Peters Captures His Best Finish of 2017 at Martinsville

In front of his hometown crowd, Timothy Peters posted his best result of the young 2017 season by finishing eighth in the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway. The Danville, Virginia native has now posted four-consecutive top-10 finishes at his home track, and resides fourth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver standings. Peters and his No. 17 Thunder Road Harley-Davidson/AutosByNelson.com team posted the 14th-quickest lap in the lone practice session on Friday afternoon, and followed that up with an impressive third-place qualifying effort on Saturday. At the drop of the green flag, the inside lane paid dividends for Peters as he stayed inside the top-seven in the opening stage, despite a tight condition in the center of both ends of the 0.526-mile short track. Peters held on to the seventh position at the end of Stage 1 and collected four championship points. Crew chief Chad Kendrick called Peters to pit road for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments under the lap 72 caution. The adjustments offered small improvements, but Peters continued to battle a tight condition at the outset of Stage 2 after restarting ninth. By the lap 118 caution, Peters’ tenacity began to overcome the handling conditions and he had climbed to sixth. Under the yellow, Kendrick made a strategy call to stay out and inherit the fourth position. The call netted Peters seven additional points by virtue of running fourth at the end of Stage 2. By pitting under caution on lap 143 for tires, fuel, and a wedge adjustment, Peters gave up track position and restarted 15th on lap 150. The physicality on track began taking a toll on his Toyota Tundra as Peters’ tight balance drastically shifted towards a free condition, relegating him to 16th with less than 30 laps remaining. The race’s final caution on lap 234 allowed Peters to pit for tires while most lead-lap trucks stayed out. The call proved to be worthwhile as Peters rallied into the top 10 over the event’s final 12 circuits to finish in the eighth position.

 
Start – 3

Finish –  8
Drivers Points Position – 4
Laps Led – 0
 
Timothy Peters Quote

“We maintained all race long. There at the end, there was a big stack. I took a big shot in the back and it was a completely different truck. We salvaged it. We came in and got tires there with 10, or nine laps to go, and rallied back to eighth. Great effort by everybody on this No. 17 team. Thanks to Thunder Road Harley-Davidson and AutosByNelson.com for coming on board this weekend. I wish we could have got them a win after such a great qualifying run. We’ve got five weeks off, and we’ll regroup for Kansas.”

RHR PR