Seventeen months ago, there was no Victory Lane, no sufficient funding and no
real shot at winning races in Timothy Peters' future. His crew consisted of
himself and one other guy working out of a buddy's cramped garage in Virginia
with only two trucks in their inventory.
But the throwback racer found his way to Victory Lane three weeks ago at Daytona
International Speedway and as a result, atop the NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series points for the first time in his career.
If the driver of the No. 17 K&N Toyota for Red Horse Racing has any say in the
matter, he plans to continue that running start in Saturday's Truck Series race
at Atlanta Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET live on SPEED™; NCWTS Setup with Krista
Voda at 1:30 p.m. ET) and thinks the time he spent with his own, barebones team
helped him arrive at this point.
"I learned a lot from being on a small, underfunded team," Peters said. "I've
always had the mindset of 'never give up' and my father always taught me
perseverance. Quitters never win and I'm not a quitter and I worked very hard to
get where I am today. When it's good, it's good and when it's low, it's very,
very low. I found myself on the outside looking in very quickly and am blessed
that I was able to get back on my feet with Premier Racing and then Tom DeLoach
(Red Horse Racing owner), who gave me the opportunity of a lifetime and put me
on the map."
This year marks Peters' second full season in the Truck Series. He began 2009
with the small Premier Racing but teamed up with Red Horse Racing after eight
events. He drove the No. 17 Toyota to his career-first victory at Martinsville
last October, racking up five top-five and 13 top-10 finishes along the way.
Looking ahead to Saturday's race, Peters and his team think they've got what it
takes to build on their Daytona victory and improve on their stats from last
season.
"I'm looking forward to getting to Atlanta because the truck we're taking is the
truck I probably have the most confidence in in the whole shop," Peters
commented. "We ran really well with it on the mile-and-a-half tracks last year
and sat on the pole at Nashville with it, so I'm looking forward to rolling it
out of the trailer and picking up where we left off. We've got Jeff Hensley on
top of the pit box and it's been awesome to work with him. Hopefully we can
continue our momentum."
Peters knows he has his work cut out for him at Atlanta with an average finish
at the 1.5-mile track of 22nd and the task of beating to the finish line guys
like Kyle Busch, who has won three of the last four Atlanta races. But those
statistics don't deter Peters one bit, although he is taking a realistic
approach to Saturday's race.
"A good showing for us would be to not wreck the truck so we can bring it back
home, improve it and get it to where we can take it to the next event," Peters
said. "Obviously, I'd like do say 'Let's win the race' and I think we have a
shot at that, but realistically a top-five finish would be a good day for us."
Regardless of where his team finishes at Atlanta, Peters says the second race of
the year will be a great gauge of how his organization measures up to the
competition because Atlanta is an intermediate track indicative of many other
venues on the Truck Series schedule.
"Atlanta absolutely is a good indicator of how strong our team is," Peters said.
"Our team is probably stronger than it ever has been. The pit crew is awesome
and we gained spots throughout the race at Daytona. I'm already comfortable with
the truck I'm taking but it really puts your mind at ease knowing that coming
down pit road, you've got the best on pit road waiting for you."
With top-notch equipment and crew, Peters considers the championship a
legitimate goal in 2010.
"We're doing our best to give the championship a run for the money," he stated.
"Tom DeLoach and Red Horse Racing have given me all the resources and everything
I need to make that happen. Obviously, a lot of things have to go our way and
hopefully the man upstairs will take care of that for us. We're just trying to
stay out of trouble, try not to have any DNFs, try to top-five and top-10 it to
death and hopefully another win or two will come. Hopefully, when the checkered
flag falls at Homestead, we can be up on that stage like Hornaday was last year.
"
And arguably no one would appreciate a Truck Series title more than Peters. When
he referred to getting "back on my feet," he wasn't exaggerating. Fulfilling his
dreams hasn't come without a hefty price tag for the 29-year-old, who, like many
true dirt-under-the-nails racers, put his every penny into racing in the early
days. When he elevated Premier Racing to the Truck Series to enter the October
2008 race at Martinsville, he did so with money made from selling his late
father's prized Corvette, a family heirloom. The truck he bought with that money
took him to his first top-10 finish in the Truck Series.
"I've put myself in pretty bad financial shape in hopes people would recognize
what I'm trying to do and how passionate I am," Peters said following the 2008
race. "So far, it's paid off. I think my dad would be proud. When he died, a
part of me wanted to stop racing, but he and my mom didn't go into debt for me
to stop. He's a part of it even though he's not here. A lot of people wrote me
off, saying after my dad died, 'you won't see him around,' but my dad went into
a lot of debt to get me where I am now."
