Peltier races to redemptive victory at Summer Showdown

MONROE — One year ago on the Evergreen Speedway’s 5/8th oval track, Preston Peltier had a win all but locked up when his battery died with six laps to go.

It was pure heartbreak for the 39-year-old driver who made his stock car racing debut at age 14.

But the Colorado native earned redemption Saturday night, leaving little doubt who possessed the top Super Late Model stock car during 200 laps at the 6th Annual Evergreen Speedway Summer Showdown in Monroe.

“I’ll tell ya, we should have two of these things right now,” said Peltier of his Showdown trophy. “This place owes me from last year. We finally got the monkey off our back. This is pretty special. Last year was a pretty dejecting race.”

Peltier and his 48 car started the main event in second place behind Derek Thorn, but after Thorn blew a tire on Lap 36, there was no one left to challenge Peltier the final 164 laps.

Monroe driver Lex Johnson put a minor scare into Peltier off a restart on Lap 180. The local favorite edged ahead of Peltier around Turn 1 and 2, but Peltier quickly took back his lead in Turn 3 and left Johnson in his rear-view mirror. Peltier extended a huge lead and coasted the final 20 laps before claiming the checkered flag.

“It’s not first, but it’s pretty amazing,” said Johnson, whose family owned the Evergreen Speedway track for a short period of time in the late 2000s. “I had nothing for (Peltier), and I gave it everything that I had.”

For winning the Summer Showdown, Peltier claimed the $25,000 top prize out of the $100,000 purse.

Following Peltier — who also won the Spokane 200 in late June — and Johnson were Chris Davidson in third, Tyler Tanner in fourth and Mike Longton rounded out the top five.

Thorn arguably entered Saturday night’s main event as the field’s favorite. Thorn finished third in the Showdown in 2015, placed second a year ago and was the top performer throughout Friday night’s qualifiers.

Thorn, early on, seemed poised to contend for a title, but the entire race changed on Lap 36. He eventually fell two laps behind as his car came to a crawl, but he offered thrilling racing throughout the rest of the race, passing drivers left and right as he desperately worked to increase his position.

Davidson also impressed throughout, slowly maneuvering from his starting position in eighth place to his third-place finish by night’s end.

“It’s a fun place to race,” said Davidson, who said he hoped to be back next year.

The Summer Showdown was the fourth race of Evergreen Speedway’s six-race Budweiser Crown Series. Earlier in the day, KC Garber won the Mini Stocks race, and Steve Woods claimed the Street Stocks title.