Timothy Peters and the No. 17 Red Horse Racing team came to Long Pond, Pennsylvania to tackle taming the “Tricky Triangle”. The team had a solid practice session on Friday and was optimistic when the event began on Saturday afternoon. However, with only 17 laps into the 50-lap event, rain set-in. NASCAR decided to postpone the event until Sunday morning at 9:00 am, EDT. Peters felt like he had a really good truck and only needed track position to make a difference in the event. However, when the race restarted, the weather and track conditions had changed considerably. Peters fought a loose-handling truck until the team was able to make adjustments on the final pit stop of the day. Peters was able to gain a few more positions as the race ended under a green-white-checkered finish ending the event in the 10th position.
“We had a good race and a good Toyota Tundra,” Peters said following the event. “Tenth is obviously not where we wanted to be, but we will take a top-10 finish and stay close in the point standings. Every time I come to Pocono I learn more and more about the track and what you have to do to be fast here. I will bank this information and come back next year and have an even stronger run. I think we are all looking forward to having a weekend off next week and then head to Michigan and Bristol to round out August.”
Peters started the Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125 from the 11th position. With rain imminent, Peters and the team had a plan to get as high as they could in the running order and race until the half-way point (lap 26) which NASCAR would recognize as an official race. On the initial restart several of the competitors in front of the No. 17 Toyota Tundra failed to get a good restart. Peters had no choice but to let off the throttle and lost several positions but did manage not to sustain any damage to the truck. The first caution waved on lap two for debris. Under the first caution period Peters reported to the team that his truck was awesome and all he needed was track position in order to be able to run with the leaders.
Peters would not have the opportunity to gain many spots as the race restarted but was halted again on lap five for a crash behind him. The race resumed on lap eight and Peters had moved into the 13th position on lap 14 when the caution was thrown for heavy rain drops failing all around the three-turn track. The No. 17 team chose to come to pit road under the caution for four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment. The No. 17 team came off pit road in the 17th position following the pit stop. Many of the trucks at the front of the field chose not to pit or took on fuel only. The race was then put under the red flag as rain continued to fall. By 5:00pm, EDT, NASCAR made the decision to post pone the remainder of the 50 lap-event until the following morning.
Early Sunday morning the sun shone all around Pocono Raceway. Peters and the team took the green flag on lap 21 from the 12th position as other trucks decided to pit under the first initial roll off. However, the No. 17 team quickly realized that the track on Sunday was not the same one they had encountered on Saturday. Peters told the team that he was very loose in turn three and held on to the 14th position until the caution came out on lap 31. The team called Peters down pit road for four tires, fuel and another air-pressure adjustment. Peters restarted from the 15th position and was able to move his way up into the top-10 when the caution was displayed again on lap 42. The team knew they had conserved enough fuel to make it to the end of the event should the race get extended under a green-white-checkered finish. Peters held on to his top-10 running position as the caution was displayed for the final time on lap 48 sending the race into overtime.
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