While he continued to dabble in a variety of cars, for the most part Justin spent much of the next three years in a midget. The step to the POWRi tour was not going to be easy because, at any given date, all the heavy hitters could be found on the grounds. Peck quickly figured out just how different it was.
“It was just a learning process,” he says. “I was used to being in a micro where, if I wasn‘t that great, I could just run the car harder and make up for it. That‘s how we won a lot of races. Getting more into the big car stuff, it wasn‘t always that way. You were going out there and racing Keith Kunz‘s team, Darren Hagen, Brad Kuhn, Levi Jones, and guys like that. Professional race car drivers. So I struggled quite a bit.”
Still there were bright spots. He picked up a win in the Rumble in Ft. Wayne in December and, in a familiar refrain, was the youngest ever to score in the 16 editions of the traditional race. In 2014, he bagged his first outdoor midget win at Montpelier, Indiana, but previous to that he had spent considerable time on the shelf when a stuck throttle resulted in a concussion. He persevered and by 2016 he had finished second in POWRi midget points to Zack Daum.
While it hadn‘t always been easy, Steve Peck is convinced that this was a fruitful period in his son‘s career. Steve liked the fact that he was racing on tight bullrings in front of good crowds, but most of all because of the quality of competition Justin faced. It proved to be a great way to learn.
While it may have been fun, midget racing was not the long-term goal. Being from Indiana, he always had USAC sprint cars on his radar but, as he looked within, he realized his heart was elsewhere. “I was running the midgets and got a few rides in the non-wing deal, and it was all right,” he recalls. “I didn‘t set the world on fire or anything like that. But the World of Outlaws was a dream for me and I wanted to make a career in racing. That was the ultimate goal, and I felt like the best way to do that was to get to the World of Outlaws.
“So, my dad and I made the jump to wing sprint cars. At about that time, Axalta had bought out Dura Coat and they actually stepped up their sponsorship, so it just kind of worked out. We were able to get new equipment and buy a new motor.”
As the 2017 season opened, Peck was anxious to go winged sprint car racing. Not totally turning his back on midgets, he actually picked up wins at Kokomo and Montpelier. However, in April, Steve and Justin ventured to Fremont, Ohio to launch this phase of his career and planned to spend the bulk of their time in the Buckeye State given the relative dearth of winged racing in Indiana.
It started out pretty well. “We won a heat race,” Justin says. “And after that they park you on the frontstretch. The whole crowd was roaring and Brian Liskai was announcing, so it was cool.”
Even though he seemed to pick up winged racing quickly, Peck sensed that he had work to do if he was going to make a successful transition to this new racing discipline. “I, obviously, grew up racing midgets in Indiana and Illinois, and because the tracks there usually have big, fat curbs I was used to getting on and off the throttle. Once I got into wing sprint cars and started racing around Ohio, I changed my thought process on how to race. It is something I have been trying to work on ever since, and I think I have just got to the point where I am — quote, unquote — good at it.”
When one cuts to the basics in any endeavor, one thing always seems to be true: talent always reveals itself. Anyone who paid close attention knew that Justin had impressive skills, but no one expected him to win in his sixth-ever winged race. That he went to the head of the class at Macon, Ill., in June was startling as it was, but the fact that he had bested the field in an All Star Circuit of Champions race truly turned heads.
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