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Peters in
By Randy Fisher
They experienced the highs and the
lows tonight as the O’Reilly NCRA Sprint Car Series,
presented by ICM/Ethanol, thrilled a Steve King
Foundation Night crowd at 81
Humston got around Peters, who led
from the drop of the green, on lap 20 of the 25-lap
feature and began to pull away. But Humston, who had
been running the high groove all night, got too far up
in turn 2 on lap 22 and slipped off the top.
Peters took advantage and moved on by
into the lead. From there, he cruised to the checker for
his second win of the season, padding his series point
lead.
“(Humston) got by me and looked like
he was going to check out,” said Peters, a man of few
words. “There’s no way I can run the top that hard
without slipping off. I guess he couldn’t either.”
The two had built such a large lead
over the field that Humston was able to pull back on the
track in second. That’s where he finished but he felt it
should have been higher.
“I tell you what, we had the win. I
had to be on the edge to get up there and I pushed it
too hard one time,” he said. “We were lucky to get back
out there and finish second.”
Peters started on the pole and got
the jump at the green. Outside pole sitter Jon Freeman
ducked into second, but lost that spot to Marc Robe on
lap two.
As Peters began to pull away, Robe
and Freeman were fighting for second behind him. Koby
Barksdale, Mike Chadd and Humston, were in the next pack
of drivers.
Barksdale, who entered the night as
the point leader in the rookie-of-the-year standings,
was third after the fifth lap, with Humston right behind
him. They each moved up a spot on the next lap and began
to chase down the leader.
Peters, Barksdale and Humston were
was running nose-to-tail eight laps into the contest.
The following lap, Humston went high to pass Barksdale
for second.
As Peters and Humston roared out of
turn 4 and down the front straight to complete lap 10,
Barksdale slid too high trying to keep pace. He smacked
the grandstand wall at the exit of the turn, flipped and
landed on all fours, bringing out the red flag. He was
OK.
On the lap 10 restart, Peters and
Humston pulled away from Freeman, who separated himself
a bit from the others. Behind him, in no particular
order, A.J. Selenke, Robe, C.J. Johnson, J.D. Johnson,
Chadd and Don Droud Jr. took turns running anywhere from
fourth to ninth.
It was on lap 20 when Humston took
the lead coming off turn 4 and quickly pulled away. He
looked to be in position to win until getting too high
in turn 2 just two laps later.
Peters was a distant second but close
enough to move back into the lead.
“I don’t know if we had the fastest
car, but we took the checker first,” he said,
He stayed under power and pulled back
on the track in second, which is where he finished.
“I’m super disappointed with myself.
That was a mental error that never should have
happened,” Humston said. “I don’t think we could have
done anything different besides stay on the track.”
Rounding out the top five were C.J.
Johnson, Freeman and Robe.
Johnson won the B feature and started
13th in the A feature.
“We had a real good car,” he said.
“Wish we could have started up front and maybe given
Mike a little run.”
For Peters, it was his 15th career
NCRA 360 sprint car win. He moved into a third-place tie
for career 360 wins with two-time series champion Jon
Johnson.
With only three races to go, Peters is looking for his initial 360 series championship. The veteran has raced in every NCRA open-wheel division and picked up 46 victories. His only NCRA title came in 1987 when he won the last crown in the old Championship Dirt Car Series.
Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. (81) Jon Freeman,
Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. (51)
Mike Peters,
Heat 3 (8 laps): 1. (23c)
B feature (12 laps, top 8
transfer): 1. C.J.
Johnson, 2. Patrick Stasa, 3. J.D. Johnson, 4. Cody
Forshee, 5. Scott Lehman, 6. Luke Cranston, 7. Dwight
Schroeder, 8. Derek Drown, 9. Jason Schroeder, 10. Roger
Lundquist, DNS John O’Neal.
A
feature (25 laps): 1. Mike Peters, 2.