Timothy Peters: Red Horse Racing Kentucky Speedway Race Report

Taking home a top-five finish after a solid performance in June at Kentucky Speedway, championship contender Timothy Peters was hoping to recapture similar results at the Sparta, Kentucky track for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kentucky 201. After falling victim to misfortune one week ago and suffering only his second finish outside of the top-15 this season, Peters would suffer another blow short of halfway on Friday evening. Contact from another competitor sent Peters into the wall, causing damage that warranted an extensive collaboration by his Red Horse Racing crew to get the No. 17 Toyota Tundra back into competition. The hard work gained Peters four valuable points for the championship, landing him a 21st place finish.

 

Crew chief Butch Hylton and Peters dialed in their Tundra during practice on Friday and found a balance near the end of final practice that they thought would produce consistently quick lap times on longer runs. After qualifying in the 13th spot, Peters told Hylton he needed help on the entry of the corners and was too loose to gain any more positions. Coming up with a plan of changes from the pit box, Peters would get his first opportunity to pit under the first caution period of the night on lap 16. Hylton elected to take fuel only and made a chassis adjustment to get him back on the track. A wild restart ensued, and Peters carefully maneuvered his way through a hornets nesxt of traffic to continue his climb up to the top-five by surviving through two more caution periods over the next 30 laps.

 

Knocking on the door of the top-five by lap 35, Hylton relayed to his driver that clean air and track position were going to help them more than anything, but was pleased with his lap times that were consistent with the leaders. The fourth caution of the night on lap 47 gave Peters another chance to come down pit road for some more adjustments and fresh tires from his Red Horse Racing pit crew.

 

Taking four fresh tires while others took two, Peters dropped three positions to ninth on the restart. Just a few spots further back from the coveted clean air up front with the leaders, Peters was battling with another competitor  who drove into the corner too deep on the inside of the No. 17 Red Horse Racing Tundra just past the restart on lap 55. Peters was then hit from the inside and sent into the outside wall, sustaining heavy damage to the rear and right side of his Toyota Tundra. Peters carefully pulled his machine behind the wall into the garage area, where the entire No. 17 team was joined by every available crew member from the other two Red Horse Racing entries to get Peters back on track as quickly as possible.  

 

Crew chief Butch Hylton led the fleet of Red Horse Racing crew members in the garage area to make the repairs efficiently and effectively in order to gain as many positions as they could. With all hands on deck, enough repairs were made to send Peters back into competition on lap 107 to gain valuable points. He was able to move up four positions in the running order before retiring his Toyota Tundra for the night on lap 121, with a 21st place finish.

 

“Another truck just got inside of us too deep going into the corner and I really had no control from there, so around we went. But the guys on this Red Horse Racing team did a great job all weekend and everyone from all three of the teams worked so hard to fix the damage and get us back out there,” Peters said.

 

“We gained four spots because of this team’s efforts and when we get to Homestead, those four spots that we gained tonight from their hard work is going to pay dividends for us. What doesn’t kill us will make us stronger. We’ve had tough races like this before and this team will persevere. We had a fast Tundra tonight and it showed when we were running in the front before that pit stop. We’re not out of this title hunt and we’ll bring another fast Toyota Tundra to Vegas next week. We won’t let this get us down.”

 

Red Horse Racing PR