Philadelphia, PA – After taking a break last weekend, the Camping World Truck Series resumes its schedule on Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.
Timothy Peters holds only a six-point lead over James Buescher, while rookie Austin Dillon trails by just nine points. Parker Kligerman isn't too far behind in fourth-place (-21).
After winning the Aug. 22 race at Bristol, Peters had a 17-point advantage over Buescher. Peters led all 204 laps in that event.
"There have been several times this year where we've come so close to a win, and leading all the laps at Bristol was huge for us, but Iowa was special for me because it kind of reminded me of my late model days," Peters said. "We sat on the pole. We had a really good truck, and we won the race."
One week after Bristol, Buescher finished third at Atlanta and trimmed 11 points off of Peters' lead. Peters placed 13th there.
Peters has been the points leader for the last seven races. The Red Horse Racing driver has sat no worse than second in the standings since the season began in February at Daytona.
"My crew chief, Butch Hylton, has been around for a while and knows how to lead our crew through any situation that comes our way," Peters said. "Basically, we look at it as our next practice or next race is the most important thing to our team. You can't look too far ahead or get all wrapped up in what's going on, because that's when bad things happen.
"When we led every lap at Bristol and won, we had discussed before the race that we weren't going to worry about points. We were just going to go out and win the race. And that's what we did. That mentality has really helped us so far and hopefully will carry us into Homestead in November."
Peters comes to Iowa with an opportunity to score a season-sweep there. A second date for this 0.875-mile racetrack was added to the 2012 Truck Series schedule. If Peters takes the checkered flag at Iowa this weekend, he will become just the fifth driver in the series to win both races at a track in the same season.
Jack Sprague was the first driver in trucks to record a season-sweep, doing it in 1996 at Phoenix. Brendan Gaughan won four consecutive races at Texas from 2002-03. Ron Hornaday Jr. won the two Texas events in 2008. And Mike Skinner claimed victories in both races at Martinsville in 2007.
A season-sweep in trucks is a rarity, with just four tracks hosting more than one race a year -- Iowa, Kentucky, Martinsville and Texas.
Thirty-eight teams are on the preliminary entry list for the American Ethanol 200. No driver is attempting the Chicagoland/Iowa combo this weekend.
Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck. Date: Saturday, September 15. Race: American Ethanol 200. Site: Iowa Speedway. Track: 0.875-mile oval. Start time: 8:30 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 175. Television: Speed. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.
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