McDonald's NASCAR Busch Series driver Bobby Hamilton, Jr. continues his push to grab the fifth position in the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Point's Championship. With his 12th place finish at Dover International Speedway, the Tennessee native stands just 42 points behind Nextel Cup driver David Ragan in the point's championship. With six races remaining in the season, Hamilton has his eyes focused on fifth or higher.
"Another good race for our McDonald's team," said Hamilton. "We want to finish inside the top-five this year and today helped. The guys are all working hard and the cars are running better each week."
Well my man Bobby Hamilton Jr. gave me a little bit more to cheer about on Friday night at Bristol. I was pretty excited when he used a gas mileage strategy to get to 5th place at one point in the race.
A gas mileage strategy at Bristol sounds like an oxymoron. But with the new track configuration that is what he did. That is some pretty smart strategy right there. And in the end it gave him a top 15 finish which isn't bad when there are as many Buschwackers out there as there were on Friday.
Never Give Up! The three words that best describe the effort of McDonald’s NASCAR Busch Series driver Bobby Hamilton, Jr. during Friday Night’s Food City 250 race. After qualifying in the 39th position, Hamilton very easily could have settled in for a long night of racing on the half mile speedway. Instead, he reached down deep and found the ability to pilot his No. 35 Team Rensi Motorsports machine to the front.
“We are happy to start as far back as we did and come home with a 12th place finish,” Hamilton said. “Chris and all the guys on the McDonald’s team gave a strong effort, allowing us to pass so many cars. We needed this run tonight and now we can go to California with some momentum.”
With the 12th place finish, Hamilton remained in sixth place in the season long Busch Series Point’s Championship.
In one quick motion, the hopes of Bobby Hamilton went down the drain at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Early in the 200 lap race, the driver of the McDonald’s Ford was forced to pit under green flag conditions for a tire issue. The untimely pit stop costs Hamilton two laps to the leaders and placed the Tennessee native in a bad position he would never recover from. The trouble led him to a 33rd place finish and a drop of 5 positions in the Busch Series Point’s Championship. Four of the five drivers to pass in the point’s race were full-time Nextel Cup drivers.
“We will put this entire weekend in the rearview mirror and head to Dover next weekend,” Hamilton said. “I have come close to winning on the Monster Mile before, and hope we can put the McDonald’s Ford up front on Saturday afternoon.”
The Busch Series will take the green flag in Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm on ESPN.
While racing into turn three, the McDonald’s Ford was hit and slammed into the outside of the turn three wall. The car suffered serious damage and required major repair work. Crew Chief Chris Wright led a 50 lap repair job on the car, allowing Bobby Hamilton Jr. to return to action for the finish of the event. Instead of a top-20 finish, Hamilton was saddled with a 34th place finish after starting the even in 19th position. With the setback, Hamilton dropped to ninth in the Busch Series Point’s Championship.
“This is a disappointing way to finish the race,” said Hamilton. “Our car wasn’t perfect tonight, but we should have been able to finish inside the top twenty and move on to Talladega. We will rebound and do our best to take the McDonald’s Ford to the front of the pack next week.”
"The Pack?" Uh, I believe Bobby's terminology is more like "The Cluster".
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