Hamilton Wins Built Ford Tough Race

SPARTA, Ky. July 10, 2004; Murray Evans writing for the AP reported that Bobby Hamilton became the first three-time winner this season on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, rallying to win the rain-delayed Built Ford Tough 225 on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

The 47-year-old Hamilton dominated most of the race, but still needed a dramatic rally on a restart following a caution with two laps to go. Hamilton dipped his Dodge inside Jack Sprague's Chevrolet and held off Sprague by 0.179 seconds.

Sprague took the lead on a restart on lap 146 of the scheduled 150-lap race, but the race went back to caution on lap 149 when Rick Crawford's truck spun into the infield. Series rules dictate that a race must finish with two green-flag laps, so the field ran under caution for three laps before green-flag racing resumed.

"I was able to hang with him (on the restart), but he was so strong, it was unbelievable," Sprague said of Hamilton. "He was the class of the field.

"He deserved to win it more than I deserved to win it."

Hamilton lapped all but 16 of the 35 other drivers who started the race. The former Nextel Cup driver led for 133 of the race's 153 laps and moved up a spot to second in the series point standings, six points behind Dennis Setzer.

Hamilton led by as many as 8.4 seconds and, until Sprague passed him, wasn't seriously challenged after taking the lead from Carl Edwards on lap 14.

Hamilton won in 1:52.20, averaging 122.587 mph. David Starr, who also briefly passed Hamilton on the lap 146 restart, finished third, with Matt Crafton and Chad Chaffin (who survived an early spinout) rounding out the top five.

Hamilton's other wins this year came in the Easycare Vehicle Service 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 13 and the O'Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park on May 19.

The former driver on NASCAR's top circuit has seven career Craftsman Truck Series wins. His son, Bobby Hamilton Jr., won a Busch Series race at Kentucky Speedway last year.

The race started 55 minutes late because of rain that soaked the track less than three hours before the scheduled start time. The race's first 11 laps were run under caution, as the trucks helped dry the track.

Qualifying for the race on Friday was canceled by the rain, meaning the lineup was set based on the points standings. Setzer and Edwards started on the front road, with Hamilton on the second road.

Earlier Saturday, Kentucky Speedway officials announced that Ford Racing has agreed to extend its title sponsorship of the track's annual Craftsman Truck Series race through 2007. Ford Racing, a division of Ford Motor Company, began its sponsorship of the race in 2003.

Ford Racing also sponsors the season-ending "Ford Championship Weekend" at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which is where NASCAR officially crowns champions in the Nextel Cup Series, the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series.