September 22, 2003

Square D Racing Recap: American Racing Wheels 200

While leading the American Racing Wheels 200 today at California Speedway, Square D driver Bobby Hamilton ran out of gas on lap 61 stalling his No. 4 Dodge at the end of pit road. Hamilton battled back from the 25th spot in the final 30 laps to finish the 100-lap race in 16th position.

At the beginning of the race, Hamilton was very loose, but still managed to pick up four spots from his starting position of 15th. He and Crew Chief Newt Moore discussed how they could tighten the truck up to help Hamilton under the first caution. On lap 12 Hamilton ducked on to pit road for a four tire change, with adjustments to air pressures and the track bar on the Square D Dodge.

This pit stop allowed Hamilton to stay out when the other drivers were forced to pit starting on lap 46 under green-flag conditions. The Nashville, Tenn., native took advantage of this and worked his way to the front quickly. His lap times improved by three tenths or more as his tires started to wear in. Soon on lap 61 Hamilton was leading the race. According to the Square D Racing Team’s calculations, Hamilton could get five extra bonus points for leading and then pit the very next lap, which would still be four laps shy of their fuel mileage window.

For some reason, the calculations did not pan out for the team. Hamilton ran out of gas on the race track and could only make it to the end of pit road before his No. 4 Dodge stalled. Since Hamilton could not move, NASCAR threw a caution on lap 63. This made Hamilton two laps down to the leader.

After the restart Hamilton picked up nine positions to finish the race in 16th.

“We made up our mind at the beginning of the race to take our time and burn some fuel off because we were really good on long runs,” Hamilton said. “Then we got a caution early and came in to get tires. I was really loose at that point, but I knew my truck would get better once the tires wore in. I still thought at that time we had 90 laps to go in the race so I would just take it easy.

“With 20 laps into that run my truck took off,” Hamilton continued. “It was one of the fastest trucks on the race track, but then we stretched the gas too far. I’m not sure what happened there. I know the gas man got it full when we pitted because the catch can man saw the over flow in his can. We thought we had four more laps and we weren’t take any chances scheduling the pit stop then, but we just ran out of gas. I don’t know if it is where the truck got faster and it was burning more fuel or what. I hate it, I know that.”

Ted Musgrave won the American Racing Wheels 200. Brendan Gaughan, Dennis Setzer, Rick Crawford and David Starr followed in the top five.

NEXT EVENT: The Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 27, 2003. The event will be televised live on SPEED Channel at 9:00 PM Eastern Time and also live on MRN radio at 9:00 PM Eastern Time.