Timothy Peters Hopes Recent Late Model Success Will Help Ricky Benton Racing Finish Well At Martinsville Speedway

by March 14, 2018 0 comments

Timothy Peters has been winning races in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series recently, and he’s hoping that the success will continue as he pilots Ricky Benton Racing’s No. 92 BTS Tire and Wheel Distributors/Carquest Auto Parts/Valvoline Ford F-150 at Martinsville Speedway in this year’s Alpha Energy Solutions 250.

In September of 2017, Peters held off Virginia’s Lee Pulliam and Peyton Sellers to win the prestigious NASCAR Whelen All-American Series ValleyStar Credit Union 300 underneath the lights at Martinsville Speedway. Peters followed that victory up with a win in Myrtle Beach Speedway’s Icebreaker in February this year and an eighth-place finish at Tri-County Motor Speedway during the CARS Tour season opener this past weekend.

“The energy that we have right now with the guys working together, it’s just unbelievable,” Peters said about his Late Model Stock team. “To go to the racetrack, to put what I feel like is a show car out on the racetrack and for them to perform the way that we do. A perfect example is at the CARS Tour race this past weekend was a season opener at Tri-County (Motor Speedway), and myself, Bobby McCarty and Brandon Pierce participated in the event, and Bobby McCarty won the race and never even seen the racetrack before until last week. Brandon Pierce the same way, and all of us ran exceptionally well. It just goes to show you the strength of our organization and that we can go other places than just one and run well.”

Although Peters is a NASCAR national series veteran, he has spent years competing at the local short track level as well. In fact, he used to race against Ricky Benton’s race cars, and now he will be piloting the team’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series truck on March 24 at Martinsville Speedway.

“I love Late Model stock car racing, and I love short track racing,” Peters said. “I’ve raced against Ricky (Benton) back in the day when he owned Late Models and Mike Hester (crew chief), and they were always tough to beat. They’re great racers all around and great short track racers as well, so I’m excited and thrilled for the opportunity that Ricky has given me to work with Mike and the guys, because I know that we can be a force to reckon with when we get to the racetrack next weekend.”

Peters believes that short track racing helps him in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He is a driver that grew up working on his own race car, learning about the mechanical side of the sport along with the competitor’s side. With just coming off of the Late Model win at Martinsville Speedway, Peters thinks that what he learned in that particular race will be able to be carried over to Ricky Benton Racing’s efforts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next weekend.

“It just keeps you in check,” Peters said about racing Late Models and in the NASCAR national series at the same time. “It keeps you familiar with being humble by being able to still work on your own equipment, that’s the way I was brought up. I still do that now. Being involved, knowing the ins and outs of your equipment, and it just parleys over into the truck ride, and like I said, I’m so excited about being able to drive for Ricky at Martinsville because a lot of the stuff that we learned with the Late Model there, as far as from the driver’s seat and turning wrenches, will bleed over with the truck.”

In the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the upcoming race at Martinsville Speedway will be Peters’ 24th series start at the track. In 2009, he captured his first-career win at the track, and over the course of his career, Peters has captured eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes at Martinsville Speedway. Ricky Benton Racing is coming off a 14th-place finish in the Daytona 500. The team has 15 starts so far in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway, accumulating one top-five and three top-10 finishes. With the years of experience between Peters and Ricky Benton Racing, look for the pair to capture a competitive finish come the Alpha Energy Solutions 250.

“I look at Martinsville as that I love short track racing, and it’s home and it’s where I got my first career win, but anything can happen there,” Peters said. “You can get caught up in someone else’s mess, but at the end of the day, you know, top-10, top-five is very realistic, but you’ve got to be in position at the end in order to execute.”

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

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