Timothy Peters, Terry Cook face different sponsor fortunes
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Timothy Peters has secured sponsorship for the upcoming NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway, but Terry Cook still needs additional backing to get there.
Today’s rescheduled Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway was initially to be Peters’ last race, but his Premier Racing team has secured sponsorship from Strutmasters.com for two more races – Kansas on April 25 and Charlotte on May 15.
“We thought Martinsville was going to be our last rodeo, and [Strutmasters.com owner Chip Lofton] signed on for Kansas and Charlotte, so he’s definitely been our knight in shining armor through the first four races, and he’s supporting us, and we’re trying to make sure we support him everywhere we can,” Peters said.
In the season’s first three events, Peters has recorded a pair of top-10s that have him ninth in the series standings. His Danville, Va.-based team is a low-budget entity that operates with just two full-time employees.
“Our problem is, due to budget, we don’t have somebody there eight hours a day, five days a week that can sell how hot we are right now,” Peters said before Monday’s race at Martinsville. “We’re taking steps, and obviously we want the phone to ring a little bit more than what it has been, but I’m thankful for what it has rang.”
Cook is still hoping to land at least enough sponsorship to get to Kansas. His HT Motorsports group only committed to field Cook’s Toyota for the season’s first four races if more sponsorship couldn’t be procured. Cook’s truck has been underwritten by team owner Jim Harris’ Lynchburg, Va.-based Harris Trucking Co. so far this season, but the driver doesn’t expect that to continue.
“As long as we can keep the momentum of racing well together, hopefully, we’ll continue to race,” Cook said. “We have a lot riding on this weekend whether we put funding together or have a great run to get to Kansas. Even though we’ve got Harris Trucking on the side of the truck, it’s Jim Harris that owns the team and it’s a self-funded team.”
Cook, like Peters, is off to a solid start this season. After three races, the series veteran has two top-10s and is seventh in points.
“The trucking business, as they all are right now, is just turned upside down, so it’s unfair for me to ask Jim to reach into his pocket every week as he has for 10-plus years to fund this thing when his business isn’t doing very well,” Cook said. “It’s very important for us to run well to put a sponsorship package together, and honestly I can’t tell you right now if we’re going to go to Kansas.”
Even though Peters will race at Kansas, he knows he will have to miss some races unless the team finds additional backing. And that means he will inevitably slip in the points standings.
“It’s heartbreaking, to be honest with you,” Peters said. “After [the 2008 season finale at] Homestead, we were set ready to go for this year, but when the economy kind of flopped, we kind of flopped with it because we had a lot of plans that I wouldn’t say were necessarily promised, but when the economy kind of went sour, the people that was going to help us just kind of had to put their plans on hold with us.
“ … After [the] first quarter [of 2009] - which the first quarter’s almost over with - we’re supposed to revisit, but hopefully Charlotte will buy us a little bit of time to see what’ll happen.”
