Timothy Peters Earns Chase Berth with Eighth-Place Finish at Chicagoland

In the final race of the regular season, Timothy Peters battled back from three laps down to finish eighth and secure a berth in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase at Chicagoland Speedway. In two practice sessions on Thursday afternoon, Peters was fourth and sixth on the board, respectively. During two rounds of single-truck, knockout qualifying, Peters transferred to the final round to earn the fifth starting spot for the American Ethanol e15 225 with a lap of 30.767 seconds. After taking the green flag, Peters battled a tight handling condition on his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Tundra. On his first pit stop on lap 47, the No. 17 team gave him four fresh Goodyear tires and a tank full of Sunoco fuel, but a penalty for an uncontrolled tire had him returning to pit road to top off on fuel and restarting at the tail end of the field. Then Peters brushed the wall and pushed a fender in on the left rear tire, cutting it and forcing him to pit road, and a few laps later Peters returned to pit road with another tire down. This time the team clearanced the tire and Peters returned to the track three laps down. A rash of cautions enabled the 17 team to stay out and take the wave around and soon Peters was the first truck one lap down, and he earned the “Lucky Dog” benefit on lap 117 to get back on the lead lap. Under that caution period, the team made further repairs to the fender and changed four tires and filled up with fuel. Peters restarted 20th with 32 laps to go, and drove his way into the top-10 to finish eighth and lock himself into the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase in the eighth and final position.  

 

“We were just approaching it like any other night, for sure. Obviously with the Chase, it puts a lot of intensity around everyone, but we knew if we came here and did what we needed to do, we’d be fine. We’re glad Kyle (Busch) won, for sure. We fought back from adversity on our Red Horse Racing Tundra. I got a little loose off of turn two and got into the wall, then the guys did a good job on pit road fixing the damage and finishing eighth. Eighth isn’t what we wanted, and we didn’t win a race yet, but they better look out.”