Timothy Peters Scores Talladega Truck Series Win

Timothy Peters celebrates in Victory Lane

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Timothy Peters finished Saturday's Fred's 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway exactly where he started – at the front of the pack – despite an extraordinary ebb and flow between the opening green flag and the checkers.

Peters was out front when NASCAR called the sixth caution of the race on the first lap of the only attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish, after contact between the trucks of John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher sent both crashing hard into the outside wall.

The victory was Peters' first of the season, his second straight at Talladega and the ninth of his career.

Brandon Jones, who led the field to the last restart on Lap 97, finished second after Gallagher, his GMS Racing teammate, pushed Peters to the lead. Mason Mingus ran third, a career-best, and Erik Jones finished fourth and extended his series lead to 18 points over second place Tyler Reddick, who came home fifth on Saturday.

Jones picked the inside for the final restart, even though he could have started in front of Gallagher. Peters wasn't particularly surprised that Jones picked the preferred lane, rather than choosing the spot in front of his teammate.

"I kind of thought that maybe he would take the outside," Peters said, "but we'd already gotten the radio from the tower that this was going to be the one and only attempt (at the green-white-checkered). At that point, teammates are good for 95 laps.

"Coming to the checkered, you're on your own, and he kind of knew it was every man for himself. I appreciate the push that Spencer gave to me. I'm glad he's OK after that wreck on the back … The push that Spencer gave me was a little delayed, but it was enough to get us both in front of the 33 (Jones)."

Matt Crafton (88) leads Jon Wes Townley (05) at Talladega. Crafton would fall to third in points after getting caught up in a late-race crash

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Throughout the afternoon, storylines materialized and disappeared as quickly as the smoke from the "Big One" – the almost inevitable multicar wreck that finally occurred on Lap 92 of a scheduled 94 and skewed both the finishing order and the series standings.

Brian Keselowski, making his first series start in a Ford owned by his brother, Brad Keselowski, threatened to win the race – until he ran out of fuel before the last restart.

"They (Keselowski's team) said right from the get-go to save fuel, and I was," said Keselowski, who finished 17th after leading 10 laps. But you can only do so much when you're leading.

"You've got to go, so I didn't save any when I was out front. I guess I should have, but that's a little bit of inexperience in the Truck Series probably showing up. We'll learn better next time."

Two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton was shuffled to the rear of the field when debris struck to the grille of his No. 88 Toyota, but that was the least of his troubles. Crafton was a victim of the Lap 92 10-truck wreck ignited by contact between the Tundras of Johnny Sauter and Matt Tifft.

Crafton finished 24th and fell to third in the standings, 23 points behind Erik Jones.

Pos	No.	Driver	Make	Start	Laps	Led	Status	Points
1	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	1	98	23	Running	47
2	33	Brandon Jones	Chevy	13	98	7	Running	43
3	15	Mason Mingus	Chevy	19	98	0	Running	41
4	4	Erik Jones	Toyota	3	98	6	Running	41
5	19	Tyler Reddick	Ford	15	98	0	Running	39
6	13	Cameron Hayley	Toyota	16	98	0	Running	38
7	98	Johnny Sauter	Toyota	8	98	0	Running	37
8	45	Chris Fontaine	Toyota	12	98	0	Running	36
9	16	Chad Boat	Chevy	20	98	0	Running	35
10	02	Tyler Young	Chevy	18	98	0	Running	34
11	8	John Hunter Nemechek	Chevy	14	98	0	Running	33
12	36	Bobby Gerhart	Chevy	17	98	0	Running	0
13	54	Christopher Bell	Toyota	10	98	0	Running	31
14	07	Ray Black Jr	Chevy	27	98	1	Running	31
15	08	Korbin Forrister	Chevy	30	98	0	Running	29
16	05	John Wes Townley	Chevy	2	98	1	Running	29
17	29	Brian Keselowski	Ford	11	98	10	Running	28
18	23	Spencer Gallagher	Chevy	9	98	0	Running	26
19	74	Jordan Anderson	Chevy	32	97	0	Running	25
20	94	Timmy Hill	Chevy	25	97	1	Running	25
21	6	Norm Benning	Chevy	24	96	0	Running	23
22	82	Austin Hill	Ford	22	96	0	Running	22
23	51	Matt Tifft	Toyota	6	96	0	Running	21
24	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	7	96	43	Running	22
25	11	Ben Kennedy	Toyota	5	96	6	Running	20
26	63	Tyler Tanner	Chevy	28	91	0	Accident	18
27	1	Travis Kvapil	Chevy	31	91	0	Accident	17
28	14	Daniel Hemric	Chevy	4	91	0	Running	16
29	91	Stanton Barrett	Chevy	21	85	0	Accident	0
30	68	Clay Greenfield	Chevy	26	77	0	Overheating	14
31	30	Terry Jones	Chevy	23	35	0	Accident	13
32	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Chevy	29	29	0	Engine	12