Hamilton's Wins Inaugural AMS Truck Race

Saturday, March 13, 2004.
Atlanta Motor Speedway
EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200

BOBBY HAMILTON (No. 4 Square D Dodge Ram) - Atlanta Winner

"Mike (Skinner) and I call each other rednecks all the time. He's a
great competitor. He'll bring a lot of finishes like that to the table,
him and Jack Sprague. I was a little bit worried about a
green-white-checkered finish because I've only done one of them my whole
life until today. That was the second one, but it was a pretty cool
deal."
 

COMMENT ON INAUGURAL TRUCK RACE AT AMS

"I told Ed (Clark) that I hope he'll have us back. I don't know what it
was like outside the driver's seat, but it was exciting on the inside.
It took awhile for the fans to leave, so I figured it must have been
good for them, too. Hopefully the Cup guys can do the same thing for
them tomorrow. These people spend a lot of money to come and watch this
stuff. I've always loved this racetrack. It's a good market area for the
corporate people."

 

HOW DID YOU FEEL WITH ALL THOSE OTHER MAKES AROUND YOU?

"I tell my other driver, Chad Chaffin, he wants to focus on one or two
guys. I tell him if he'll just look at everything out here as a
different color, no makes, no drivers or anything, you'll usually fare a
whole lot better. The Toyota hype is big and great for our sport, but I
said from the beginning, but as far as I'm concerned Dodge had already
put the ante up there where it needed to be. We just hadn't been able to
pull off the championship. We won a ton of races and a ton of poles. I
felt like when Toyota came in, they're spending money and they're going
to be the stuff to beat, that's pretty obvious. Still, I feel like Dodge
has got a great program. What happened between the changeover, Chevy and
Ford had to up the ante quite a bit and get more teams and put out more
money. We might not have won the race today, but we had the best truck.
They've got to go back and do some more work. I didn't really pay any
attention to it. I have a ton of respect for Mike Skinner and his
ability. I have a ton of respect for Travis Kvapil and his ability. The
17 truck, I have a ton of respect for the race team. He gets a little
nutty out there sometimes. He'll get better as he goes, but I do watch
out for him a little bit. I picked them two Toyotas out and I knew if it
came down to the green-white-checkered it was going to come down to me
and Mike."

COMMENT ON THE 17 TEAM "He does a good job. You've got to give the kid a
little break. He drives for Darrell Waltrip, and Darrell Waltrip is my
hero. I can't imagine what it'd be like to drive for him. I'm sure he's
easy to get along with, but you can tell Davis is on the edge sometimes.
He's got a great crew chief behind him, but I'm not comfortable around
him yet. It's just his second race. I got in a wreck because of him in
Daytona. I almost killed Brett Bodine when I was a rookie at Daytona, so
I don't harp on it. The truck series is so competitive now. I'd say 12
teams could win every week."


DID YOUR CUP EXPERIENCE HELP TODAY?

"I don't know how to answer that. All I know is it didn't hurt anything.
I knew what it was going to do at the start, and I was the first one up
against the fence. That made it possible for me to get up there and lead
the race. That was from experience, but halfway through the race I saw
the track turning black, and I knew I wasn't doing all that. They were
catching on pretty quick. I think experienced just helps the first half
of the race."

 

HAS THE TRUCK SERIES BEEN ALL YOU EXPECTED? "We actually got let down a
little bit last year. We thought we'd have a lot better year. It's got
so competitive, even if you have a good sponsor and manufacturer, when
you throw a bunch of people together it has to gel. The biggest thing we
saw last year was our people gelling. We trimmed the fat and got rid of
the stuff we thought was holding us back. I look for big things this
year. It never surprised me last year. We were picked to win the
championshiphead over heels over everybody. We led until Milwaukee, had
a parts failure and we struggled because we were grasping at straws."

 

WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT MAKING UP THE LAP? "I'm like Bobby Jr. He says
when he pits the caution is going to come out. That's just the way it
is. I think it's attached to our name or something. Any time you want a
caution just let me need gas. We were so good when that happened, I knew
Skinner was going to be the leader and I'd be on the tail end of the
lead lap. I knew I could pass him back because I was so much better on
older tires. I knew going in. It's just a little easier when you can
plan the race out, but it's not like that every time. It's just
fortunate we had a good truck."

 

TALK ABOUT THE FINISH "He turned me left. When he turned left, I decided
to stay with him. I'd rather go through the grass with him and take a
chance on crossing the line first. I haven't seen the film, but I was on
the outside and I'm sure he came up and we hit. I didn't want to pull
off of him. I feel like I would have beat him across the line if he
hadn't turned because it was so close, but I guess with him turning he
had to correct. That's what I felt like happened. If he thought it was
something intentional he would have come and talked to me. He's a pretty
serious competitor."

