Despite the fact that he’s been away from the Truck Series for the better part of a year, Peters has remained very active in motorsports, racing a late model in his own right as well as giving support to Nelson Motorsports and its other drivers along the way.
The highlight of Peters’ return to grassroots short track racing came last September, when he took Nelson’s team to victory lane in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville, scoring his second-career win in the crown jewel event.
“Since I’ve been away, I’ve been working a lot with our late model stock car team – Autos by Nelson and Nelson Motorsports,” Peters said. “We loaded those guys up yesterday … Brandon Pierce and Bobby McCarty, and they’re headed to Myrtle Beach (Speedway) for the CARS Tour race.”
“As far as my driving, we won the 300 here last year … and that was huge. That was a proud moment for all of us. So far this year, I was able to participate in the season-opening CARS race at Tri-County a couple of weeks ago, and it was a really tough field. Honestly, I felt like it was a mini field of here (at Martinsville). You had Lee (Pulliam), Tommy Lemons (Jr.), Josh Berry and all those guys, so that was a great experience as well.”
Peters has been an advocate for short track racing throughout his career, and that was no more evident than on Friday, when he made a push for the amount of drivers in lower levels of the sport deserving of a shot in NASCAR.
“Short track racing is really thriving right now,” he stressed. “There is a line from here to Myrtle Beach and back of guys that deserve an opportunity to be here today and be in one of these trucks because they are talented groups. It’s just a selected few that can get in, but however they can get in they deserve to be here.”
“This type of racing is the best; it’s the closest to grassroots racing that there is … and especially here at Martinsville, the Trucks always put on a great show. It’s side-by-side racing, there might be some fender and door damage, or the only thing straight at the end of the race might be the greenhouse, but you can still have a decent finish, even if there are a lot of mad people around you. That’s what this is all about.”
Peters still believes he can win in the Truck Series, as well, even if the average age of the field continues to dip lower and lower compared to his own.
“There is a lot of talent and a lot of tough competition in the Truck Series – obviously Kyle (Benjamin) and Ben (Rhodes) have proven that throughout their careers so far – but these guys are hard racers,” said Peters. “I’m 37 and I’m older compared to a lot of these guys, but I feel as young as they do.”
“It’s going to be fun to mix it up with them, and hopefully we can be in position Saturday to execute and contend for a win.”
