This week has been filled with nostalgia for Timothy Peters.
The 37-year-old Danville native unearthed a photo from 2001 that shows him settling into the driver’s seat of a white and blue No. 91 Chevrolet for his first Late Model Stock Car test. He took that photo and paired it with a more recent one of a slick red No. 92 Ford he will pilot this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway in his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start.
A 17-year odyssey in auto racing that featured as many ups as downs has finally netted Peters his dream opportunity of racing at NASCAR’s top level with Ricky Benton Racing.
“To put me in their Ford Fusion speaks volumes, and I’m so humbled and thankful for the opportunity that they thought of me to do that,” Peters said in a phone interview earlier this week.
Peters’ first Cup Series start comes at a track where he has enjoyed previous success. Two of his 10 career Camping World Truck Series victories came at the 2.66-mile superspeedway in 2014 and ‘15, and he posted five top-10 finishes in eight starts.
He also owns a victory at the sport’s other restrictor-plate track, Daytona International Raceway, in 2010.
“I think that it is a great opportunity,” Peters said. “I appreciate Ricky Benton and everybody at RBR for really believing in me to step up to the plate, knowing that I haven’t driven in a car like that. Hopefully what little bit of experience and success that I’ve had on superspeedways will help shorten the learning curve when we hit the race track for the first time Friday.”
Peters raced with RBR earlier this season in the Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway, and the seventh-place run cemented a relationship between the driver and the small team from Cerro Gordo, North Carolina.
“We had a really good run, a very strong, respectable seventh-place finish. I just got along so well with the guys,” Peters said. “For what those guys do, it’s pretty impressive really. They put a lot of their heart and soul and effort into the program, and they have results that prove their hard work.”
RBR posted a 14th-place finish with David Gilliland earlier this year in the Daytona 500.
The 17 years between Peters’ first Late Model test and initial Cup Series start featured several Late Model track championships throughout the region, a development deal with Richard Childress Racing, and an eight-year tenure driving for Tom DeLoach’s Red Horse Racing in the Truck Series.
DeLoach shuttered RHR early in the 2017 season, which relegated Peters to the sidelines for the majority of the Truck Series season.
He made one start for MDM Motorsports at Texas Motor Speedway and raced twice with Young’s Motorsports while also sporadically making appearances with Nelson Motorsports on the Late Model scene.
Peters posted three top-13 finishes in the Truck Series with the two teams, and he won the Valley Star Credit Union 300 at Martinsville for his second Late Model victory at his home track.
His Late Model success continued this season with a victory in the Icebreaker 125 at Myrtle Beach Speedway and a third-place finish two Thursdays ago in the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown at Langley Speedway.
“With how we’ve performed, it’s definitely helped keep my name out there through some big races that we’ve been able to win,” Peters said. “It definitely helped keep my name out there for sure.”
Michael Hester will serve as Peters’ crew chief this weekend. Qualifying for the GEICO 500 is at 1:05 p.m. Saturday and the race is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.
“I jumped at it because those guys are great to be around,” Peters said. “Mike Hester and all the guys in the shop really pull for me to get the opportunity. I can’t wait to get to Talladega and try it out.”