 

WAS THIS A SPECIAL WIN? "Yes, it was, but I get tired of hearing the
hype. It's cool. I'm glad they're here. As an owner, it sells stuff.
They're the big story, so it was cool to stop the story. I know they're
coming. That's their second race and look at them. I would expect them
not to be (happy about losing) because I wouldn't have been, either. The
bottom line is, they had a potential winning truck today. They were
involved in one of the best finishes in NASCAR racing so they need to
take that, go get some good PR on it and go try to win Martinsville,
which I don't think they can do that, either." 

VICTORY LANE COMMENTS

"It was just a great day. We've worked our tails off and it was a great
finish. I just hope the Cup guys can have one like this tomorrow. Dodge
has given us a lot of time in the wind tunnel. We won the second race
last year at Darlington. Nobody else was there (up high today). We went
up there yesterday. Goodyear told us what to do, and there is a lot of
people involved with this. It goes back to Homestead last year. Skinner
sort of ran out of room. He ran up and it was close, but we were at the
end of the race and I wasn't going to let up. I knew it wasn't going to
wreck him. He's a heck of a racecar driver. You'd have to do something a
lot worse than that to take him out. He's pretty sharp behind the wheel.
I knew coming down it was going to be between me and him. I thought I
had a shot at him, but I thought he'd be tough to get around."

TED MUSGRAVE (No. 1 Mopar Performance Dodge Ram)

"It worked out pretty much the way I figured. We learned a lot today.
We're going to be a lot better when we come back. We learned a lot. It's
tough coming to a new track. This isn't what the Mopar team wants. I was
hoping for at least a top five, but at least Dodge won. My hat's off to
Bobby. He was on a rail today. Whatever he had, that's great. I'm going
to see if I can't follow in his footsteps and get this No. 1 Mopar Dodge
back up there again."

 

CHAD CHAFFIN (No. 18 Dickies Racing Dodge Ram)

"Our truck was killer fast in Happy Hour. I was just going to follow
Bobby to the front, but he jumped on the high side and I followed him up
to about seventh or eighth. He kept on going and I got loose. We pitted
and the caution came out while we were in the pits. That stinks, and
there's nothing you can do about that. We were good, but we weren't good
enough to get our lap back. Bobby was so strong, and there was no way I
was going to pass the leaders, but finally we got a Lucky Dog out of it.
Even then it was so late in the run, and it was a single-file start and
I had to start at the very back. It was almost like having nothing. We
passed three trucks in one lap on the green-white-checkered, and that
just showed how strong our truck was. The boss can flat out drive. He's
not back in the truck series because he can't drive. He's back because
he wants to be. He gave me a great truck. One guy finished first and one
guy finished ninth, but if we had been just a little bit better we would
have got the Lucky Dog earlier, and I promise we would have finished
third or fourth with this truck." 

 

JOHNNY ALLEN (Crew chief No. 62 Orleans Racing Ram) "It was a legitimate
penalty. The jackman slipped and was over the wall too early. It was a
deal that cost us pretty big. There at the end the 12 truck got out of
shape and hit the wall. Then he came down and collected us. It is just
hard racing. You hate to see it happen. If we hadn't had the penalty, we
probably wouldn't have been in that position. We would probably have
been further up to the front. We had a good run. We've got potential. We
just need to get it all together in one place. We ran strong in both of
the races we've been in; we just haven't been able to get the package
together. We need a little bit of luck. Time is important when you have
a new driver and crew chief, but we had a head start because Orleans
Racing had a good core base. We built on that. Steve is an easy driver
to work with. He gives good input. Once we get into the races, we have
moved in the direction he wants to go, and it hasn't backfired. He knows
the feel he wants, and so far we've been lucky enough to hit it right."

 
STEVE PARK (No. 62 Orleans Racing Dodge Ram) "We worked from 27th to a
top five and then had to go to the back again when we got the penalty
for a crew member being over the wall too early. That was a shame. I
think we must have passed the most trucks all day. The Orleans Dodge was
handling well. We had a great truck all day. We got run into by the 12
truck there at the end. I guess we put ourselves in a position to get
wrecked. I saw Skinner get sideways on the backstretch toward the end.
These guys race hard. It was a green-white-checkered finish. These guys
are racing for the win, and that is what makes NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series racing so entertaining for the fans. They stand on their feet in
the stands the last five laps just like we do in the trucks."

 

 

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Ray Cooper
Clear!Blue, LLC
rcooper@clearblue.biz
C: 704.975.3232

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