Timothy Peters
Action Sports Photography
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader Timothy Peters helped his title chances in a big way Saturday night as he outraced veteran Ron Hornaday Jr. on a late-race restart to win the American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway.
Peters ran in the top three all night after starting from the pole, but found himself behind Hornaday on a restart with 10 laps to go after the 54-year-old driver outfoxed Peters on a similar restart just 20 laps earlier.
Story Highlights
- Timothy Peters wins and widens series lead to 12 points
- James Buescher led a race-high 91 laps before crash
- Ron Hornaday led late, but gave up the point on a Lap 190 restart
But Hornaday spun the tires when the green flag flew and Peters used the inside line on the two-wide restart to storm to the lead. Once out in the clean air, the series points leader checked out, rolling unmolested to the checkered flag.
“You don’t get Toyota Tundras like this often. This truck was dominant tonight,” Peters said. “Last year at this race we hit the reset button. Butch Hylton started making a lot of changes and we got on a bit of a roll and this team was really, really good tonight.”
Hornaday explained that his last pit stop may have set the stage for the miscue on the last restart, but he admitted that his Chevrolet didn’t have enough for Peters after he settled for a second-place finish.
“We didn’t have to the truck to beat him (Peters),” Hornaday explained. “We didn’t get it full on the last stop and we had to save some fuel, so I didn’t get to clean my tires before the restart, and I spun my tires pretty bad on the last restart, but this is a good night for us.”
Peters led from the drop, but suddenly found himself on the wrong side of a heated battle with James Buescher, who took the lead after the first of the night’s seven cautions. Buescher led a race-high 91 laps but suffered a bad bit of luck that ended his night.
Buescher was leading Peters as the field prepared for its second round of pit stops, when John Wes Townley spun in Turn Four. Just as Townley spun and right as the caution lights came to life trackside, Buescher blew a right front tire and plowed into the Iowa Speedway fence.
Hornaday took the lead on a Lap 168 restart caused when David Starr ended his 299th career Truck Series start in a cloud of smoke, then held serve on another start 10 laps later. Hornaday appeared to have the race in hand when Dakoda Armstrong lost a right-front tire and collected Cale Gale, ending top-10 runs for both young drivers.
Johnny Sauter, who also ran in the top five all night, finished third ahead of Justin Lofton and Jason Leffler, who rebounded from a mid-race spin to round out the top five. The win allowed Peters to widen his points lead to 12 over Lofton while Ty Dillon sits just 14 digits back.
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