TALLADEGA, Ala. -- With apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd, a certain Winston Cup driver is hoping to come out of Sunday's Aaron's 499 once again humming "Sweet Hamilton Alabama."

Veteran racer Bobby Hamilton made himself feel right at home and enjoyed some down home Alabama hospitality last spring at Talladega Superspeedway when he won the Talladega 500, his fourth career Winston Cup victory and first on a superspeedway.

Returning to Talladega to defend last year's win couldn't come at a better time for Hamilton, who needs a big boost to improve upon a season that has started out rather poorly. The driver of the No. 55 Chevrolet, Hamilton comes into this weekend's race in 30th-place in the Winston Cup standings, with just one top-10 finish thus far in 2002.

However, there's also increased hope for optimism this weekend following Hamilton's strong start in last Sunday's race at Martinsville (Va.) on the outside pole. Unfortunately for him, that race didn't end the same way, as he wound up with another disappointing finish of 27th.

"I think we can win a race, and actually think we have a good shot this week," said team owner Andy Petree. "We can win a race and can win with one team, but it is a more difficult challenge."

Hamilton and new crew chief Charley Pressley are no strangers, having been paired up for 14 races in 1998 and one race in 1999 when Hamilton drove for Morgan-McClure Racing. Hamilton joined his current Andy Petree-owned team last season.

"I don't think it's taken long for Charley and me to jell," Hamilton said. "It's more a situation when Jimmy (former crew chief Jimmy Elledge) left, we lost a lot of people. Any time you have to restructure, it just sets you behind."

It doesn't help that Hamilton doesn't have a full-time teammate this season, either. Last year, he had Joe Nemechek to bounce ideas and opinions off of.

"The 33 team not being there on a regular basis has also hurt us because we don't have another team to feed off of, and I think that's a must with all the multi-car teams these days," Hamilton said.

	Hamilton won in breath-taking fashion at Talladega in 2001.

Tough to repeat
Using the same data that propelled him into Victory Lane last April, Hamilton hopes for lightning to strike twice in as many years for him. However, he'll have some pretty formidable company in the quest for the checkered flag at the 2.66-mile high-banked Talladega layout, the longest track on the Winston Cup circuit.

Current points leader Sterling Marlin is a two-time winner at Talladega, as well as defending Winston Cup points champ Jeff Gordon and fellow veterans Mark Martin, Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte.

And knocking at the door in both of last season's races at Talladega was Tony Stewart, who finished runner-up in both events.

But while those drivers have had good success over the years there, Talladega can also be a heartbreaking track as well. Look at veteran driver Ricky Rudd, who has competed in 50 races at the fabled superspeedway, but has had very marginal luck there, with just 12 top-10 finishes and zero victories. For that matter, Rudd has never won a restrictor plate race at either Daytona or Talladega.

"Restrictor plate racing is a weird deal," Hamilton said. "You can have a car with just a little bit of drag and a good motor and not qualify good, but when the flag drops, you can race good. At Talladega and Daytona, the very first race we have is just getting into the race itself.

"With restrictor plates, if you have to lift it bottles you up real bad and it jeopardizes everyone around you. If you get a run on somebody at Charlotte, you have 800 horsepower, the car recovers good and you have a ton of downforce.

"We have the necessary evil at Daytona and Talladega. We have no downforce, and if somebody touches you, the car goes around and you have no power. So, you really can't afford to let off the gas because you're going to get hit from behind, we have real little brakes on the car and nobody can stop, you can't be touched, and you really can't afford to let off the gas because the thing won't pull back up."

In reality, competing at Talladega is actually three races in one. As Hamilton said, the first race is just making the 43-car qualifying field. With 49 teams entered, six teams will be going home Friday night.

The third race within a race at Talladega is reaching the finish, which oftentimes is easier than surviving the second race within a race there -- avoiding the inevitable "big one," where a dozen or more cars can find themselves flying along at 190 mph one minute, only to be spinning, smashing, flipping and crashing the next in a multi-car pileup.

"The one thing that's for sure at Talladega is not if the big one's gonna happen," recalls Bill Elliot. "It's a matter of when it's gonna happen -- and it can happen at any time at that place."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.