The rest of the year was equally solid and, with a year‘s experience under his belt, there was reason for optimism heading into 2018. Peck‘s star continued to rise as he topped the field at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri in May, and he looked ready to test his mettle against the World of Outlaws.
Then the world crashed around him. On July 12, Peck was randomly drug tested before a World of Outlaws race at Eldora. He didn‘t pass. The culprit was marijuana.
Justin quickly took responsibility for what he had done, and he complied with all of the stipulations in order to reduce the length of his suspension. In the context of today‘s society, marijuana is a complicated matter, but it is even more so in a sport like racing.
Reasonable people can take different positions, but in this case it didn‘t matter. It was devastating to Justin and to his family.
Steve Peck doesn‘t hide the fact that the experience rattled everyone.
“It was very difficult for me, my wife, and my younger son Travis,” he says. “It was pretty hard on us. We did a lot of talking and a lot of soul searching, because we had put a lot of effort and a lot of our time and life into racing. In the grand scheme of life, smoking marijuana is not the worst thing a person can do but, when you are trying to race and become a professional racer, I don‘t think there is any room for it. It took a lot out of us and it took time to recover from it.”
For Kim Peck there was an added complication. As a school teacher, it was also a bit embarrassing. “It was harder than you can ever imagine,” Kim says. “It was hard on the family. It was just bad.”
No one needed to tell Justin twice that this had the potential to truly hamstring his career. It was going to be up to him how he went forward and surmounted this obstacle. “It was definitely a setback,” he says. “It was a dark time. It was a dark time for my family and myself. It felt like I was getting shunned out of the sport. I wouldn‘t say I went into a depression, but you get down on yourself and you try to figure out what to do next, and what your next move is. I thought about quitting a lot, but at the end of the day what I realized was this whole deal did not represent who I was. That isn‘t how I carry myself.
“So, I just put my head down and went to work. In those times, you realize who your friends are and you realize what you want in life. I wanted to be a sprint car driver. I think I have worked even harder since then. Honestly it was a bad thing, don‘t get me wrong, but for me personally it was a good thing because I realized what I actually wanted out of life and where I was going. I changed the direction I was headed. I think it has all worked out for the best thus far.”
It was also a critical time for the family to regroup. They were a tight unit, but even in a cohesive family bonds can become frayed. In the end, Justin and the family turned a negative into a positive. That‘s what resilient people do. “It made us stronger,” Kim Peck says. “We learned to talk about more things. To be honest, I am the perfectionist. I expected him to be perfect. I expected him to be perfect in school. I was, by far, his worst critic. I will say it changed our perspective. He is a kid, he is very strong-willed and he had to figure this out for himself.”
Her husband concurs. “He had dedicated his life to being a racer,” Steve says. “And he is not one of those kids who has deep pockets or a big sponsor. He has had to work his ass off to do it. You know, what doesn‘t kill you makes you stronger. I think this can make him appreciate it more and lead to more success down the road.”
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