Nashville Racer Has Lived His Dream
"We’ve all gotta face it sometime. It’s just a matter of time until we
all step down. When I look back at what I’ve been able to do, I’m pretty
satisfied with my career. There’s a lot of people who chase that dream, and I’ve
been fortunate enough to have lived it."1
So stated Bobby Hamilton in early January, indicating that he will not race
in Winston Cup full-time (if at all) in 2003 – "You’ve got to have the
money and the equipment to fun up front, and I don’t want to settle for less.
I’m not being selfish, I’m just fed up." While he makes clear he is not
done with Winston Cup, he nonetheless is focused on winning the Truck title.
For 2003 Hamilton, with Square D sponsorship, will focus on his Craftsman
Truck team, fielding the #4 Dodge truck for himself, the #8 for Bill Lester, and
the #18 now taken over by Chad Chaffin. His team has won quite often in the
Trucks, with Joe Ruttman, himself, and Robert Pressley.
It is another chapter in the sometimes stormy career of a driver who has
proven one of the tougher and more determined racers in Winston Cup’s modern
history. That Hamilton has proven as tough as he is comes from his upbringing,
and from his racing – he nearly lost an arm in a Nashville wreck in the 1980s;
"I’m torn up," he said in 1996.* "I’m all broken…..I just don’t
got a lot of time left to make a future."
Bobby’s grandfather, "Preacher" Hamilton, was one of Nashville’s
best engine builders, owning a service station that doubled as a racer hangout
and shop. Among those who took to young Hamilton was country singer and
Nashville Speedway racer Marty Robbins.
Hamilton’s grandmother suffered from pulmonary fibrosis and died in 1968, and
Preacher, who took to excessive drinking in his grief, died a year later.
Bobby’s father, Bud Hamilton, became a mechanic, "one of the wiliest
mechanics in racing,"* but divorced Hamilton’s mother when Bobby was one
year old, and both took to drinking as well – after Preacher’s death, Bobby
moved to Little Green Street in Nashville and worked at the nearby wrecking
service station.
Bud Hamilton then contracted lung cancer, and a reconciliation between Bud
and Bobby eventually came – before Bud passed on, buried in Nashville just
before the 1996 NASCAR season. But Bobby’s relationship with his mother was also
strained, and he had two sisters who "were both wild, too."*
"When I got in that (race) car a day after I buried my father, I didn’t
think about him at all," Hamilton said in 1997. "I went home and I
asked Debbie, ‘Does that make me mean or sick?’" Perhaps the focus of
racing was the best way for Hamilton to work through losing his father.
By that time, Hamilton had already become a NASCAR veteran. His start was
something of an accident. An accomplished Nashville Speedway champion, Hamilton
had worked into the Grand National series by 1989, and had also worked up
friendship with Darrell Waltrip. That friendship led to Hamilton’s first Winston
Cup ride, in one of Rick Hendrick’s movie cars for Days Of Thunder. Hamilton led
at Phoenix in 1989, then withdrew from the race due to running out of film in
the camera.
He got a for-real shot at Winston Cup with George Bradshaw, Mark Smith, and
Dave Fuge, who had purchased Jim Testa’s #68 Winston Cup team, acquired Country
Time sponsorship, switched the cars to Oldsmobiles, named their team Tri-Star
Motorsports, and decided to try Hamilton as their driver. Hamilton finished
tenth at the 1991 Daytona 500, but his breakthrough race with that year’s
Winston 500; he drafted to the battle for the lead and stayed in contention for
the lead until late in the race. His rookie season was enough for top rookie
honors, highlighted by sixth at Rockingham.
But in 1992 Hamilton struggled. The team lost its Oldsmobile backing,
switched first to Chevrolets then to Fords and in April 1993 fired Hamilton.
Hamilton drove a few races in Winston Cup the rest of the year, finishing tenth
at Dover in a Ford owned by Brad Akins and Bob Sutton.
Jeff Hammond, crew chief for SABCO Racing’s #40 Pontiac, took a look at
Hamilton. Rookie Kenny Wallace had been a flop in the #40 and Hammond decided to
hire Hamilton. Racing the Daytona 500 without a sponsor, Hamilton finished 12th
and got Kendall Oil backing for the year. By July, however, Sabates had sold
half of the #40 team to Dick Brooks, and Hamilton left after another messy
season.
At this point SABCO’s primary driver, Kyle Petty, introduced him to Richard.
Richard hired Hamilton for the #43 Pontiac, and in the Petty crew Hamilton found
men like him. The combination began to show something in the opening quarter of
1995. At Daytona Hamilton worked his way to 12th, but was slammed to the wall by
Rusty Wallace and finished 18th. At Richmond Hamilton timed second and finished
ninth.
