RACE REPORT
Lucas Oil 150
Phoenix International Raceway
November 11, 2016
Red Horse Racing at Phoenix International Raceway
For the penultimate race of the 2016 season and the final event in the Championship Chase Round of Six, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams went west to Phoenix, Arizona for the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway. On Friday, teams participated in two practice sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Matt Tifft, in the No. 11 BrainGear/Surface Sunscreen Toyota Tundra, posted the 11th and 16th fastest times, while Timothy Peters, in the No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, was ninth and 17th on the board. Friday evening, the lineup for the 150-lap event was set with three rounds of knockout, group qualifying. Tifft transferred to the second round and earned the 17th starting spot while fighting a free condition, and Peters advanced to the final round to earn the eighth spot on the grid. The green flag fell, and during a rash of early cautions, Peters worked his way into the top five, battling for every position and point in the Championship Chase. The handling of the No. 11 Tundra improved as conditions changed and Tifft drove his way to an eighth-place finish. Peters would finish the night in fifth, earning a spot in the Championship Four to compete for the series title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Timothy Peters No. 17
No. 17 Red Horse Racing
Toyota Tundra
Timothy Peters Finishes Fifth, Earns Spot in Championship Four
Timothy Peters and the No. 17 Red Horse Racing team earned a fifth-place finish in the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway and a berth in the Championship Four in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase. In two practice sessions early in the day on Friday, Peters fought a tight Toyota Tundra and posted the ninth and 17th fastest times. In three rounds of knockout, group qualifying, Peters transferred to the final round and secured the eighth spot in the starting lineup. The 150-lap event began with a series of caution flags, where Peters encountered a tight Toyota Tundra, and crew chief Shane Huffman counseled him to save fuel. Huffman called him to pit road under caution on lap 65 for four Goodyear tires, Sunoco fuel and a wedge adjustment. Following the stop, the balance on the red-and-white Tundra shifted to free and Peters climbed as high as third as he battled to earn a spot in the Championship Four, even as his Tundra tightened up. On the final restart with four laps to go, Peters held on to a top-five finish and earned the final seed in the Championship Four to battle for the NCWTS Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Start – 8
Finish – 5
Driver Points Position – 4
Owner Points Position – 9
Laps Led – 0
Timothy Peters Quote:
“We unloaded today and we were off a little bit. Shane (Huffman, crew chief) and all the guys worked really hard to get our balance. This is a pretty cool moment to sit up here, myself and Christopher (Bell) and then Matt (Crafton) and Johnny (Sauter) running for a championship – to be involved with the first Chase is pretty cool. This one goes to the men and women of Red Horse Racing – Shane Huffman and all the crew guys, the road guys – they work their butts off and the Lord has really blessed us for sure. We’ve been lucky a lot of times and maybe finished some races that we probably shouldn’t have. Homestead is a pretty decent track for us so I’m looking forward to going down there and seeing what we’ve got.”
Matt Tifft
No. 11 BrainGear/Surface Sunscreen
Toyota Tundra
Top-10 for Matt Tifft in Phoenix
Matt Tifft and the No. 11 BrainGear/Surface Sunscreen team wrapped up the Round of Six with an eighth-place finish at the Phoenix International Raceway on Friday night. The result is Tifft’s third top-10 finish of the season. Tifft rode the seesaw between a tight and loose balance in two practices, where he was 11th and 16th-fastest, respectively. Tifft struggled with a free condition in qualifying after the sun went down, but came alive once it was time to race. After a rash of four caution flags flew in the first 26 circuits, Tifft quickly ascended from his 17th-place starting spot into the top 10 by lap 56. Once crew chief Scott Zipadelli brought the 20-year-old to pit road under a lap 64 caution, no chassis adjustments were necessary, as most of Tifft’s handling issues from practice had subsided. As cautions blanketed the race’s second half, with the longest green flag run ending after 31 laps, Tifft maneuvered his way into eighth by lap 140 thanks to the neutral handing condition of his Tundra. The final caution flew on lap 141, which set up a four-lap dash to the checkers, during which Tifft maintained the eighth position to collect his third top-10 finish in nine starts this season.
Start – 17
Finish – 8
Owner Points Position – 7
Laps Led – 0
Matt Tifft Quote:
“We needed a night like this, smooth and solid in the top-10 and these No. 11 guys put a great BrainGear/Surface Sunscreen Tundra underneath me. I’m proud to be a part of the whole effort this Red Horse Racing team has put in all season. We were a little on the free side tonight, but were pretty close to neutral and that helped us to get rolling on a couple of those longer runs. In this series, fourth (position) on back is so tight and competitive, you could interchange a lot of those trucks based on pure speed, so it was nice to take advantage of restarts and gain some positions when we had the opportunity. Overall, we had a great night. Zippy (Scott Zipadelli) and the guys fought hard all night, and I can’t wait to get to Homestead and finish the year out with another strong effort.”
