[JessicaJ]

Pair of Top Fives Highlights Rumble Weekend for Justin Peck
By Jessica Jenkins

When Justin Peck unloaded at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, his goal was to do what he had the previous two years: win. Ultimately he had to settle for less than that after fighting some issues in the Features, but he still showcased why he is one of the drivers to beat each year.

At the past two Rumble in Fort Wayne (IN) weekends, Saturday had been the day when Peck took control of the show. This year he picked up with that same strength on night 1 with a lightning quick car in the first hot lap session, driving easily by a couple cars. In qualifying for both days (lap one was dedicated to Saturday, lap two transferring to Sunday), the 17-year-old laid down two solid laps that landed him in thirteenth (with a time of 8.134) and third (7.894), respectively. His lap for day one put him in second for heat #3, meaning he only needed to maintain that position to transfer directly to the Feature. Of course, that was not enough for him and he immediately took the lead away from Kyle O’Gara, running away for a dominating heat win.

In the feature, Peck started in seventh and settled into eighth place for the next nine laps before a yellow slowed the field. Once they got going again it did not take him long to march his way to the back of the sixth place driver. When that driver spun out around the halfway point, the Monrovia, IN-based young gun moved into sixth. The car looked to be getting a little loose as the tires wore out and, despite getting a bit sideways a lap earlier, he still moved into the top five on lap 26 when the leader looped his car around. Restarting fifth, Peck kept pace with the field and gave all he could to take away the fourth position before another yellow briefly slowed the race. On the restart the sixth place car got into the back of him, but he held on and took back off after the fourth position. A daring move to the outside didn’t pay off as hoped, but he maintained a top five position before a final caution with three to go brought the racing to a halt. Once the green flag waved again, Peck was all over the back of the car ahead of him, but it was not enough and he crossed over the line in the fifth position.

Afterwards he shared a few thoughts about the first night of the Rumble: “We did alright in qualifying. Kind of missed it in the first lap, but the second lap we qualified third, so that was all pretty good. We hit it pretty near perfect, dominated the heat race and the motor ran great. [In the Feature] the motor started missing there, the oil pressure was getting low and it started getting pretty hot. I was pushing it pretty hard trying to get past Bischak and Westfall. It’s a little disappointing since we were looking for the win, but hopefully we get it done tomorrow.”

Arriving back early Sunday morning, the youngest ever winner at the Rumble had no doubt he could bring home another trophy. He expressed this by stating, “I have full confidence that my team will give me a pretty good car. I have full confidence in myself, that everything will work well and we can get it done.” And getting it done is precisely what he did in the heat race. Starting off from the fourth position, and moved into third place early in the ten lap race. With only a few laps left he dove inside eventual night two winner Billy Wease for the second place and took the lead from Dave Darland as the white flag waved, marching away and handily taking his second heat win on the weekend.

In the feature he lined up in sixth and got stuck on the outside right at the start. However, he still put up a good fight for the fifth position and claimed the position before taking off after the top four. Peck continued his good run by taking that position before a yellow flag flew ten laps in. Unfortunately he jumped over the tire of the red #59 but somehow still held onto the top five before he nearly got shoved into the fronstretch wall. He dropped back to seventh, but it lit a fire under him and he aggressively went about trying to gain back his lost positions. He was one of the few brave enough to try running on the outside line and used a brilliant outside-to-inside move to advance back inside the top five. Once he cleared those two cars, he rapidly opened up a gap and started gnawing away at the gap to fourth place. When another yellow flew late in the race, he restarted right on the bumper of Kyle O’Gara and used every trick he could to get past. Time ran out before he could figure a way by and for the second straight night, the kid from near Indianapolis finished up with a fifth place finish.

Thinking back over the long day, Peck shared, “We came out of the gate rolling pretty good. Even in the feature, car was fast. I’m willing to bet we could have run with Wease and given him a fight. Just got boxed in a couple times, had to swing out wide a couple times to avoid some wrecks that actually never ended up happening. But driver instinct told me to go high and miss a couple wrecks. All in all it was a good night. We didn’t finish outside the top 5, so I can’t complain much. But it is a little disappointing with how strong we’ve been and we couldn’t pull off a win this weekend. I’ve got to thank my guys: DuraCoat, Brace Yourself, my Dad, (owner) Steve Clay, Papaw, Rich, my Mom and my brother. They are who make it happen for me, so I can’t thank them enough for an awesome weekend.” Going into more details of why he chose to use the high line so much, Justin Peck concluded, “When you are running tight quarters like this, you really have to try kind of pick and choose. The outside isn’t normally there, but it’s almost like they moved the tires [inside the corners] in or the karts just peeled up so much rubber on the inside that I was able to make it work there. The car was hooked up good enough that we were able to put the right sides out of the rubber a little bit and kind of get up in the concrete. But at the same time you have to kind of give and take. I burnt up a tire about 20 laps in, we were only halfway through and it burnt up the right rear, so from there on I kind of had to take it easy. But we fell back there cause I got boxed in, got put in the wall a couple times and driver error--I hopped the tire there on the initial start that probably caused all that stuff, so I hope we can come back next year and pull off the W.”

Next up for this rising star is the Chili Bowl on January 12-16. Last year he made it to the B Main in his first ever Chili Bowl appearance after finishing seventh in the A main on his qualifying night. To keep up with Justin Peck, visit his website at JustinPeckRacing.com and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/JustinPeckRacing.

[midgetfan1962]

You make us all proud...thanks for all the effort you put into your driving,getting everything out of the car your Dad prepares

[BLASTER1]

Great Young and upping coming driver....The family looks like very humble Hoosiers