March 29, 2024

Twice is nice for Peters at Iowa

Peters is first repeat winner of NCWTS at Iowa Speedway

Image 1 of 2

Saturday was a red-letter day for Red Horse Racing at Iowa Speedway.

With three trucks in the field of the Fifth Annual American Ethanol 200, all three placed in the top 15 of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event. One driver put his truck in the pole position in track record time.

Oh, yes, the best — Timothy Peters reaching Victory Lane for the second consecutive year at Iowa Speedway. Peters stepped on the gas at the right moment in a restart on lap 195 to win the NCWTS race.

"Our main goal coming here was to fill our bucket up with points," Peters said. "We started off the season this year a little rocky, but we're turning that around. And we’re going to shine through the summer months. We’re going to shine through Homestead and we’re going to get that championship that was so close last year."

Turn around indeed.

Peters recorded his first win of the 2013 Trucks season and the sixth of his career. Peters became the first driver to earn back-to-back NCWTS victories at Iowa Speedway.

Saturday night’s set a track record also as the fastest Truck series race at Iowa Speedway in 1 hour, 38 minutes. 46 seconds with an average speed of 106.311 mph. The previous record was 1:45.52 with an average speed of 99.181 mph.

Peters held off 17-year-old Erik Jones down the stretch to win by .225 seconds. Reigning series champion James Buescher was able to fight off a challenge by veteran Ron Hornaday Jr. to finish third with Hornaday in fourth.

Chase Elliott, another 17-year-old, moved up four spots in the final 10 laps to notch a top-five finish. NCWTS points leader Matt Crafton, who had won at Iowa in 2011, finished sixth.

Red Horse’s German Quiroga, the first Mexican to earn a NASCAR pole position in any series with the fastest pre-race lap time, led the first 56 laps of Saturday night’s race. The first of five cautions came on lap 55 because of debris on the track at Turn 2.

Quiroga lost the lead coming off pit road as Ty Dillon beat him, Peters and Brendan Gaughan back out onto the track. Dillon took command of the race from that point until the second caution on lap 112, when Johnny Sauter hit the wall and sustained some tire rub.

Peters would lead for the first time in the race by beating Buescher and Dillon out of pit road on the restart on lap 118. Peters’ lead didn’t hold up after the third caution two laps later as Jeb Burton was spun out by Joey Coulter and backed into the wall.

On a three-wide restart on lap 127, Buescher and Jones went to the front of the field. Buescher was running in the lead in a race that had six lead changes. The final lead change came on lap 174 on a restart as Peters had worked his way back up from fifth place.

Peters’ crew chief Butch Hylton made the crucial call to replace two tires late, saving time on the final pit stop of the night. After the race, Hylton said it wasn’t hard decision to make.

“Butch made a great decision there at the end, taking two tires,” Peters said. “It gave me the stability and confidence I needed in the corner and get the lead. The pit crew did a good job of getting me track position. Track position was very critical.”

Jones and Dillon battled for position with Jones gaining an advantage and Dillon fell out of contention. His Chevrolet bounced off the wall after the last restart, dropping Dillon to 16th.

Miguel Paludo ended up seventh. Darrell Wallace Jr. was the highest finishing series rookie, coming across in eighth. Joey Coulter was ninth and Dakoda Armstrong rounded out the top 10.

Red Horse Racing’s John Wes Townley ran 12th and Quiroga was 14th.

“I’m very, very happy,” Quiroga said about setting a track record 138.620 mph in qualifying.. “We’ve been running fast.”

At the post-race news conference, Red Horse Racing owner Tom DeLoach was smiling.

“It was a fantastic day for Red Horse Racing. It’s a total effort of the team,” DeLoach said.

Peters moves from 10th to eighth in the Trucks Series standings, 76 points off the lead. Crafton remains on top with 357 points, followed by Burton in second with 319 points after a 22nd-place finish. Buescher jumped Dillon for third and now has 317. Dillon sits fourth with 309, and Sauter is fifth with 305.

Next up for the Truck Series is the inaugural MudSummer Classic, where the trucks head to the dirt track at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

“We’ll go to Eldora and have some fun sideways,” said Darrell Wallace Jr. in post-race comments Saturday night. He worked throw several spinouts and damage from qualifying laps and the race to finish eighth at Iowa.