first career Truck race at Martinsville
Red Horse Racing's Timothy Peters is greeted in victory lane by Kevin Harvick Inc. driver Ron Hornaday after winning Saturday's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Scene
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Martinsville Speedway already felt like home to Timothy Peters. Now, it feels like victory.
Peters, who lives about 20 minutes from the track in nearby Danville, Va., took the lead with 84 laps to go and cruised to his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in Saturday’s Kroger 200 at Martinsville.
“This is for my dad,” said Peters, whose father, Tony, died of a massive heart attack in 2001. “I lost my dad in 2001 and this was for him.”
Germain Racing’s Todd Bodine, Roush Fenway Racing’s Colin Braun, Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Ron Hornaday and KHI's Kevin Harvick completed the top five.
Peters’ ties to the Martinsville area run deep. The 29-year-old is a former Late Model track champion at nearby South Boston Speedway and won the prestigious Bailey’s 300 Late Model race at Martinsville in 2005.
Saturday was Peters’ 64th Truck start but just his 13th with the Red Horse Racing team he left the Danville-based Premier Racing for in June.
"I can't believe it," Peters said of his win. "Words can't describe what I'm feeling right now. The truck was just awesome."
Peters inherited the lead when frontrunners Denny Hamlin and David Starr pitted under the fifth caution just past the midway point and was never seriously challenged for the top spot even as the race was slowed by three cautions in the final 80 laps.
Peters pitted for tires and fuel under the first caution period a little more than 30 laps in and went the rest of the way without stopping.
"We were going to do one stop and we knew we could go all the way," crew chief Chad Kendrick said. "So when that caution came out, it kind of came out exactly where we kind of planned."
Peters was congratulated in victory lane by several series veterans, including Hornaday, Bodine and Mike Skinner.
"Martinsville's probably my second home track - I've been coming here since I was eight years old - and I've never gottten a win here so I know how special it would be for me to win here and I'm sure Timmy's got the same feelings," said Bodine, a native of Chemung, N.Y., who attended Franklin County High School about 30 minutes from Martinsville.
"It's awesome for him."
Not everyone had such a pleasant ride.
Polesitter Skinner gave up the lead to Hornaday on the first lap and was involved in a late crash that badly damaged the right side of his Toyota. Making his 200th career start, Skinner was running fourth at the time of the wreck but finished 23rd. Harvick rallied from two laps down after falling behind with an unscheduled green-flag pit stop for a cut tire.
Hornaday, Harvick and Skinner were each penalized earlier in the race for being too fast entering pit road after spending the opening laps out front.
ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton, who entered the race 197 points behind Hornaday in the standings, finished ninth and is now 224 points back with four races left.
