Timothy Peters hasn’t given up on his championship hopes just yet.
The 29-year-old still believes he has a shot to win the Camping World Truck Series crown. Peters is tied for fourth with Ron Hornaday and trails leader Todd Bodine by 212 points heading into Saturday’s race at Pocono.
“We aren’t out of this championship run by no means,” Peters said Tuesday during a stop at McLeod Children’s Hospital. “We are tied with Hornaday and I think he is the person that we have to beat to win the championship. All these other guys are great, but we are beating them every week slowly.”
Peters has come back from adversity before during his career.
In 2007, he was out of a ride after a short stint in the Nationwide Series driving for Richard Childress Racing.
But when that ended, Peters started his own his team, Premiere Racing, and ran a partial truck schedule in 2008. He continued driving for his own team last year, but faced an uphill battled as a single-truck operation.
That’s when Red Horse Racing owner Tom DeLoach stepped in and asked Peters to drive for his team last June.
“It was the best decision I have ever made,” Peters said. “When you see the equipment and caliber of his team that Tom has, it was an easy decision on my part to say quit trying to beat a dead horse and go and do what’s best.”
Peters grabbed his first pole in Nashville and got his first victory last October when he won at Martinsville. He is having a breakout year in his first full season driving the No. 17. He won the season-opening race at Daytona and has nine top-10 finishes in 12 races.
“It’s just been an awesome roller coaster ride,” Peters said. “It has took a lot of hard work and determination. I have been kicked down a lot. But I’m with a great team and we really got a good thing going.”
Peters expects another roller coaster ride when the trucks make a stop at Darlington Raceway on Aug. 14 in the Too Tough to Tame 200. He earned valuable experience at the track when he logged about 200 laps during a tire test in May.
Peters hopes to take that experience and advice he has gotten from others including Brett Bodine, who even drew him a little map on the best ways to get around the track.
“Darlington is going to be action-packed from when the green flag drops,” Peters said. “It’s going to be a heck of a show for the fans with the sparks flying, beating and banging. It’s going to be amazing.”
TRUCKS ARE BACK
WHAT: Too Tough to Tame 200
WHEN: Aug. 14, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Darlington Raceway
TV: Speed (TWC 45)
TICKETS: $25 Children 12-and-under admitted free. Pre-race pit passes are available for $15 for adults and $5 for those 17-under For tickets, call (866) 459-7223 or online at www.darlingtonraceway.com
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement