FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Four years ago, Justin Peck came to the Rumble in Fort Wayne as an unknown commodity, driving a Steve Clay-owned No. 5x midget that wasn’t given a prayer of contending for the victory.
He promptly silenced any non-believers with finishes of second and third, behind winners Billy Wease and Derek Bischak, that showcased he was a 14-year-old with potential and a lot of speed.
Fast forward a year to Dec. 27-28, 2013, where Peck had his only career DNF to-date at the Rumble on opening night before storming to a stunning victory on night two, passing Friday winner Russ Gamester with two laps to go and going on to the biggest win of his young career.
After a second win on Saturday in 2014, Peck’s Rumble last year saw two disappointing fifth-place efforts despite having speed all day in qualifying and his heat races.
That lackluster (by his standards) effort has the now-18 year old hungry and motivated to get back to victory lane at the “Indoor Jungle” during this year’s 19th annual Rumble in Fort Wayne, Dec. 30-31 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
“Man, I’m hungry for a win,” Peck said. “Last year, I really felt like we had the car to sweep both races … to be completely honest. We just weren’t able to pull the trigger like we needed to, and I think I was honestly a little bit too aggressive. That burnt off the right rear tire too quickly, and that always hurts you at the Coliseum. I just didn’t have the power down I needed.”
“This year, I feel really good about it though. I feel like our team is back stronger, I’m back smarter and it’ll be a lot better of a race for us.”
Peck has had a rough year, only scoring one win with the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget Series in 2016 to go with 12 top five and 17 top-10 finishes in 27 starts, but he still managed to scrape out a runner-up finish in the championship standings to Zach Daum.
That isn’t good enough, however, according to the driver. Peck wants more, and says he feels like he’s learned enough from his misfortunes this season to be able to find the difference-makers.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve matured as a driver and I’ve matured as an individual,” the Monrovia, Ind. teenager explained. “I think I’m a little wiser about certain things than I was in the past … maybe I don’t push quite as hard quite as early anymore, or save the equipment better than I used to. It’s a lot of little things, really.”
“I know it still takes the right set of circumstances to go our way, but I think this year we have the best combination we’ve ever had to go out and chase down these victories. Hopefully, we can get all the strings to fall right for us and get a couple of trophies to take back home with us.”
Peck adds that when you have a rough season, like the one he did this year, coming back to a familiar and favorite track does a lot to put a driver’s mind at ease.”
“The Rumble comes at a good time for us. It’s a track I really enjoy and it’s a track where we’ve had a pretty good setup over the years. That, for a driver, is really reassuring. I always have full confidence going into the Coliseum. Since I’ve run indoors there … I think our average finish is around fifth (4.8) … so I mean, that in itself is huge.”
“You just have to be patient. That’s the name of the game. I’ve never been known for that … but I feel like I’ve learned how to, surprisingly, and that’s going to be the secret to winning again this year.”
