2003 ZR Motorsports News

Petropoulos Posts Career Best

Atlanta, Georgia - (April 13, 2003) Peter Petropoulos laid claim to a career-best fourth place finish Saturday night in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Racing Series Pro Late Model event at Lanier National Speedway. After qualifying 14th in the 22-car field, Petropoulos quickly began picking his way through the field when the green flag waved. On lap 9, the 24-year old driver had worked his way to ninth.

By lap 37, he had planted his No. 28 Battle Paint and Drywall Chevrolet into the top-five to stay. A last lap bump between drivers battling for second moved Petropoulos to fourth on the last lap. "I was hoping for a top-three," said Petropoulos. "But, this was another good race for us to build on. We showed that we could race. Our qualifying run forced us to have to come from the back."

With track position critical on bullrings like Lanier, Petropoulos realizes a good qualifying effort is essential to making it to victory lane. "We knew we had a good race car," said Petropoulos. "We raced good in the race, but we're just not qualifying as well as we would like. With more experience we know the premium starting positions will come to us. Overall, this was a very good night for just our second race this season with a new team and our new sponsor, Battle Paint and Drywall. It's just a matter of time before we put the car in victory lane."

The team has begun to come together and is looking forward to another top 5 finish at the speedway when Petropoulos and team return to action on Saturday April 19.