Up and Down Richmond Race for Hamilton, Jr.

Heading into Friday Night’s 250 lap race in Richmond, McDonald’s NASCAR Busch Series driver Bobby Hamilton, Jr. had high hopes for a strong top-ten finish.  The team had successfully ventured to the track in April for a great test and hoped to duplicate the  results in the race.  Throughout practice, Hamilton was fast and the team was excited for the evening’s race.

Hamilton qualified 25th for the race, running about two tenths of a second slower that he expected.  The race began a few hours later and Hamilton placed his focus on driving to the front.  From the drop of the green flag, he gained eight positions and began to feel confident about the remaining laps.  Shortly thereafter, the tires began to fade and Hamilton dropped back in the running order.  With each lap it seemed as if the tires were giving way even more.  Eventually he was passed by the race leader and fell one lap down.

Caution finally waved, allowing Hamilton to replace the tires during a much needed pit stop.  For the next 50 laps, Hamilton ran alongside the top five cars, unfortunately, the damage of losing the lap had placed him into a hole he could not escape.  Over the final half of the race, Hamilton did his best to regain the lap, but came up short.  He was credited with a 22nd place finish.

With nearly 90% of the top twenty finishers being Nextel Cup drivers, the point standings damage was minimal.  Hamilton dropped two places to seventh, continuing to hold the honor of the highest non-Nextel Cup driver in the point’s championship.

“We struggled at the wrong time tonight,” Hamilton said.  “We will take what we learned here and get ready for Darlington on Friday Night.  We plan on taking the McDonald’s Ford to the front.”

Clint Bowyer captured the win, holding off the charges of Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton.