Dodge Motorsports driver Timothy Peters was involved in an on track incident not of his own making in the early stages of the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Gateway International Raceway causing extreme damage to his No. 4 Dodge.  On lap 7 rookie Joey Miller drove his truck across the rumble strips of the track in between turns three and four, causing him to get loose and wash into Steve Park, who in turn pushed up into Peters forcing his No. 4 Dodge to slam hard into the turn four retaining wall. The BHR pit crew did their best in a timely manner to get his truck fixed and back on the track.  The result of their hard work paid off when Peters managed to pick up four spots and finish the event in the 32nd position. 

“He ran me up the wall and I had no where to go,” a disturbed Peters said in the garage area.  “I don’t know what they were thinking out there right at the beginning of the race like that.  We were stuck starting 29th because of rained-out qualifying, and had no where to turn when they bumped into each other.  This accident caused us to fall out of the top 30 in points, so now if it rains we will be in trouble for qualifying.  It makes me mad that this happened right in the opening laps.  It just really complicates things for our team.  We’ll bounce back and pass these guys, if the others would just stop wrecking around me.”

No. 4 Dodge Motorsports Dodge Gateway Race Recap

• Qualifying for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 was cancelled due to inclement weather.  As a result the field was started on drivers points.  Peters started in the 29th position.  NASCAR did manage to get the teams one hour of practice earlier in the day without rain, and Peters safely placed himself in the top 10. 
• Only seven laps into the event, Joey Miller drove his truck across the rumble strips of the track in between turns three and four.  It caused him to get loose and wash into Steve Park, who in turn washed into Peters’ No. 4 Dodge. 
• Peters pan caked the wall on the right side causing extreme damage to his truck.  The BHR team met him in the garage area to assess the damage and do their best to get him back out there.  They tore off pieces of the front end, and welded some back together.  Crew Chief Kip McCord said, “It knocked in the front clip so bad that it knocked a whole the size of a silver dollar in the header.”  But the team managed to get Peters’ mangled truck back on the track by lap 70.
• The team took advantage of a caution on lap 88 to put fresh Goodyear tires and fill up the Dodge Ram with Sunoco fuel.  They also gave the truck a quick glance to make sure that no pieces were moving. 
• On lap 98 McCord told his driver, “Your lap time was fast enough to run in the top 15 even with that mangled truck.”  Then only four laps later Peters was running the same time as the leader with a 34.70 second lap.
• On lap 112 Peters barely missed a caution when Erin Crocker spun.  The team used this time to bring their driver onto pit road to give the Dodge 10 more laps of gas, enough for Peters to make it until the end of the race.  Peters laughed with his team, “It sounds like this truck is Herbie Fully Loaded,” as he said revving up his engine. 
• Another caution on lap 142 showed a bird’s eye view from Peters’ in-truck camera and how he practically stopped to scrape by the accident.  The team double checked the tires for debris and the driver managed to finish the event missing the final two cautions in 32nd position. 

“You know it is really hard when you have an awesome team and an awesome driver, but never have the chance to show it,” Peters said of his Dodge Motorsports team.  “I wasn’t even pushing it out there and we had a mangled truck that ran the same times as the leaders.  Charlotte is my type of race track and so we’re looking to make up some lost ground there.”

Todd Bodine won the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 in front of an estimated crowd of 40,000. Ted Musgrave, David Reutimann, Jack Sprague and Johnny Benson rounded out the top five. The next event for the NCTS competitors is slated for May 19th at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, NC.