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Sunday, April 22
Hamilton picks up fourth career win
Associated Press
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Bobby Hamilton went to school last
October at Talladega Superspeedway and learned a valuable lesson
from the best restrictor-plate racer ever.
It paid off Sunday with a victory in the Talladega 500, despite
Hamilton leading only three of the 188 laps on the 2.66-mile oval.
|  | | Bobby Hamilton was left breathless after winning the Talladega 500. |
"I learned some stuff in the fall race last year by watching
Dale (Earnhardt) Sr., and it worked real good on the car I was
driving last year," said Hamilton, refusing with a smile to reveal
the secret.
Earnhardt, who was killed in February in a crash in the Daytona
500, was a master of the races run with restricted engines, winning
10 times at Talladega and three more at Daytona International
Speedway.
His victory here last fall was easily his best, though, as The
Intimidator slashed through a huge pack of cars to go from 18th to
first over the last five laps.
Hamilton didn't match that showing, but he used what he learned
from Earnhardt to stay in position to win a plate race for the
first time.
"I used it a couple of times and I thought, 'This is the cat's
meow right now.' Nobody else is doing it, so I'm going to put it in
my glove compartment and wait until it's 15 laps to go," added
Hamilton, whose fourth career victory was also his first since
April of 1998 and the first for Andy Petree as a car owner.
With crew chief Jimmy Elledge counting down the laps for him,
Hamilton hung around the middle of the 25-car lead pack until it
was time to make his move.
"Jimmy was saying, '18, 17, 16,' and when he got to 15, I took
off."
Hamilton moved to the front of a long line of cars on the high
side of the steeply banked track and began to chase down leader
Tony Stewart, racing into the top five with 10 laps remaining and
taking third with five laps to go.
He finally chased down Stewart two laps from the end and, with
teammate Joe Nemechek giving him a strong push from behind, shot to
the front as the leaders drove into the first turn.
Just like last October's race here and the disastrous Daytona
race in February -- which included a terrifying 19-car crash and a
last-lap accident in which Earnhardt died -- this race featured
nearly constant two- and three-wide racing by most of the 43-car
field.
Nobody was able to dominate, although Sterling Marlin, Dale
Earnhardt Jr., and Stewart took turns leading the race for extended
periods.
It was the first NASCAR race without a caution period in nearly
two years and the third-fastest 500-mile race in NASCAR history,
with Hamilton averaging 184.003 mph.
"We had a nice safe race," said Mike Skinner, the senior
Earnhardt's teammate. "Lots of people have wondered what would
happen on the track today, but we had no problems. Maybe that will
satisfy a lot of people."
The 37 lead changes didn't approach the 49 in that fall
Talladega race or at Daytona in February, but the 26 different
drivers that led matched the modern Winston Cup record set here in
1986.
The last of the lead changes came on lap 187.
"I kept watching the mirror down the backstretch," Stewart
said. "Hamilton kept getting bigger and bigger. I knew he wasn't
going to go away."
Hamilton and Stewart battled to the end, with the winner
crossing the finish line 0.163-seconds -- about 2 car-lengths -- in
front. A five-wide pack of more than 20 cars followed the two
leaders, with rookie Kurt Busch hanging on to third, followed by
Mark Martin and defending series champion Bobby Labonte.
There were so many cars bunched behind them that it took NASCAR
about 30 minutes, using video and the computer scoring to sort out
the finishing order behind fifth place.
Nemechek was eventually scored in sixth, followed by Johnny
Benson, Earnhardt Jr., last-place starter Mike Wallace and Jeff
Burton. Marlin, who led four times for a race-high 51 laps, was
shuffled all the way back to 23rd.
Hamilton praised NASCAR president Mike Helton and fellow driver
Michael Waltrip, the Daytona winner, who both spoke a the prerace
drivers' meeting and cautioned the competitors to take care of each
other.
"We don't have to run over each other on the third lap,"
Hamilton said. "It got pretty hairy with about three laps to go,
but that's OK because that's crunch time. We dodged a bullet out
there and proved we could do it."
It was the first Winston Cup race without a caution flag since
the June 1999 race at Michigan International Speedway. There was
also a caution-free race in Talladega in the spring of 1997.
With NASCAR requiring the plates in Talladega to keep the cars
under 200 mph, Stacy Compton's pole qualifying speed of 184.861 mph
was the slowest in the 32-year history of this track.
But, with the green flag waving from start to finish, Hamilton's
average speed trailed only the 188.354 by Martin in the 1997
caution-free event and the 186.288 by Bill Elliott in an
unrestricted race in 1985.
Dale Jarrett, who won three of the previous four races this
season, finished 18th on Sunday. Jeff Gordon, the defending race
winner, led several times but finished 27th and trails series
leader Jarrett by 145 points after nine of 36 races.
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