A lot with a little: Brayton Laster and Wayne Peterson Motorsports bring their underdog attitude to DuQuoin
This article was written by Adam Fenwick and originally appeared on ARCA's website. Here is a link to the original article. Brayton Laster, Wayne Peterson take underdog attitude to DuQuoin
A lot with a little: Brayton Laster and Wayne Peterson Motorsports bring their underdog attitude to DuQuoin
A lot with a little: Brayton Laster and Wayne Peterson Motorsports bring their underdog attitude to DuQuoin
The expression “bringing a knife to a gunfight” is an idiom, which is defined as a phrase whose meaning is different from the literal meanings of the individual words that make it up.
In other words, bringing a knife to a gunfight is a bad idea. But that’s what driver Brayton Laster and Wayne Peterson Motorsports have been doing all year in the ARCA Menards Series.
Laster, though, would argue their situation is even worse.
“We’re bringing a water gun,” said Laster, who is in the midst of his first full-time ARCA Menards Series season. “You can’t do anything with it. It can sit there and look cool, but you can’t really do anything with it.”
That’s the reality Laster and the Wayne Peterson Motorsports team have been living since they announced last year the pairing would contest the entire 2025 schedule together.
Of course, 87-year-old team owner Wayne Peterson has spent more than 40 years doing a lot with a little. Since 1984, the team has earned 10 top 10 finishes in ARCA Menards Series competition.
Two of those finishes belong to Laster. The first came last fall at Indiana’s Salem Speedway, where Laster finished ninth. The other came two weeks ago on the Springfield Mile dirt track at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, where Laster delivered an impressive, seventh-place finish on the lead lap.
“Going into Springfield with Wayne, we were still looking for that magical run … sometimes, that run just doesn’t happen,” said Laster, who turns 23 this week. “At Springfield and DuQuoin, mainly Springfield, it was one of those tracks where we thought it could happen.”
To put that performance into perspective, the last time Peterson’s team finished seventh in an ARCA Menards Series race was 1984, when Gary Wade Finley finished seventh at Middle Georgia Raceway.
“Wayne has been around for a very long time, and he’s had a very mixed bag of drivers who have driven for him through the years,” said Laster, whose self-proclaimed nickname is The Pizza Man. “Coming into the season, I wanted to give him the run he deserves. To be able to go out there and get that run for Wayne, it meant a lot.
“You could tell he knew it was special, because he offered to buy me pizza, and he has never offered once to buy me anything that wasn’t a salad. That right there is how I knew it meant a lot to him.”
Laster going into the season knew his strength would be the pair of one-mile dirt ovals at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds. With a background in dirt racing, he hoped those races would serve as equalizers and give the Wayne Peterson Motorsports team a chance to stand out.
To do that, Laster knew the team would have to make the most of the equipment they have, most of which is older than Laster himself.
The car Laster raced two weeks ago at Springfield, for example, began life as a Bill Davis Racing chassis driven by Ward Burton in the NASCAR Cup Series. The chassis is more than 20 years old.
“This car ran Bristol in 2003 when Ward Burton wrecked Kyle Petty,” Laster said. “So, the car has a pretty cool history. It’s pretty cool when you’re racing a car that is old as you are. The amount of races that car has ran, Wayne has had that car for years. He raced it back when it had a steel body. So I think that car has over 100 races on it.”
Despite all the disadvantages Laster and the team faced going into the Allen Crowe 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, they found a way to power through.
With no practice or qualifying due to the rain that soaked the track that morning, Laster lined up 12th basted on owner points. He kept his No. 06 Ford out of trouble all day, picked up a few free passes to get back on the lead lap and overcame overheating issues early in the race.
The seventh-place finish was better than Laster could have hoped. It represented not just his best career finish, but his best overall performance in ARCA competition since his debut in 2022.
“The green flag dropped, and right away, I could tell we had something special,” he said. “It was probably the best car I’ve had all year right out of the gate. We know we’re not going to be a top-five car. We know we’re not going to be a top-10 car … but we were. We found ourselves right there in that battle for ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th.
“As the race goes on, you sit there and you’re running 11th, then you’re running 10th, then you’re running ninth, then you’re running eighth and then we were sitting there on the lead lap, and we were running seventh. You go, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it. This is going to be a great day for us.'”
Laster said the team plans to bring the same car and setup to DuQuoin. The goal is to replicate what they accomplished at Springfield.
The odds may be stacked against them, but that won’t stop Laster and the Wayne Peterson Motorsports team from showing up and taking their best shot.
“I think, 100 percent, they (the dirt racks) are the great equalizer. You can do a lot with a little there,” Laster said. “They’re tracks where raw horsepower helps you and horsepower can also hurt you. It’s more about having a properly balanced car instead of having the best parts.
“We roll into most of these tracks, and we know we’re not going to win. We know we’re not going to lead any laps. We know we’re not going to finish on the lead lap. But we are going to have fun.”
Comments
Post a Comment