JOLIET, Ill. (AP) -- Bobby Hamilton Jr. overpowered the field,
leading all but a handful of laps Saturday in winning the Tropicana
Twister 300 Busch Series race.
Hamilton Jr., the son of former Winston Cup star and current
NASCAR Craftsman Truck competition Bobby Hamilton, took the lead
from pole-starter Casey Mears on the third lap and led 186 of 200
trips around the 11/2-mile Chicagoland Speedway oval, including the
last 53.
The diminutive 25-year-old Hamilton came up with his third Busch
Series win and second in four races. This one was nearly as
dominant as the wire-to-wire win by Dale Earnhardt Jr. last week at
Daytona.
Hamilton built a lead of almost 16 seconds -- about a half-lap --
before one of six caution flags in the race gave Winston Cup series
leader Matt Kenseth one last shot at catching the leader.
But Hamilton's Team Rensi Motorsports Ford pulled away with ease
on the restart on lap 166 and beat Kenseth's Taurus to the finish
line by 4.503-seconds, about 20 car-lengths.
"I know you've got to try to make it sound interesting, but it
just wasn't," Kenseth said. "It was like an old-fashion whipping
we took today. He had the whole field covered."
The first words out of Hamilton's mouth after climbing out of
his cockpit with a huge smile on his face were: "Holy cow, can you
believe that?"
Hamilton has finished in the top 10 in eight of the last 10
races, but the youngster gave much of the credit for Saturday's
showing to veteran crew chief Harold Holly. Holly didn't join the
team until June. Since then, Hamilton has five top-10s in six
races, including both of his 2003 wins.
"You can see the difference," Hamilton said. "Who ... has
race cars like that every week? I have them like that every week."
Only 26 of the 43 starters were running at the end of the
attrition-filled race.
There were several multicar crashes, but no injuries reported.
Kerry Earnhardt, son of the late seven-time Winston Cup champion
Dale Earnhardt, was taken to a nearby hospital but was later
released after being examined.
Scott Riggs finished a lap down in seventh and extended his lead
over David Green in the championship race from 2 to 23 points as
Green finished 11th. Ron Hornaday Jr., third in the standings, was
involved in one of the crashes but recovered to finish 12th and
trails Riggs by 57 points.
Tropicana Twister 300 Results
At Chicagoland Speedway
Pos.
Start
Driver
Make
Laps
Winnings
1.
3
Bobby Hamilton Jr.
Ford
200
$91,945
2.
7
Matt Kenseth
Ford
200
$56,700
3.
8
Brian Vickers
Chevrolet
200
$58,385
4.
1
Casey Mears
Dodge
200
$36,475
5.
5
Michael Waltrip
Chevrolet
200
$28,850
6.
21
Jason Keller
Ford
199
$38,550
7.
13
Scott Riggs
Ford
199
$36,250
8.
9
Tony Raines
Chevrolet
199
$23,350
9.
27
Jamie McMurray
Dodge
199
$22,250
10.
15
Mike Bliss
Chevrolet
199
$27,800
11.
16
David Green
Pontiac
199
$31,500
12.
11
Ron Hornaday Jr.
Chevrolet
199
$30,900
13.
4
Dave Blaney
Ford
199
$20,655
14.
23
Joey Clanton
Pontiac
199
$25,225
15.
22
Scott Wimmer
Chevrolet
198
$29,700
16.
17
Shane Hmiel
Chevrolet
198
$23,575
17.
28
Mike Wallace
Chevrolet
198
$22,170
18.
37
Kevin Grubb
Dodge
198
$21,945
19.
30
Stacy Compton
Chevrolet
197
$21,720
20.
24
Coy Gibbs
Chevrolet
196
$22,295
21.
29
Casey Atwood
Chevrolet
195
$17,350
22.
34
Mike Harmon
Chevrolet
193
$21,245
23.
39
Jason White
Chevrolet
192
$19,450
24.
35
Jimmy Kitchens
Ford
188
$18,975
25.
31
Dwayne Leik
Chevrolet
186
$16,850
26.
40
Jamie Mosley
Ford
163
$16,725
27.
2
Johnny Sauter
Chevrolet
161
$27,720
28.
18
Kasey Kahne
Ford
161
$20,495
29.
26
Lance Norick
Dodge
160
$16,350
30.
20
Mike McLaughlin
Chevrolet
152
$16,325
31.
10
Todd Bodine
Chevrolet
138
$16,100
32.
6
David Reutimann
Chevrolet
59
$17,970
33.
36
Derrike Cope
Ford
51
$18,155
34.
32
Stanton Barrett
Pontiac
44
$17,740
35.
43
Brad Teague
Chevrolet
28
$17,630
36.
41
Mike Potter
Ford
24
$15,500
37.
14
Paul Menard
Chevrolet
13
$15,390
38.
38
Larry Gunselman
Chevrolet
13
$17,335
39.
33
Jason Schuler
Ford
7
$17,210
40.
42
Josh Richeson
Ford
5
$15,085
41.
19
Kerry Earnhardt
Chevrolet
2
$16,960
42.
25
Ashton Lewis Jr.
Chevrolet
2
$16,840
43.
12
Joe Nemechek
Chevrolet
2
$14,731
Race Statistics Average Speed of Race Winner: 129.730 mph. Time of Race: 2 hours, 18 minutes, 45 seconds. Margin of Victory: 4.503. Caution Flags: 6 for 31 laps. Lead Changes: 6 among 6 drivers. Lap Leaders: C.Mears 1-2; B.Hamilton Jr.3-135; B.Vickers 136; J.
Keller 137-140; J.McMurray 141-145; S.Riggs 146-147; B.Hamilton Jr.
148-200. Points Standings: 1, S.Riggs, 2,591. 2, D.Green, 2,568. 3,
R.Hornaday Jr., 2,534. 4, B.Vickers, 2,522. 5, J.Keller, 2,511. 6,
T.Bodine, 2,467. 7, B.Hamilton Jr., 2,434. 8, J.Sauter, 2,292. 9,
S.Wimmer, 2,241. 10, S. Hmiel, 2,240.