Then at Darlington Hamilton dodged an epidemic of crashes and finished ninth
again, then topped that after spinning at Bristol; he made up the lap he lost –
ironically by tagging race leader Rusty Wallace aside – ad ultimately clawed to
fourth, following Darrell Waltrip to the checkered flag. Another top ten
followed at Martinsville, then Hamilton finished ninth at the World 600.
The team struggled for much of the ensuing summer. At the Pocono 500 Hamilton
timed third, led early, fell back, and clawed his way to fifth. A late caution
swept up Hamilton and a botched stop dropped him out of the top ten. At the
Brickyard Hamilton timed second but the Pontiac’s lack of down force dropped him
in traffic; he salvaged 11th, then finished ninth at Michigan. At Bristol
Hamilton got into two scrapes with Brett Bodine and got penalized five laps,
ultimately wrecking.
Then in September Hamilton went on a tear. After finishing fifth at Richmond
he started in the back at Dover and passed the entire field into the lead. He
led 83 laps and ultimately finished second, driving a "concrete car"
chassis stiffened to withstand the flexing of high banked one-milers. Hamilton
finished fourth at Martinsville, led a good portion of North Wilkesboro, and
clawed to a top ten at Charlotte. Wrecks at Rockingham and Atlanta and a blown
engine at Phoenix ruined the end of the year, but Hamilton and the Petty team
were suddenly a force for race wins.
Hamilton was heavily involved in the development of Pontiac’s W-body Grand
Prix, and for 1996 there were much greater expectations than ever for him. But
the Pontiac had been delayed seven months due to indifference by SABCO, which
was supposed to build the prototypes. At the Daytona 500 Hamilton finished 20th
after a late-race spin with Geoff Bodine, Robert Pressley, and Lake Speed.
But at Rockingham Hamilton timed in the top ten. In the race he stalked the
leaders, clawed to second in a mad multi-car scramble, then bolted around Jimmy
Spencer with some 100 to go and had a handy lead. When Spencer blew up and slid
to the wall, the yellow flew and Hamilton pitted with Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt
got out first, but Hamilton passed him at Lap 340. Earnhardt retook the lead a
lap later, but a lap after that Hamilton stormed back into the lead. In Turn
Four Earnhardt tagged Hamilton hard, Hamilton slapped the wall, and fell to
sixth. Some twenty laps later Hamilton crashed, the rear of the car out of
alignment from the Earnhardt cheap shot.
"It wasn’t close," an angry Hamilton said afterward. "He took
the air off of me, then he hit me. It wasn’t close at all. I haven’t won seven
championships, I haven’t won my first race, but I’m smart enough to know you
don’t do that to start a season because there’s too many races left."
Several weeks later, Earnhardt sheepishly asked Dale Inman, "How long are
you gonna stay mad at me?" To this Inman acidly replied, "How long are
you gonna be alive?"
>From there, Hamilton’s quest for his breakthrough win became one of the
big stories of an unusually action-filled season. He led 129 laps at Richmond
and finished sixth – and in the process got into a post-race scrap with John
Andretti that would also prove a running story. He finished eighth at North
Wilkesboro, sixth at Martinsville, and at Talladega he took a provisional,
drafted all the way to fifth, and got drafted down to 11th.
Then the first dip of the season hit. At Charlotte Hamilton nearly duplicated
his Talladega run, but smashed the wall in Four. At Pocono he fell to 25th, then
passed 20 cars in the final 100 green-flag laps. He won the pole at the Michigan
400 but a week later slammed the third turn wall during a test at Indianapolis –
"Jesus Christ, Murph, he’s dead!" crewman Bernie McCalister said to
Doug Murph.
Hamilton was hobbled by the crash the rest of the year, but he didn’t show it
– "I sure hit a ton," he weakly said to his crew after the wreck. At
New Hampshire a late stop under yellow dropped him to the back of the field,
then he got rammed in a multi-car scramble. He got swept in a crash on the start
of the Summer 500 after getting drop-kicked by Andretti, cut a tire under green
at Talladega, crashed again at Indianapolis, then blew up at Watkins Glen after
yet another encounter with Andretti.
Mike Helton of NASCAR put a stop to the Hamilton-Andretti feud at Michigan,
and Hamilton began to get back his consistency; hard-fought tenths at Bristol
and Dover, seventh at Richmond, and a dominating run at Martinsville, foiled by
a jammed air wrench on the day’s only green flag stop. Another wreck hobbled
Hamilton to eighth at North Wilkesboro, then "we had a lousy car in traffic
all day" at Charlotte, and another wreck knocked him out at Rockingham.
Then at Phoenix, Hamilton clawed to the front several times, and with 30 to
go wrestled past Geoff Bodine and set sail, winning the Phoenix 500k, his first
career win and Petty Enterprises’ first win in thirteen years. Hamilton vowed
afterward to tell off "this TV person who thinks he knows a lot about
racing"* who had publicly questioned
Hamilton’s tenure with Petty’s team.
Hamilton ended 1996 by leading late and finishing sixth at the Dixie 500,
enough to get him ninth in Winston Cup points.
The 1997 season would be a more difficult season, as Petty Enterprises was
expanding to two cars with Kyle bringing Hot Wheels sponsorship to the second
team. Hamilton finished fifth at Richmond after a post race review found Ricky
Rudd and the Labonte brothers had passed him under a late yellow, then at the
Atlanta 500 Jimmy Spencer punted Hamilton in similar fashion to Dale Earnhardt’s
cheap shot the year before, and Hamilton let Spencer have it, in a wreck that
sent Steve Grissom smashing through the concrete, tumbling to the third turn,
and his fuel cell almost clobbering Geoff Bodine before erupting in flame.
Hamilton finished second at Martinsville, then his season slid out of reach –
he broke at Talladega, cut a tire under green at Charlotte, and was a mediocre
17th at Dover. Hurting worst was the Pocono 500 – he won the pole and exploded
to a two-second lead, but cut a tire, lost a lap, got it back, passed over 20
cars under green, then hammered the Tunnel Turn wall after cutting another tire.
At New Hampshire he cut another tire and finished 31st, and was encouraged by
friends to seek Robert Yates’ #28 ride, but then Larry McClure stepped to
Hamilton and said, "You come with me and I’ll guarantee you a Daytona
500."
After a long talk with Richard Petty, agreement to go their separate ways was
reached. Richard, though, had one last psychological trick up his sleeve – a bet
for Hamilton to win before leaving the #43 at the end of 1997 for $100,000. At
New Hampshire Hamilton led much of the race, got shuffled back, then passed five
cars in three laps en route to finish third. At Martinsville he finished third
after a terrific door to door battle with Jeff Burton (the contrast of
expressions between the tearfully joyous Kim Burton and the laconic Robbie
Loomis was the most striking image of the 1990s), then cashed in on Richard’s
bet by whipping Ricky Craven and Dale Jarrett in the final 20 laps. At Phoenix
he led a third of the race and finished third, then during pre-qualifying
Atlanta practice got blindsided on pit road by Jeff Gordon, took a provisional,
and finished seventh in the backup car.
His start with Morgan-McClure for 1998 was slow, but at Martinsville he led
over 300 laps, got into a fantastic seven-lap door to door battle for the lead
with the #43 now driven by John Andretti, and took the win. Bobby then fought it
out with Jeff Gordon for the lead at Sears Point, and the fight proved quite
intense.
Hamilton finished sixth at Richmond, fourth at Charlotte, then back-to-back
sixths at Rockingham and Atlanta, finishing tenth in points. But 1999 was more
of a struggle – Hamilton finished ninth at Rockingham, seventh at both
Darlington races, but crashed with Robert Pressley at Talladega. He finished a
stellar ninth at the Winston 500 and tenth at Rockingham and Atlanta, finishing
13th in points.
2000 was a dismal season, but Hamilton fought for the lead at Talladega
before getting swept in a pit entry collision with Mark Martin. For 2001
Hamilton joined Andy Petree’s team, and finished eighth at Daytona, then posted
top tens at Darlington, Bristol, and Martinsville, before drafting past Tony
Stewart to win the Alabama 500. Dismal finishes followed until a top ten came at
the Delaware 400. At the Old Dominion 500 Hamilton fought with Ricky Craven and
Kevin Harvick and got punted by Harvick into the wall. At the Autumn 500 at
Talladega Hamilton fought it out all day with Dale Earnhardt Jr., but on the
last lap, trying to pass Bobby Labonte, Hamilton got slammed to the Turn Two
wall, got out of shape, then got into Labonte, setting off a wild melee.
Hamilton’s 2002 season was effectively ended when the #33 team of Petree was
shut down and engineer Richard Buck left for – ironically – Petty Enterprises.
Hamilton managed three top tens before smashing the wall in Richmond’s Truck 200
and getting T-boned by three other Trucks. This ended his 2002 season and
effectively ended his Winston Cup career.
With his successful Truck team, Hamilton can be expected to win races in
2003. Will he drive a Winston Cup car in some races? He says presently he will
not, but time will tell for a driver who’s proven one of the sport’s toughest.
* – see Assael, Shaun – Wide Open: Days & Nights On The
NASCAR Tour