ROSSBURG, Ohio — Justin Peck finally got a long-awaited victory at Eldora Speedway.
Peck, who has finished on the podium at Eldora in the past, including a third-place run in July’s Kings Royal, won Friday night’s High Limit Racing feature at the legendary half-mile track for his first win of the season and his first at Eldora.
He understood the importance of the victory.
“For me, outside of Williams Grove, this is the first win I have had at a race track that I idolized as a kid,” explained the Monrovia, Ind., native. “Eldora, Knoxville and Williams Grove are the three for me that are like the bucket list. I gotta win at those races. Those are the races you want to show up at and win.
“To me, this is the biggest stage in dirt-track racing, maybe outside of the Knoxville Nationals. It is not the crown jewel (Kings Royal) that we want to win here, but it’s a start. You gotta win one before you can win them all.”
Peck has had a consistent season, but victory lane hadn’t been in the cards until Friday’s opener of a two-night stand at Eldora during the 42nd 4-Crown Nationals.
“It is a relief more than anything. I knew we could do it,” Peck said of his Buch Motorsports No. 13 team. “I knew we were fast enough to do it. We’ve been contending for wins. It’s not like you are running 18th every night and you finally crack out a win just out of nowhere. We’ve been there. It feels good to finally put it all together.
“That’s the hardest part about this deal. It seems like it’s a short race at 25 or 30 laps, but that’s a long frigging time man. It’s a long time of putting that many good laps together that are better than everybody else.”
Peck had to hold off a last-lap charge from Rico Abreu to secure the victory.
“The hard part for me was that I knew I was really good up top where I was at, but it is so hard to justify following lapped cars up there, even if you know you can make straightaway speed, it’s how much slower through the corners,” Peck said. “That was the hard part judging where you needed to be. I kind of, I don’t want to say, laxed up, but I talked myself out of moving off the top. I stayed up top and I finally saw Rico’s nose, and I just put it to the floor and it all worked out.”