MONROVIA, Ind. – Story by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman – Performance Motorsports Network audio – Rowana Ray photo –
Justin Peck enters the 2014 Rumble in Fort Wayne in quite the different set of circumstances than he expected to.
The defending National Midget winner at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum planned on racing a full season of dirt competition – predominated by POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series starts – to keep his momentum rolling all the way through the year before returning to the Rumble.
However, things rarely go according to plan.
Peck was forced to sit out of the car for nearly two months in June and July after a concussion sustained in a crash during Indiana Midget Week at Putnamville Speedway sent him to the sidelines, sapping the young Hoosier of valuable track time during the summer. He didn’t let that stop him however, returning to the car at Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway on July 28th – and proceeding to win the event.
Just for good measure, he won the following weekend at Gas City I-69 Speedway as well.
Peck said had it not been for the success he had right out of the box following being cleared to drive that he might have never been able to get back over the hump and salvage his 2014 season.
“It boosted my confidence a lot,” Peck said. “It really made me feel like I knew what I was doing again.”
“The wreck itself helped me grow as a driver and taught me patience – that you don’t always have to be a hero,” Peck added. “Truth be told, I’m not sure the rest of our season would have gone the way it did had it not been for those two wins because they made me stop and realize exactly how much I learned.”
“I’m just glad we were able to get the ship righted in a hurry and (the momentum’s) carried through the rest of our season like I has. I’ve had a lot of fun behind the wheel.”
Just last weekend, Peck traded slide jobs with multi-time USAC National Champion Bryan Clauson at the POWRi-sanctioned Great Clips Battle at the Center in DuQuoin, Ill., coming home third after chasing Joey Saldana for the lead inside of five laps to go in one of the deepest fields of POWRi competition all season.
“I was going to try to wait until the last lap to throw a big slider on Joey if I had gotten close enough, but Bryan snuck in there and made it a little fun,” Peck said of the final laps. “It was a good race, (it) had me scared a couple times [because] I thought we were going to get caught up in a wreck.”
Now, with momentum, renewed resolve, a familiar car owner and a new set of circumstances and rules for this year’s Rumble in Fort Wayne, Peck returns determined to repeat his success from a year ago.
And why shouldn’t he be among the favorites? The teenage hotshoe has three podium finishes in four feature appearances at the Rumble – the only blemish being a DNF due to an oil leak on opening night last year.
“In my mind [last year], I had to prove something after we had the DNF the first night,” Peck said, “and we went out and won the race. This year, I want to prove that last year’s win wasn’t a fluke or a lucky break.”
Peck does say that the added night of racing on this year’s card – and the challenge of points racing for the inaugural Rumble championship – will make this go-round a little bit tougher on all of the drivers, but he also adds that it’s the same-old Fort Wayne race track – and that may play right into his hands.
“It’s definitely going to make [the racing] a lot more intense, but with the weekend being extended and having the bonus, you’ll definitely have to race a lot smarter and a lot cleaner,” Peck explained. “We’ve got what we hit the track with last year, and we don’t have another car if we tear something major up, but you’re going to have to drive hard the first two nights to even have a chance on the final night — and I think that balance of patience and aggression is going to be where I’ll really be able to be strong.”
All changes aside, however — the young star goes into this race as the defending champion, and more eager than any other event he has competed in all year long — and says that the past year has gone by far too slowly for his liking.
“It can’t come quick enough,” Peck said of green flag time. “I’ve been waiting for it ever since it ended last year. The Rumble is just something that every time it happens, you just can’t wait to get back at it again.”
Listen in to an extended cut of Race Chaser Online’s interview with defending Rumble in Fort Wayne champion Justin Peck from last Monday’s episode of Motorsports Madness:
