New Hampshire 120

LOUDON, N.H. — New Hampshire Motor Speedway refused to let the Ideal Family LLC AARN Truck Series leave quietly. The field used all three green-white-checkered attempts, wrecks broke out throughout the closing stretch, and the championship picture changed considerably before the checkered flag finally fell. Through that flat-track madness, Howard Peeples captured his third victory of the season, while runner-up Chris Romano left with the points lead. Peeples brought the No. 29 Ideal Racing truck home 1.060 seconds ahead of Romano after 130 laps.

Daniel Dunaway completed the podium in a race that produced 10 cautions, 27 caution laps and nine lead changes among seven drivers. The closing laps became a repeated test of who could finish the job. Each overtime attempt offered another chance to gain positions, but also another opportunity for a promising night to disappear in someone else’s wreck. With the field racing aggressively and incidents disrupting the finish, simply being near the front was not enough.

Peeples had the speed—and made it through the final sequence. Starting fourth, the defending series champion led 28 laps and recorded the fastest lap of the race at 29.997 seconds. Bonuses for leading, winning and setting the fastest lap gave him an event-high 43 points. It was a complete performance on a night that punished several of the drivers he was chasing in the standings.

The victory moved Peeples three positions higher to second in the championship with 342 points. He now trails Romano by 13 and has matched the new points leader with three wins this season. After missing the previous round at Coronado, Peeples returned with exactly the kind of result needed to put himself back into the immediate fight at the top. Romano did not leave with the trophy, but his afternoon was hardly a consolation prize.

The No. 44 started 21st, drove through the field and led a race-high 61 laps. That was more than twice Peeples’ total and nearly half the event. Romano was not merely surviving from a deep starting position; he became the driver who spent the most time controlling the race. Even after the repeated late-race trouble, Romano completed all 130 laps with zero incidents.

His bonuses for leading, leading the most laps and finishing clean produced 38 points. In a race where the closing laps were filled with contact, that clean result stood out. Romano entered New Hampshire four points behind Tyler Wagner. He leaves with 355 points and the championship lead, having gained 22 points on Wagner in a single race.

The No. 44 has now followed its Coronado victory with a runner-up finish, turning a return to form into a return to first place. Wagner’s night went in the opposite direction. The No. 22 started from the pole, but his race ended after only 82 laps. He was credited with 22nd place and earned 16 points, including one for leading a lap.

With Romano finishing second and Peeples winning, Wagner fell from first to third in the standings. He now has 337 points, 18 behind Romano. The championship remains close, but New Hampshire turned a four-point advantage into a deficit without Wagner being able to participate in the overtime finish. Elijah Maupin and Shawn Hughes also took significant hits.

Maupin started fifth but finished 19th, nine laps down. Hughes led 15 laps before ending the night 20th, also nine laps behind. Both collected 18 points, leaving two drivers who had been close to the championship lead with considerably less to show for New Hampshire than they needed. Maupin slipped to fourth with 332 points, while Hughes dropped two positions to sixth with 323.

Neither is out of the fight, but both lost ground on a night when Romano and Peeples delivered at the front. Gary May avoided that kind of setback. Starting 16th, May advanced to fifth and collected 32 points. He remains fifth in the championship with 331, only one point behind Maupin.

There are still just 32 points between Romano in first and Hughes in sixth, but the order within that group continues to change. Dunaway’s third-place finish was another important story behind the championship leaders. The Lucky Dog Racing driver started 12th, completed the full distance and finished 2.400 seconds behind Peeples. It was his first Truck Series podium of the season, rewarding a nine-position advance on an evening when many better-starting competitors could not convert their opportunities.

Austin Kelley followed in fourth after starting 11th, giving the No. 25 a valuable 33-point result. Justin Hewitt produced an even larger climb, taking the No. 71 from 22nd to sixth. Joseph Essenberg finished seventh, and Clifford Allison III advanced from 18th to eighth. Those performances helped fill the front of the finishing order with drivers who had spent at least part of the night working forward through traffic.

For Douglas Scalice, ninth place represented a recovery rather than a straightforward top-10 run. The No. 16 was involved in an early wreck, putting the rest of the night in jeopardy before the late-race fireworks even began. Scalice had to regroup and work back into the race, then make it through the same overtime trouble that threatened everyone still on track. He ultimately completed all 130 laps and finished ninth, five positions better than where he started.

After several difficult recent results, keeping the early accident from turning into another major points loss was important. The difference was small in the standings, but meaningful. Scalice remains in the 10th and final Chase position with 268 points. Marc Bender finished directly behind him in 10th and earned 27 points, one fewer than Scalice.

That moved the gap between the Scalice-Bender Racing teammates from 20 points entering New Hampshire to 21 points afterward. An early wreck could have opened the door for Bender to make a substantial gain. Instead, Scalice recovered enough to leave with a slightly larger cushion. Essenberg strengthened his position immediately ahead of them.

His seventh-place finish moved him to 277 points, nine ahead of Scalice and 30 ahead of Bender. Jason Thomas remains eighth with 285 after finishing 13th and adding a bonus for leading four laps. Kelley holds 12th with 235 points, now 33 below Scalice after gaining five points on him at New Hampshire. Not every driver who spent time out front was able to protect the result.

Lucas Bray led 18 laps but finished 16th, one lap down. John Shields started second and led three laps before finishing 14th. Dave W. Allen placed 15th, also one lap behind, while Adam Benefiel’s race lasted only five laps.

New Hampshire offered plenty of opportunities—and took several away. The team championship moved further in Revolution Racing’s favor. Romano’s runner-up finish helped the organization reach 957 points, extending its advantage over Scalice-Bender Racing to 53. Scalice-Bender has 904, followed by Corey Powell Racing at 856 and Ideal Racing at 838.

Great Lakes Racing holds fifth with 808, ahead of Lucky Dog Racing’s 761. Peeples’ victory gave Ideal Racing a strong individual result, but Revolution Racing left with the lead in both championship tables. That was the split outcome of New Hampshire: Peeples won the race and made the biggest move among the leading title contenders, while Romano turned a 21st-place start into second at the finish and first in points. Behind them, Wagner, Maupin and Hughes have ground to recover.

Scalice salvaged a night that began badly. Bender remains close enough to keep pressure on the final Chase position, and Kelley’s fourth-place finish brought him closer. The final laps were flat-track madness, with all three green-white-checkered attempts needed before the race could be settled. Peeples left with the trophy.

Romano left with the points lead. And New Hampshire left several championship contenders wishing the night had ended very differently.