Timothy Peters in the No. 4 Dodge during final practice at Memphis. (High Sierra Photo)

On a hot July evening Dodge Driver Timothy Peters over came a flat tire on lap 62, a slight altercation with another competitor on lap 83 and a tight race truck in the O'Reilly 200 to finish in the 12th position. The strong finish earned Peters the Featherlite Most Improved Driver Award of the race. Peters qualified for the 200 lap event earlier that afternoon in the 12th position. It was Peters' third straight top-12 starting position and his fifth top-15 finish of the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.

On lap 6, while running 12th under the first caution, Peters radioed in his truck was, "a tick tight." After the restart Peters began to lose ground to the competition. He informed the team the truck was horrible. He fell back to the 15th position and was able to stay there until the second caution came out on lap 62.

Under the caution Crew Chief Marcus Richmond made the decision to come down pit road for four tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment and a major track bar adjustment to aide the tight condition. It was discovered after the pit stop that Peters' right rear tire was flat. He restarted in the 17th position.

Several laps later Peters radioed, "the truck is like night and day from the last run. It's a lot better." On lap 83 Peters was working his way through the field when he received minor front fender damage from an altercation with Johnny Benson in turn two. Spotter Danny Gill looked at the damage from the spotter's stand and made the call to stay out under the fourth caution.

By lap 160, under a long green flag run, Peters had worked his way into the 9th position. The fifth of seven cautions of the night came out 17 laps later. Peters came down pit road for the final time of the night to the attention of the Dodge Motorsports Racing Team. They changed all four tires, added fuel and made another wedge adjustment. He restarted in the 13th position.

Peters would finish the night in the 12th position. It was the team's second 12th place finish of the season.

"I would be lying if I didn't admit I am a little disappointed with our finish tonight," said Peters after the race. "The truck was awesome in both practice sessions yesterday and we qualified 12th for the race. I got extremely tight in that first run. We got lucky the caution came out when it did because I had a right rear tire going flat, but we had lost so much track position in the process. I did not need all the cautions in the end because I was faster on long runs. All in all we came home in one piece and we will take the next few weeks to improve on our No. 4 Dodge Motorsports Dodge."

Jack Sprague won the O'Reilly 200 before an estimated crowd of 27,000, posting his 26th NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory. Erik Darnell, Matt Crafton, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Mike Bliss filled out the top-five. The NCTS is off for the next two weeks. The Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park is scheduled for August 4.