FORT WAYNE, Ind. – For all the things that Justin Peck has done in his still-young career, there’s one box during the winter months that he hasn’t checked off yet: a sweep of the Rumble in Fort Wayne.
The Monrovia, Ind., young gun will have an opportunity to do just that this weekend, when he straps in to tackle the sixth-mile indoor concrete oval during the 22nd edition of the indoor midget classic.
Peck will be one of more than 30 entrants for the season-ending indoor race, trying to continue inching his name up the record books after moving into sole possession of fourth on the all-time Rumble win list last year.
A sweep this weekend would tie him with Billy Wease (five) for second-most wins, behind only all-time Rumble winner Tony Stewart, but Peck isn’t so much focused on that list as he is on just winning back to back.
“It’s a confidence thing; you want to be one of those guys that everyone wants to beat, right?” Peck told SPEED SPORT. “We come in here every year hoping to be standing in victory lane both nights, and so far that hasn’t worked out for us, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been close. We’ve had the car to do it a couple of times, and even last year I think we had a car capable of beating (Geoff) Kaiser on Friday too. That one just didn’t play into our hand the way that it needed to.
“But there’s only two guys who have ever swept the weekend in Fort Wayne. It would be cool to be the third, for sure.”
Peck, now 21, first stunned the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in 2013 when he rocketed to victory lane as a then-unknown 15 year old, shocking the likes of Billy Wease, Derek Bischak and more on his way to victory for Michigan car owner Steve Clay.
He’s since added two more wins and also amassed a streak of 13 feature starts in 13 appearances inside the Fort Wayne Expo building, a stunning achievement for a driver his age.
But Peck still wants to join the exclusive club that only Wease and all-time Rumble winner Tony Stewart currently inhabit, that of drivers to have won both national midget features in the same weekend.
The closest Peck came to that goal was actually in his rookie year of 2012, when he ran second and third at the tender age of 14.
Since, it’s been a bit of feast or famine for the young Hoosier, but he’s not too worried. In fact, he’s as confident as ever in his equipment and feels his dirt skillset gives him an edge entering the weekend.
“I was just having this discussion, actually, with my brother the other day. When we left the Rumble last year, we felt like the race itself has played more into a dirt driver’s hands as of late,” Peck explained. “That track, especially throughout the 40 or 50 lap feature, will change two or three different times. So the groove will change, instead of a driver just being able to hug and pull around the bottom like we were used to doing three or four years ago. Now, you really have to change and adapt and move around where the actual rubber is at and where the groove is at.
“Last year, I was able to go up top and make a lot of passes around the top shelf, because the bottom groove had just worn out. The rubber was still up on the top and guys were kind of having to go a little slower to roll the bottom,” Peck added. “I could keep my momentum up around the top, and I think that plays a factor and plays towards my hand a little bit … in the sense that I spend all year racing 60 races a year on dirt in a winged sprint car. But I think that’s part of what you have to have at the Rumble now. I don’t think it’s just a matter of getting your car hooked up to that rubber.
“I think the driver needs to be able to drive and put the car where it needs to go to be fast.”
As he’s grown up and matured, Peck has become a wiser racer, but he said he still loves the bullring-style, rough-and-tumble racing that you get when you come indoors and put midgets on the concrete.
It’s something that suits him, and his calculated aggression has led to a perfect record of features made, something that Peck still values just as much as his three feature wins.
“I think that part of it speaks volumes,” said Peck. “Because we have been close to not making it a few times, and even last year on one of the nights, we had to win the last chance race to make the show and we did that. So it’s a tough deal, and that record is something I’m proud of. I know it’ll end at some point, somewhere along the way, but the goal is to extend is as far as we possibly can before it does.”
But for as much as he may have changed over the course of the decade, one thing in regards to Peck’s Rumble procedure has remained a constant.
“The victory celebration will still be at IHOP,” he joked.