With the Nationwide Series drivers not allowed on track for nearly 48 hours prior to the race, all the advantages were in place for the Sprint Cup Series drivers to dominate the event, and they did. The pace set by Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick was tough for most to follow. The order of the day was simply follow the leaders and hope for the best.
“This was a tough race for us, staying off the track for nearly 48 hours really hurt us, we were left to make an educated guess on the chassis setup,” Nationwide regular Bobby Hamilton Jr. said.
O.K., so it isn't pretty. It might not even be anything to brag about. But Bobby Hamilton Jr. is steady and he perseveres as he moves in to sixth place in the Busch Series standings this week. Bobby remains second in the Busch regular standings to Jason Leffler.
From bobbyhamiltonjr.com
The ability to overcome adversity allowed Bobby Hamilton, Jr., driver of the Eckrich Meats/Kroger/McDonald’s Ford, to finish in 13th place on Saturday Night. After a penalty for speeding on pit road dropped Hamilton back to 28th position with less than 100 laps to go, Hamilton began his charge back to the front. The determination allowed Hamilton to grab the 13th place finish and move to sixth in the NASCAR Busch Series Point’s Championship.
“The penalty hurt us, it kept us from probably finishing around sixth or seventh,” Hamilton said. “Our car was strong all night long, and we helped ourselves in the point’s race again.” “We really enjoyed driving this car for Eckrich Meats and Kroger. We got to meet a lot of their customers and employees this week and that’s always a lot of fun.”
Jason Leffler, a regular driver on the Busch Series, rocketed his way past Nextel Cup driver Greg Biffle for the win late in the race. The Busch Series will now head North of the border for a road course race in Montreal on Saturday. Check your local listings for broadcast times in your area.
With 25 Nextel Cup drivers entered in Saturday’s Busch Series event, Bobby Hamilton, Jr. and the remaining 17 Busch Series drivers knew there would be nothing easy about the USG Durock 300. The race had all the makings for domination by the Cup drivers. The 25 Cup drivers were able to take advantage of nearly three times the amount of practice over the weekend in sweeping 17 of the top 20 positions on the 1.5 mile superspeedway. The advantages were just too strong for the 25 Cup drivers in the field. Hamilton crossed the finish line in the 29th position.
“Today was very tough for us, we did all we could with the practice we had to work with,” Hamilton said. “My guys worked hard on the Eckrich / McDonald’s Ford all weekend. We were real excited to have Eckrich on board our car this weekend. Now we can go to St. Louis and O’Reilly Raceway Park the next two weeks for what should be very good races for our team. We have our focus on moving up into the top-five in the point’s race and these next few weeks will be very important for us.”
Kevin Harvick captured the win, leading Matt Kenseth across the finish line.
Constant Reader knows I am a Bobby Hamilton Jr. fan. But what this article doesn't say is that Bobby was the seventh highest Busch regular. For whatever reason, Team Rensi's performance wasn't even up to their normal "Busch Regular" standards on Saturday.
Granted, this article does ease the pain of the disappointment of the 29th place finish to some degree.
Still, why did David Gilliland, driving similar Team Rensi equipment, finish 27th if it was all about practice? It seems to me that Rensi's equipment simply isn't up to the quality of the Nextel Cup operation's Busch cars. I would like to see Rensi admit this and Bobby's handlers and he himself complain a little less about the practice issue.
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