There’s no doubt about it.
Timothy Peters (No. 17 K&N Toyota) and Red Horse Racing have the combination to beat as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Nashville Superspeedway.
Peters, winner of the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, posted his third consecutive top-10 finish of the year at Martinsville Speedway to regain the NASCAR Camping World Truck points lead.
The North Carolina native, now a resident of Danville, Va., is 59 points ahead of Aric Almirola (No. 51 Graceway Pharmaceuticals Toyota) with three races in the books.
Peters, who scored his first series victory last October in Martinsville, followed that up with a finish of fourth in the Kroger 250. He also led this spring’s race.
“What a way to start off the year, right?” said Peters following Saturday’s race. “A solid finish; that’s what we needed to do to be a threat for this championship.”
Almirola finished sixth at Martinsville — but would have liked more.
Still, he continues to be a solid replacement for Kyle Busch, who drove the No. 51 truck for crew chief Richie Wauters and owner Billy Ballew.
“To come home sixth is okay, I guess, but we had a better truck at (several) points of the race,” said Almirola. “We didn’t have a truck good enough to win but I thought we had a third or fourth-place truck.
Todd Bodine (No. 30 Toyota), the previous leader, had a dose of poor short-track luck and finished 30th. He dropped from first to third, 88 points behind Peters.
Also dropping out of the top five was Jason White (No. 23 GunBroker.com Dodge). Auto Racing Daily
RANK DRIVER POINTS BEHIND 1 Timothy Peters 501 Leader 2 Aric Almirola 442 -59 3 Todd Bodine 413 -88 4 Kevin Harvick 390 -111 5 Matt Crafton 388 -113 6 Jason White 371 -130 7 Ricky Carmichael 360 -141 8 Tayler Malsam 357 -144 9 Austin Dillon* 334 -167 10 David Starr 333 -168 11 Mario Gosselin 329 -172 12 Ron Hornaday 323 -178 13 Rick Crawford 323 -178 14 Johnny Sauter 318 -183 15 Brett Butler* 317 -184 16 Ryan Sieg 315 -186 17 Mike Skinner 304 -197 18 Johnny Benson 302 -199 19 Justin Lofton* 282 -219 20 Kyle Busch 272 -229 21 Norm Benning 270 -231 22 Stacy Compton 257 -244 23 Max Papis 247 -254 24 Dennis Setzer 246 -255 25 Jennifer Jo Cobb* 246 -255 26 Donnie Neuenberger 229 -272 27 Ryan Hackett 191 -310 28 Donny Lia 188 -313 29 Brian Ickler 165 -336 30 Steve Wallace 165 -336 31 Brent Raymer 161 -340 32 Nelson Piquet 150 -351 33 J.J. Yeley 139 -362 34 Shane Sieg 134 -367 35 Chris Eggleston 130 -371 36 Brad Sweet 127 -374 37 Hermie Sadler 127 -374 38 Carlos Contreras 126 -375 39 Sean Murphy 124 -377 40 Narain Karthikeyan 124 -377 41 Chad McCumbee 122 -379 42 Mike Harmon 113 -388 43 Chris Fontaine 112 -389 44 D J Kennington 112 -389 45 Elliott Sadler 108 -393 46 Tony Jackson 103 -398 47 Clay Greenfield 100 -401 48 Geoffrey Bodine 85 -416 49 Ken Schrader 79 -422 50 Ted Musgrave 70 -431
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