Timothy Peters picked up a huge win at Talladega Superspeedway last Saturday afternoon, rolling to his third career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at the 2.5-mile speed plant.
But there’s little he can carry from that win on one of racing’s biggest stages to help as he prepares for the autosbynelson.com 250 CARS Response Energy Tour season finale at South Boston Speedway on November 3. The race is slated to start at 3 p.m.
“It’s home, but I wouldn’t say it’s easy for me. It seems like since the repave (in 2016), South Boston has been a struggle for me,” said Peters, the 2004 South Boston track champion. “I don’t know if it’s the tires or what, but I’ve struggled, and I can’t tell you why.”
Nelson Motorsports teammates Bobby McCarty and Brandon Pierce have fared better than Peters at South Boston the past couple of years. McCarty has won four times on the .4-mile oval the past two years while Pierce has one win. Those wins all came in cars whose preparation was overseen by Peters, who is the general manager of Nelson Motorsports.
Saturday’s victory was redemption of sorts for Peters, who has 11 truck series wins, but hasn’t had a fulltime ride since Red Horse Racing, his home of a decade, shuttered its operation abruptly in the middle of the 2017 season. He made a couple of one-off appearances this season before GMS Racing, a stalwart in the truck series, called on him as a replacement driver for three races. All three resulted in strong runs, including Saturday’s win and a fifth-place finish at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
“It was very special for Mike Beam (president of GMS) to give me the call. I was humbled to get the call. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have had the opportunity and to win at Talladega. It rejuvenated me,” said Peters.
“When you get a call from a team like GMS and go to the race track and put together three races like we did, the way racing is these days, with wins so hard to come by, it’s special. Very special.”
While Saturday’s win was huge for Peters, by Monday morning his feet were planted firmly back on the ground overseeing operations at Nelson Motorsports, preparing the team’s three entries for the autosbynelson.com 250.
McCarty, with four CARS Tour victories this year, leads the series’ championship chase entering the season-finale on November 3. He has a 20-point lead over Lee Pulliam, a CARS Tour rookie, but winner of four NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championships. Pulliam has two CARS Tour wins this season.
Peters says his first objective for the November 3 race is to have the best possible cars prepared for McCarty and Pierce, who ran the full CARS schedule and made occasional starts in other big events in 2018. Peters has raced in select events this season.
“I’m just looking to try and help Brandon and Bobby as much as we can. I hope we finish one-two-three and win the championship,” said Peters. “We’re just going to try and do everything to make sure Nelson Motorsports is represented to the fullest for that race.
“It would be awesome to finish this season with a win … me or either one of us. And it would be huge for Bobby and huge for the company for him to get a championship.”
The CARS Tour final event of 2018 will decide championships in both its Late Model Stock Car Division and Super Late Model Division with 125-lap races on tap for each division. Gates open at noon with the first race set to begin at 3 p.m.
Adult tickets are $10 in advance and $15 the day of the race. Children age 12 and under will be admitted free with a paying adult. Advance tickets may be purchased by calling 877.440.1540 or stopping by the track.
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