Trucks: Peters wins with a push at Talladega

Timothy Peters used some unexpected help to return to a piece of familiar ground Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.

Peters passed leader Brandon Jones on a restart with two laps remaining to win the fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola NCWTS race. It was the second consecutive victory at Talladega Superspeedway for Peters, who also drove to Gatorade Victory Lane in last year’s race here.

Peters made his pass thanks in part to a strong push from Spencer Gallagher, who is Jones’ teammate at Gallagher Motorsports. But when Jones chose to restart from the low side of the track, it placed Gallagher directly behind Peters on the high side, and Peters was able to use that aerodynamic assistance to power past Jones.

“Teammates are good for about 90 laps. But when you’re getting close to the checkered flag, you’re on your own,” said Peters, who began the race from the pole position. “I knew it was going to be every man for himself. I appreciate the push Spencer gave me.”

Jones, an 18-year-old NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie, finished second to post his sixth top-10 finish of the season and his fifth in the past seven races.

“We had a shot to win it, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Jones said. “After (Peters) got by me, there wasn’t too much else I could have done.”

Mason Mingus finished third, followed by NCWTS points leader Erik Jones in fourth and Tyler Reddick fifth. Jones leads Reddick by 18 points in the point standings.

Matt Crafton entered the race only four points behind Erik Jones in the standings, and Crafton led 43 of the first 66 laps. But Crafton dropped out of the lead because of an overheating issue, and then got caught up in an incident at the end and finished 24th, dropping him 23 points behind Jones with only four races remaining.

“It was a really, really great day for us in the points,” Erik Jones said. “I never would have thought we’d come out of this race that far ahead. Everything from the best to the worst can happen at Talladega, and fortunately the best happened for us today.”

Peters dedicated his victory to Ashlee Richmond, the sister of team crew chief Marcus Richmond. Ashlee is battling cancer, and her name and a cancer awareness ribbon decal were displayed on the truck.

“It’s great to go to Victory Lane at Talladega with Ashlee riding shotgun with me,” Peters said. “This is just an awesome feeling.”