2013 All-American 400: Preston Peltier leads Friday practice

NASHVILLE -- Preston Peltier was fastest in practice for the All-American 400 Super Late Model race on Friday afternoon, besting a massive field of 43 cars from both the Southern Super Series and ARCA CRA Late Model tours.

Peltier (19.151 in practice) ironically spends most of his time in the Pro All Stars Series and is an outsider to much of the field. But that’s a role he seems to flourish in, winning his only prior Southern Super Series start of the season -- in August -- in the World Crown 300 at Gresham Motorsports Park.

Peltier isn’t willing to predict the pace for Saturday’s race but he’s confident that he should be able to compete for the win.

“It’s hard to say what our race pace will be because that’s so dependent on the track conditions and our competition,” Peltier told SB Nation after practice. “It’s hard to say but felt like we had a good car or at least we’re expecting to have a good car.”

Peltier says he doesn’t feel a lot of pride in regards to being the primary PASS contender in the race (Spencer Davis is also representing the tour this weekend) but rather, most of his self-regard is placed on his team’s ability to find success on a constrictive budget.

“We don’t have big sponsors or money behind us,” Peltier said. “We’re a close knit group of friends and family who like to race. We like to be creative and we’ve found a lot of success on that creativity instead of spending money.

“We like to outsmart the competition and that’s what we take a lot of pride in as a race team.”

Peltier only has a best finish of 16th in the Civil War on Wheels but has previously won once at Nashville - during the 2008 season -- in an ASA Southeast Tour race that was later taken away from him in post-race technical inspectional.

“It’s my favorite track,” Peltier said. “But we need a little luck. That’s what it boils down to, putting the whole thing together. We were once fastest in practice for a race with 102 cars and caught into a wreck. I’ve learned a lot about racing here and we’re in a much better position for this race.”

Peltier was fastest in practice over Donnie Wilson, Chase Elliott, Johnny VanDoorn and Trey Mitchell. Southern Super Series championship leaders Bubba Pollard and Daniel Hemric were 15th and sixth respectively.

Fastest times in practice can be viewed below:

Complete All-American 400 coverage can be found on SB Nation’s Ranting and Raving Short Track Blog.