Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Timothy Peters burns out after winning the NASCAR truck race at Martinsville Speedway. Todd Bodine finished second.

Timothy Peters celebrates winning the NASCAR truck race at Martinsville Speedway.

MARTINSVILLE -- Timothy Peters probably couldn't have asked for a better place than Martinsville Speedway to get his first Camping World Truck Series victory.

Heck, if he'd have just kept driving after crossing the finish line he'd be back at his house in Danville in less than an hour to celebrate winning the Kroger 200 on Saturday.

But everyone celebrated in Victory Lane anyway.

"I can't believe it," he said. "Words can't describe what I'm feeling right now."

The other drivers did enough expressing for him, congratulating him on the track.

"Yeah, Todd [Bodine] and Ron [Hornaday] come up and I thought I was gonna have a heart attack from that cold Gatorade he dumped on me," Peters said. "Terry Cook, Stacy Compton, all the guys that have had success in this sport, especially with Todd and Ron with their championships. It's an awesome feeling.

"[Owner Tom DeLoach] talked about the last time that he'd been in Victory Lane was '06. The last time I've been in Victory Lane was '05 and it was here."

That last win Peters is referring to was his Bailey's 300 Late Model win in 2005.

So it was pretty fitting that he ended the winless streak at the last track he'd tasted victory.

Peters took the lead on lap 117 when Denny Hamlin pitted and led every lap from that point on to hold on for the win.

Bodine finished in second place, followed by Colin Braun in third, and series points-leader Hornaday in fourth, and Kevin Harvick worked his way back from two laps down to finish in fifth place.

And for as rainy and ugly as the morning was, pushing the green flag back almost 2 ¹₂ hours, the sun came out to showcase a very clean race, sporting only eight cautions for 39 laps.

There were only three lead changes during 200 laps.

Hornaday led the first lap and held on until he pitted.

Hamlin took over the lead on lap 55 and held on to that until his own pit stop prompted the final lead change, when Peters took over for good.

The biggest decision of the race for Peters may have been made long before the team even got to the track.

Ultimately, it was the team's decision to only pit once that made the difference in the race.

"We put a lot of effort into the fuel because we were here in the spring and was running fifth with eight to go and ran out," crew chief Chad Kendrick said. "We had planned from the set of the race that we were gonna do one stop and we knew we could go all the way."

And with no massive crashes, no sketchy maneuvers and no cautions past lap 169, Peters got to cruise around his home track.

Bodine had a good run after starting in eighth place but said he may have run the truck too hard to challenge Peters.

"Yeah, we had a good truck," he said. "I'm really tickled to see Timmy win. Such a good kid, great racer.

"We had a good [truck]. I had to use it up a little more than I wanted coming back through the pack."

Braun was happy for a whole different accomplishment.

"I thought it was good," Braun said. "Came in here with the goal of just trying to finish this race after we struggled to do that here."

But in the end, Saturday belonged to Peters.

"If you had your choice between Daytona and here, you would say here," Compton said. "Timothy has run awfully good here. He's won in Late Models here. I made sure I was the first one to congratulate him. We've raced a lot together and pretty glad to see it for him."

Results

At Martinsville Speedway (Start position in parentheses)

1. (11) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 200 laps, 195 pts, $50,275.

2. (8) Todd Bodine, Toyota, 200, 170, $28,395.

3. (12) Colin Braun, Ford, 200, 165, $21,765.

4. (2) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevy, 200, 165, $16,330.

5. (3) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 200, 155, $9,805.

6. (4) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 200, 155, $8,730.

7. (28) Dennis Setzer, Chevy, 200, 146, $10,230.

8. (13) David Starr, Toyota, 200, 142, $10,180.

9. (22) Matt Crafton, Chevy, 200, 138, $10,130.

10. (14) Terry Cook, Toyota, 200, 134, $13,330.

11. (19) James Buescher, Ford, 200, 130, $11,030.

12. (15) Aric Almirola, Toyota, 200, 127, $9,905.

13. (20) Jason White, Dodge, 200, 124, $9,855.

14. (6) Stacy Compton, Toyota, 200, 121, $9,805.

15. (7) Rick Crawford, Ford, 200, 118, $11,055.

16. (9) Johnny Sauter, Chevy, 199, 115, $9,630.

17. (29) Chris Fontaine, Chevy, 199, 112, $7,330.

18. (23) Marc Davis, Chevy, 199, 109, $7,280.

19. (17) Burt Myers, Chevy, 199, 106, $9,480.

20. (32) Brett Butler, Chevy, 199, 103, $7,880.

21. (18) Max Papis, Toyota, 199, 56.1, 100, $7,155.

22. (27) Chris Jones, Chevy, 197, 97, $7,130.

23. (1) Mike Skinner, Toyota, 196, 94, $11,355.

24. (5) Brian Scott, Toyota, 195, 91, $9,330.

25. (31) Norm Benning, Chevy, 195, 88, $9,280.

26. (34) Derek White, Chevy, 188, 85, $8,005.

27. (26) Tim Brown, Chevy, 178, 82, $7,930.

28. (10) T. Malsam, Toyota, trans., 119, 79, $6,905.

29. (30) B. Raymer, Ford, brakes, 106, 76, $6,855.

30. (21) T.J. Bell, Toyota, accident, 87, 73, $7,330.

31. (16) P. Sellers, Toyota, trans., 54, 70, $6,380.

32. (25) R. Fuller, Chevy, accident, 52, 67, $6,355.

33. (24) H. Sadler, Chevy, accident, 51, 64, $6,330.

34. (33) N. Tucker, Dodge, vibr., 30, 61, $6,280.

35. (36) W. Boys, Dodge, shock, 21, 0, $6,255.

36. (35) B. Knupp, Chevy, brakes, 12, 55, $6,222.

Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 69.312 mph.

Time of Race: 1 hour, 31 minutes, 4 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 1.815 seconds.

Caution Flags: 8 for 39 laps.

Lead Changes: 3 among 3 drivers.

Lap Leaders: R.Hornaday Jr. 1-54; D.Hamlin 55-116; T.Peters 117-200.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): T.Peters, 1 time for 84 laps; D.Hamlin, 1 time for 62 laps; R.Hornaday Jr., 1 time for 54 laps.

Top 10 in Points: 1. R.Hornaday Jr., 3,375; 2. M.Crafton, 3,151; 3. M.Skinner, 3,049; 4. T.Bodine, 2,815; 5. B.Scott, 2,805; 6. C.Braun, 2,797; 7. T.Peters, 2,768; 8. J.Sauter, 2,762; 9. D.Starr, 2,694; 10. R.Crawford, 2,694.