1/21/2015
Peck Debuts At Chili Bowl With Impressive Results
(Photo by Dylan Duvall Photography)
TULSA, Okla. – Going into his first Chili Bowl Nationals, Monrovia, Indiana driver Justin Peck was carrying tremendous momentum from the past month of indoor racing. A POWRi Battle at the Center podium finish behind World of Outlaws star Joey Saldana and multi-time USAC Sprint champion Bryan Clauson, and then a feature win the following weekend at the Rumble in Fort Wayne and a tie for the overall Rumble points championship, would build a full head of steam for the 16-year-old Mooresville (IN) High School sophomore leading up to the prestigious race held in Tulsa’s River Spirit Expo Center every January, with this year’s entry list destroying previous totals at 326 drivers.
After two comfortable practice sets on Monday, Peck would be waiting through two days of preliminary action before qualifying his family’s #5x on Thursday night. He’d kick his qualifying night off as one of 80 entries signing in. Ten, 10-lap heat races with an even eight cars apiece would take to the track, with Peck’s Dura Coat entry set to start fifth in heat two. In that race, he’d get into fourth on the start, but the track was still rather narrow and hard to pass on, and the race was caution-free; Peck would settle in and collect the fourth-place finish.
The effort was enough to move him on to the qualifiers, 34th in points after heat races were complete, with the top 40 going to four qualifiers and the balance to D- and C-mains. He would start ninth in the 10-lap race, quickly moving up two spots to seventh in the first two laps. By the final lap, Peck had positioned his DRC/Esslinger in sixth, and maneuvered past one more car to finish fifth.
The points tally after heats and qualifiers narrowly excluded Peck from an automatic bid into the preliminary feature, but positioned him outside the front row for the first of two B-mains, where the top four would move to the A. In the end, renowned young-gun Christopher Bell won the B, with Peck in second ahead of open-wheel star Davey Ray and NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Finishing second in the B-main would grid the rising star Peck in 19th for the 25-lap nightcap. The first lap went smoothly for the entire field, and then came the big one: 12 of 24 cars were collected in a pile-up on lap two in turn two. Peck, along with Stenhouse, Bell, and four-time Chili Bowl champ Kevin Swindell, were among those involved. Remarkably, none of the 12 cars sustained enough damage in the incident to sideline them, and all 24 would restart with one lap in the books, with Peck firing back off in 15th. By lap six, Peck had already picked up five spots to move into the top ten, navigating the treacherous cushion with expert skill. When the crossed flags were displayed indicating the race was at its halfway point, Peck had completed the pass for eighth, and soon after, a caution for third-place Tracy Hines spinning would move the chrome #5x machine into seventh for the restart with 11 to go. However, Swindell and Bell were nipping on Peck’s heels at this point, running eighth and tenth, respectively. The pair would eventually get by, but Peck was able to capture positions from California drivers Ryan Bernal and Shane Golobic before the checkered to keep his seventh-place run intact, moving up an impressive 12 spots. “I’m speechless to how good this car was. I gotta hand it to these guys [the crew],” Peck chimed in after the race. “I could put the car wherever I needed to put it, top or bottom.”
Though the qualifying night went extremely well, there was still work to be done on Saturday. After a whopping 274 cars had already been eliminated, Peck would be sitting on the cusp of making what is arguably the toughest race to get into in all of motorsports: the 55-lap Chili Bowl feature event. He would roll off just outside the final transfer spot in the second of two 20-lap B-mains, in seventh; the top six would move on. Unfortunately for Peck, his race would be brought to an early close. Falling back a few spots in the opening laps, he found himself tenth when a competitor pushed him above the turn three cushion, sending Peck flipping up into the catch fence and becoming entangled in it. He emerged from the car unharmed, but would be scored 20th in the race. Nonetheless, Peck was one of only three rookies to make it as far as the B-main, and will undoubtedly be a threat to win the Golden Driller for years to come.
Peck would like to thank Dura Coat, Simpson Race Products, Lucas Oil, Keizer Wheels, Quick Change Racing Products, and DRC Chassis, as well as his parents, Joe Devin, Carl Thomas, Rich Gabel, Jon Steed, Mike Gass, Zack Burks, and all of his fans for their continued support.
Quick Results
January 15 – Tulsa, OK– Midget – Heat: 4 (5); Qualifier: 5 (9); B-Main: 2 (2); Feature: 7 (19)
January 17 – Tulsa, OK –Midget – B-Main: 20 (7)
Social Media
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Website: http://www.justinpeckracing.com
Article Credit: Redbeard Promotions
