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Timothy Peters developed his racing skills on short tracks around his hometown of Danville, Virginia.

Judging from his recent success at Talladega Superspeedway, Peters has learned some tricks to the mind-bending mystery of restrictor-plate racing.

The driver of the Red No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota won for the second straight year on NASCAR’s biggest track Saturday at Talladega.

Peters had extra incentive this weekend. Ashlee Richmond, sister of Marcus Richmond, 

Peters childhood buddy, best friend and crew chief, is currently battling cancer.

“We had Ashlee riding with us this weekend, and this was for her for sure,” Peters said.  

“We know you're watching. Ashlee Richmond, we love you. Thank you for riding with us today and being who you are.”

Marcus Richmond and Peters have been winning races since their formative days at rural South Boston Speedway in Virginia, including the 2004 track title. They also combined to lead 204 laps en route to victory in the 2012 truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway.  

The successful formula on Saturday included a mix of patience, cunning and luck.

After starting from the pole, Peters led 23 of the 98 laps.  

But with four laps remaining, 10 trucks were ensnared in an accident that forced a 15-minute halt to clean up the track, Peters was second on the final restart behind Brandon 

Jones, an 18-year-old prized prospect for Richard Childress Racing.

Peters relied on his horsepower to make a quick charge to the front. 

After the race was extended into a green-white-checkered finish, Peters quickly jumped from second to first and cruised to the win under caution when another crash unfolded. 
It was the first victory of 2015 for Peters and ninth of his career.

“It was still intense, I wasn’t going to celebrate until I saw the checkered flag and the truck was completely across the line,” Peters said. “It was really was no different with one (green-white-checkered flag) attempt versus three. Everybody was maybe a tad more aggressive."

Peters began the 2015 season with a hard crash during qualifying at Daytona. He credited his team and owner Tom DeLoach for turning his season around.

“This team went to work when the deal happened at Daytona,” Peters said. “This is the [truck] we won with last year and got it even better. It showed how hard that they work because we were able to sit on the pole. 

“Chris Lambert (spotter) gave me system-overload all day long telling me what the outside line was doing, who was behind me, what the gap was in front of me and just was able to put us in position with our Toyota Tundra at the end to go for the win. The good Lord was with us all day long.”

Todd Bodine and Kyle Busch are the only drivers in truck series history to win consecutive races at Talladega.

Brandon Jones finished second Saturday, with fellow youngsters Mason Mingus, Erik Jones and Tyler Reddick next in line.

Erik Jones maintains an 18-point lead in points over Reddick as two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton dropped 23 points down in third after experiencing a variety of problems at Talladega.

Four races remain in the season, with the next stop coming Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.