Peters wins truck pole in Darlington

Timothy Peters

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Timothy Peters topped the field for Saturday night’s Too Tough To Tame 200 at Darlington Raceway as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series makes their first to the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval after a six-year absence.

Peters’ lap of 170.845 mph was enough to hold off James Buescher for the pole, putting his Toyota Tundra at the head of the field for the second time this season and the third of his six-year Truck Series career.

Peters was the third quickest in the final practice session held earlier in the day. Saturday night’s race will mark his first career Darlington start.

Buescher came up just short of the top spot with a top speed of 170.738 mph in the no. 31 Chevrolet, to put him second on the grid, his fifth top-three start in the last eight starts.

Peters’ Red Horse Racing teammate Justin Lofton qualified third, followed by Aric Almirola and Ron Hornaday. Ken Schrader, Stacy Compton, Todd Bodine, Austin Dillon and Brian Ickler rounded out the top ten qualifiers.

Saturday night’s race will be the first visit for the trucks to Darlington Raceway since 2004, the last year the track hosted two race weekends.

Many of the drivers in the 36-truck field turned their first ever lap at the track during Saturday’s first practice session, which hummed along incident-free, although several drivers earned their first “Darlington stripe" with a brush against the turn four wall.

With nicknames like the Lady In Black and The Track To Tough To Tame, Darlington has earned a reputation as a track that chews up stock cars and trucks alike and spits them out – a track that is difficult to master and favors the veterans over the inexperienced.

“Experience does give (the veterans) a huge advantage," said Bodine. “We got thousand of laps here, and understand the subtle nuances about this racetrack that can make you fast or make you slow, and that’s something that these rookies are going to have to learn on their own."

Bodine is the only driver in the field with a Darlington victory, albeit coming in the Nationwide Series back in 2003. He was one of several veteran drivers who attended the meeting for rookie drivers prior to the first practice session, sharing their experiences on how to avoid becoming a victim of the “Lady In Black".

“We pretty much put the fear of the Lady in Black in them, so I’m sure all of them are being very, very careful," said Bodine. “We told them about all the little things that can go wrong, that this place can jump up and bite you, and obviously they paid attention.

“We’ve all been told 100 times, that you race this track, you don’t race each other. We probably said it 20 times in that rookie meeting – race the racetrack, if someone runs you down, don’t think you’re going to race them side by side for a lap or even half a lap, because you can’t do that here. You’ve got to race this racetrack to get to the end."

Schrader, who is making is fifth start of the season driving for NASCAR Sprint Cup owner Kevin Harvick, has turned more laps at Darlington than anyone in the field with 55 career starts in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series.

More than anything else, Schrader says, the Darlington’s new surface – re-paved in 2008 – would play a big role in Saturday night’s race.

“The traffic is going to be huge, and there’s got to be a little bit of give-and-take," said Schrader. “It wasn’t as bad before with the old pavement and the way the tires gave up because you slowed down so much so quick….you could get around them easy.

“Now, with no one slowing up, for one to pass the other, they’re both going to have to be involved."

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