Timothy Peters takes NASCAR Trucks race at Talladega

Timothy Peters was the beneficiary of a new green-white-checkered finish rule at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, winning the Fred’s 250 NASCAR Truck Series race.

Peters, who started on the pole, was the race leader on the first lap of overtime when the caution flag came out for a wreck involving John Wes Townley and Spender Gallagher. Thanks to the rule that limited the race to just one green-white-finish (also in effect for Sunday’s Cup race), Peters was declared the winner.

Brandon Jones, 18, who will run full time in the Xfinity Series race next season, finished second. He was the race leader on the final restart before falling behind Peters. Mason Mingus was third, and series points leader Erik Jones was fourth.

Turning point

Peters took the lead on the final restart ahead of Jones. Peters didn’t have the lead for long; less than a lap later, another wreck during the green-white-checkered finish ended the race.

Three who mattered

Timothy Peters: Peters enjoys Talladega’s fall race — he won the same event in 2014.

Erik Jones: Truck points leader finished fourth and stretched his lead over Matt Crafton to 18.

Matt Crafton: Ran into trouble late in the race when A) a piece of debris got caught in his grill, dropping him back in the field; B) ran out of gas a few laps later; and C) was caught up in the wreck that forced the green-white-checkered finish. He ended up 25th.

Observations

▪ Talladega’s newly adopted single green-white-checkered finish rule was quickly put into use. After the wreck on the first lap of the overtime, the race was over — just like that.

▪ Brian Keselowski, the older brother of team owner Brad Keselowski, was in line to start third on a late restart, but he ran out of gas. Brian Keselowski, who led 10 laps in his first Truck series start, finished 17th.

▪ Mooresville’s John Hunter Nemechek, a recent Davidson Day grad, finished 11th. Nemechek, 18, won his first career Truck race at Chicagoland in September.

They said it

“Recently, we’ve gotten all our pieces clicking.” – Tom DeLoach, Peters’ team owner.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Timothy Peters takes NASCAR Trucks race at Talladega."