Camping World Truck Series veteran Timothy Peters has received his shot in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. On Wednesday, Ricky Benton Racing confirmed to The Racing Experts that the 37-year-old Virginian will make his Cup debut with the team in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, driving the #92 Ford.
Rumors of the move surfaced on Tuesday when the team posted an Instagram photo of the Cup car. Upon closer inspection by fans, they discovered Peters’ name on the nameplate above the passenger’s side window. The news was officially confirmed by the team days later.
Peters has been a household name on the Truck Series circuit. A former Bobby Hamilton Racing development driver, he began racing full-time in the series in 2009 for Red Horse Racing. He spent seven seasons in the team’s #17 truck, winning ten races and finishing in the top five in points on five occasions, including a runner-up finish in 2012 and a Championship Four appearance in 2016. He ran the first five races of the 2017 season before the team shut down after the Charlotte Motor Speedway race due to sponsorship problems.
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Following Red Horse’s closure, he signed a one-race deal with MDM Motorsports at Texas Motor Speedway, a race that ended in dramatic fashion when he flipped on the final lap and finished thirteenth. He later ran two races for Young’s Motorsports, finishing eleventh and tenth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, respectively. For the 2018 season, Peters joined RBR’s Truck Series team, driving the #92 truck to a seventh-place run at Martinsville Speedway. The race is RBR’s lone 2018 Truck start to date.
In February, RBR entered the #92 Ford in the Daytona 500 for David Gilliland, the Californian’s first Cup start since 2016 and the team’s first Cup race. After starting thirty-ninth, he finished fourteenth.
Despite his experience in the Truck Series, it will be Peters’ first NASCAR national series start in a stock car in over a decade. In 2006 and 2007, he drove the #29 and #21 cars for Richard Childress Racing in eight Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) races, recording a best finish of thirteenth at Phoenix International Raceway (now ISM Raceway).
Talladega been one of Peters’ strongest tracks during his Truck career. In eight races at the superspeedway, he has two wins (2014 and 2015), four top fives, five top tens, and a pole. With Talladega’s unpredictability as a plate track and RBR’s strong run with Gilliland at the Daytona 500, it would not be surprising if Peters proves to be a capable driver in his first Cup race. Gilliland’s 500 car will be used in the GEICO 500.
The 2018 GEICO 500 will take place on 29 April. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending winner.
