Peters steals Fr8Auctions 250 win with last lap charge
Timothy Peters, driver of the No. 25 Kingman Chevrolet for GMS Racing, celebrates his Fr8Auction 250 victory at Talladega Superspeedway. Peters made a last lap pass to score his first victory of the season.
After a hectic finish to the Fr8Auction 250 race at Talladega Superspeedway, Timothy Peters, driver of the No. 25 Kingman Chevrolet for GMS Racing, robbed the playoff contenders of the win.
Was it a bump? At that point, it didn’t matter. I was going for a win
— Fr8Auctions 250 race winner Timothy Peters
“Wow. [Winning] feels so special,” said Peters. “God is good. He has a plan.”
Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 18 Safelite Autoglass Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, took the lead from Haley on the final lap, but after contact between the top three drivers Gragson was spun out into the outside wall before he could earn the victory. This incident led to chaos ensuing behind them involving several other drivers and leading to Peters taking the win.
“Was it a bump? At that point, it didn’t matter,” Peters said. “I was going for a win. I hate that the outcome was what it was, but it feels good to cross that finish line knowing that we won the race.”
Because all eight of the playoff drivers were involved in incidents throughout the race, the playoff points they had coming into Talladega had a bigger impact than initially expected. Stewart Friesen, driver of the No. 52 We Build America Chevrolet for Halmar Racing, and Ben Rhodes, driver of the No. 41 Carolina Nut Co. Ford for ThorSport Racing, were ten and seven points below the final position, respectively. This didn’t change and both Friesen and Rhodes as the bottom drivers were eliminated.
Georgia native Wendell Chavous, driver of the No. 49 SobrietyNation Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports, finished fifth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Fr8Auctions 250 race at Talladega Superspeedway. Coming from a smaller racing team makes this an even bigger deal for a driver like Chavous. “We finished 12th at Daytona and we knew we would run good,” Chavous said. “These kind of races take a lot of luck. You just [have to] be in the right place at the right time.”
Rookie Myatt Snider, driver of the No. 13 RideTV Ford for ThorSport Racing, scored his best career finish by taking the runner-up spot. Snider was able to score top-10 finishes in both the first and second stage of the race as well. Polesitter David Gilliland, driver of the No. 51 Pedigree Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, took home a third place finish after staying up front for the majority of the day. Coming in fourth with the best finish of the playoff contenders was Justin
Haley, driver of the No. 24 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet for GMS Racing, after rebounding from an accident in Stage 3.
“It was insanely hectic out there,” Snider said. “Luckily, I got behind some good trucks. I got behind Timothy for a while. Me and him worked together really well.”
Most notable of the top five was Georgia driver Wendell Chavous, operator of the No. 49 SobrietyNation Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports. Chavous stayed toward the back for most of the race, but charged to the front in the final stage, finishing fifth.
“We sat there and hung out in the back for a little bit, but when it came time to race at the end, my spotter on the radio told me it was time to go,” Chavous said.
Although aggression remained high from the beginning of the race, “the big one” didn’t come until lap 60. Ten cars were involved in this wreck including playoff contenders Matt Crafton, driver of the No. 88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Ford for ThorSport Racing, Rhodes and Haley.
Crafton’s day ended following the wreck, but his championship hopes were able to stay alive thanks to a comfortable points cushion coming into the race and the other playoff drivers being involved in incidents.
Matt Crafton, driver of the No. 88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Ford for ThorSport Racing, was involved in “the big one” that occured on lap 60. Although Crafton was involved in the accident, he was still able to advance to the next round of the playoffs.
“I knew it was going to happen, to be honest,” Crafton said. “It’s Talladega. I did what I could do the first two segments. I think we finished fourth and I don’t know the second or whatever it is in the second one, and we put ourselves in a position and if we get eliminated because of other people’s doings, we did everything we could do.”
The accident hurt Rhodes the most as he was already below the cutoff to advance and this only left him with more ground to make up in less time. Even though Rhodes ended up finishing the race in sixth, this wasn’t enough to dig him out of the hole he was in. Rhodes went into the race seven points below the cutoff to advance and finished just three points out of the Round of 6.
The playoff drivers will get a fresh start next week as they move into the Round of 6 at Martinsville Speedway. Fans can tune in to the Texas Roadhouse 200 presented by Alpha Energy Solutions at 1 p.m. EDT on Oct. 20.
