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Camping World Trucks - Peters Rockingham Preview


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Rockingham, Apr. 11, 2012: SERIES DEBUT: It has been eight years since the one-mile track of Rockingham Speedway has seen one of NASCAR's three premier series in action. The Sunday's spectacle will be the debut for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the historic track. The No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra has already hit the aged asphalt this year during a Goodyear tire test in March.

NOT HIS FIRST RODEO: Though this weekend's Truck Series event will be the first for the series, Peters has quite the track record at Rockingham Speedway. Peters began driving go-karts at the age of eight and has collected two championships at the track in the early 1990's.

HLYTON REMEMBERS: Crew chief Butch Hylton is anxious to get back to racing at 'The Rock'. Hylton visited victory lane as car chief for 2000 Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte in the fall of 1999. Alongside his victory, the duo returned to the rock in 2001 and was in contention for the win. This was a sentimental race for all, as it was the first race after the death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. It was Labonte's race to win, but right at the end of the race, a Dale Earnhardt Inc. owned car driven by Steve Park, made the right final adjustments and captured the victory. This tearful win, is one that Hylton cherishes and a memory at Rockingham Speedway that many will never forget.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: In front of his hometown family and friends, Peters raced his way to a fifth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway. The NTB/Service Central driver qualified third for the 250-lap event and remained in the hunt all afternoon bringing home his second consecutive top-five finish of 2012.

CHASSIS HISTORY: This weekend at Rockingham Speedway the No. 17 team will unload Chassis No. 093. This chassis hit the track for five events during the 2011 season including Iowa Speedway, Kentucky Speedway in the fall, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway in November and at the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This chassis had its best qualifying effort at Iowa with a fourth-place starting position and it's best finishing position of third in Las Vegas.

Timothy Peters talks about the debut at Rockingham Speedway:

What did you learn at the Goodyear tire test last month?

"Tire fall off is pretty significant and you can run the bottom, middle or top lines through the turns. I've watched a lot of the Cup races back in the day at Rockingham and they were really exciting. We had a lot of testing to do for Goodyear and those scenarios helped me to experience the tire wear and tire management with the throttle. It's going to be fun.

What are you most excited about racing at Rockingham? "I'm going to tell you what, you guys are going to get an awesome race. Andy Hillenburg (track owner) and his staff have done a great job there. It's pretty cool for me because I've done a lot of go-kart racing there in the early 90s and to finally turn laps around that place during the tire test, it was pretty cool. Once the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series gets there, it's going to be game on. The coolest part would be getting your name engraved in the rock outside. That's our goal."