Hamilton Finishes Third in Ram at AMS

Friday, March 18, 2005
Atlanta Motor Speedway
World Financial Group 200.


 

BOBBY HAMILTON (No. 04 Bailey's Dodge Ram)

NOTE: Hamilton has finished third, second and first in the first three
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in 2005, and the defending series
champion retained his points lead by 60 points over Ted Musgrave.

 

"I ran the right front off and I decided to cool 'em. I was catching Ron
and then the caution flew. My transmission was torn up. I only had third
and fourth gear. If I could have gotten going on the restart we would
have won it hands down, but we've got a first, second and third and
there's not a scratch on the truck. I lost the transmission on the
second restart. I blew a right rear and got a lap down. We had a good
truck. I'm not going to panic when I get a lap down. The owner likes me.

 

"Everybody drove a good race. This is a good racetrack. It's a drivers'
track. It ain't like some of those cookie cutters we run. We don't have
many of these left. When Rockingham and Darlington falls by the wayside,
this is one of the dinosaurs left and it makes for great racing here.

 

"Dodge gives us a lot of support. The guys give me good trucks and when
you have good equipment it's easy to have good runs. I'm just happy the
transmission held together tonight. A lot of guys worked with me that
started behind me, and that was pretty nice. That's the beauty of this
series. It was a cool race again at Atlanta. Last year it was Skinner
and myself. Bobby and Ron did it this time right there at the end. I had
a bird's eye view. I just wish I could have got going with them. It was
a good finish, but we could have made it three wide.

 

"Us old guys just don't have the nerve to qualify anymore. That's the
rumor any way. I told the Dodge people when they asked what these kids
need is a little more age. They'll be all right when they get a little
older. The best qualifying Dodge was 18th. We just have a lot of drag.
The other manufacturers have less drag. I don't pay a lot of attention
to it as an owner. That's all it is, a drag issue."

 

TED MUSGRAVE (No. 1 Mopar Dodge Ram) - Finished 6th; 2nd in points

"It was a pretty tough road to hoe. Our truck wasn't the fastest, but we
slowly came on little by little. We got such an aero push there at the
end that Starr got by me. I didn't want to rough him up. I'm trying to
look at the big picture. Things were pretty decent. We made some air
pressure adjustments, and that's about all we did all night. I think if
we could have got a long run we would have been a little better. We'll
go do our homework and see if we can get better at tracks this big. We
did OK in the points, but I don't care much about points. I want to win
races and finish in the top five. We were sixth, and I'm a little
disappointed not being in the top five. All in all, I guess it was OK."