Motor Racing Digest

 

Posted by: Dave Thompson, follow @phillyfan17

July 15, 2012

Timothy Peters outran Ron Hornaday on the final restart to win the Ethanol 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night. The win marked the first victory of the season for Peters and the fourth of his career.

Peters, the pole sitter for the race, had given up the lead to Hornaday with just over 30 laps remaining and now in pursuit to regain the lead. A late caution gave Peters one last shot to grab the lead from Hornaday and that was all the No. 17 needed. Peters took to the inside on Hornaday and was able to successfully make the pass with 10 laps remaining and did not look back.

In victory lane, “Perseverence, determination, man,” a jubilant Peters responded when asked what made the difference. “You should have seen this shop. Last year, this race was a reset button for Butch Hylton and myself. And we just made a notebook and got on a roll over the offseason. He implemented a lot of good stuff and our Toyota Tundras are fast.” Peters also praised crew chief, Hylton and his No. 17 crew for giving him such a competitive truck.

Hornaday would take home second, followed by last year’s race winner Matt Crafton. Johnny Sauter finished in fourth while Justin Lofton rounded out the top-five.

“I spun ‘em pretty bad,” Hornaday said in reference to his tires on the final restart. “So he got me on that last one. We had fun. At least they knew we were here.”

After starting on the pole, Peters led the opening laps before James Buescher snagged the lead on a restart just 10 laps into the race. A spin by Brennan Newberry brought out the first caution allowing Buescher the opportunity to take the lead.

Once Buescher grabbed the lead he was able to separate himself from the field by as much as two seconds. However, by Lap 40, Peters had made up ground and closing on Buescher and challenging for the lead. The two battled side-by-side for several laps before Peters prevailed and took the lead on Lap 42.

It was not until Lap 49, when Paulie Harraka blew a right-front tire bringing out the caution, that the leaders would make their first trip down pit road.

Buescher regained the lead after a restart on Lap 76 and clearly had the better of the trucks on the short runs. But like before, Peters slowly began to “reel in” Buescher on the long run and again challenging for the lead.

After leading 91 of the first 134 laps, Buescher’s chance for victory ended when he blew a right-front tire and smacked hard into the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 135.

On Lap 143, the green flag waved with Peters in the lead followed by Sauter and Hornaday.

David Starr’s truck brought out the caution with 37 laps remaining. This time Hornaday got a terrific restart and made quick work of Peters to take the lead.

Hornaday maintained the lead on another restart just 10 laps later when Ryan Sieg spun to bring out the yellow flag.

Battling for position, Dakoda Armstrong and Cale Gale made contact several times before Gale lost the battle, sending him into the Turn 4 wall. The shootout for the victory was about to begin.

When the race went back to green with 10 laps to go, this time Peters got the jump on Hornaday to take the lead and set sail for the checkered flag.

With the victory, Peters continues atop the point standings over Lofton by 12 points and Ty Dillon just 14 behind the leader. Buescher sits fourth but fell off the pace and now 40 points behind Peters.

Results of American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway:

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bpts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	1	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota Toyota	200	47	4	RUNNING	4	87
2	8	9	Ron Hornaday Jr.	Anderson’s Pure Maple Syrup Chevrolet	200	43	1	RUNNING	1	22
3	7	88	Matt Crafton	Menards/Ideal Door Toyota	200	41		RUNNING
4	5	13	Johnny Sauter	Hot Honeys/Curb Records Toyota	200	40		RUNNING
5	3	6	Justin Lofton	J.D. Heiskell & Co. Chevrolet	200	39		RUNNING
6	9	18	Jason Leffler	Shore Lodge Toyota	200	38		RUNNING
7	15	3	Ty Dillon #	Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet	200	37		RUNNING
8	12	22	Joey Coulter	American Ethanol Chevrolet	200	36		RUNNING
9	2	30	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Autotrac Chevrolet	200	35		RUNNING
10	14	29	Parker Kligerman	Reese Towpower RAM	200	34		RUNNING
11	17	97	Jeff Choquette	Liz Girl Logistics/Adrian Carriers Inc. Chevrolet	200	33		RUNNING
12	11	11	Todd Bodine	Toyota Care Toyota	200	32		RUNNING
13	10	32	Miguel Paludo	Duroline Chevrolet	200	31		RUNNING
14	22	23	Jason White	Gunbroker.com Ford	200	30		RUNNING
15	18	2	Tim George Jr.	Applebee’s Chevrolet	200	29		RUNNING
16	20	08	Ross Chastain #	South Carolina Watermelon Association Toyota	200	28		RUNNING
17	25	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing Chevrolet	199	27		RUNNING
18	23	75	Caleb Holman #	Food Country USA Chevrolet	199	26		RUNNING
19	30	93	Dennis Setzer	RSS Racing Chevrolet	199	25		RUNNING
20	29	09	John Wes Townley #	Toyota Toyota	197	24		RUNNING
21	21	07	Jeff Agnew	Team 7 Chevrolet	197	23		RUNNING
22	28	99	Bryan Silas #	Rockingham Speedway Ford	197	22		RUNNING
23	31	65	Justin Jennings	LG Seeds Ford	196	21		RUNNING
24	33	57	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing Chevrolet	192	20		RUNNING
25	32	84	Chris Fontaine	Glenden Enterprises Chevrolet	189	19		RUNNING
26	6	33	Cale Gale #	Rheem Chevrolet	181	18		Accident
27	16	98	Dakoda Armstrong #	EverFi.com Toyota	181	17		Accident
28	19	81	David Starr	Zachry Toyota	165	16		Oil Leak
29	36	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Driven2Honor.org RAM	155	15		RUNNING
30	4	31	James Buescher	Accudoc Chevrolet	135	16	2	Accident	2	91
31	26	27	Travis Miller	HotTorque.com Chevrolet	132	13		RUNNING
32	35	15	Todd Shafer	thunderexhaust.com Toyota	71	12		Accident
33	13	5	Paulie Harraka #	Wauters Motorsports Ford	49	11		Accident
34	34	0	Chris Lafferty	Driven2Honor.org RAM	11	10		Power Steering
35	27	38	Chris Jones	RSS Racing Chevrolet	9	9		Brakes
36	24	14	Brennan Newberry	NTS/IronClad Performance Chevrolet	5	8		Accident