August 11, 2003

Square D Racing Recap: Federated Auto Parts 200

Hometown hero Bobby Hamilton battled a loose No. 4 Square D Dodge all night in the Federated Auto Parts 200 at Nashville Superspeedway. He finished the race in 11th position after qualifying his No. 4 Dodge in the third starting position for the 150 laps under the lights on the 1.33-mile tri-oval.

By the time the first caution flag came out on lap 26 Hamilton was having trouble keeping the truck off of the wall because of extremely loose conditions. He had fallen back to 15th position. Crew Chief Newt Moore asked the interim pit crew from Team Marines to adjust air pressures in the tires, take a rubber out of the right rear and adjust the wedge to help Hamilton. The crew members cranked out a fast pit stop helping Hamilton restart the race in 14th position.

After the tires got heat in them and Hamilton burned some of the fuel out of his truck, he could run comparable times to the leaders. By the time the next caution came out on lap 86, Hamilton had moved into the eighth position. He said the truck was still loose and would like more adjustments. Once again Moore called for air pressures adjustments to the tires and a track bar adjustment. The Marines crew did their best once again and helped Hamilton restart the race in the sixth spot.

The third and final caution of the night came out on lap 123 for debris. At this point Hamilton said his truck was looser than at the start of the race. He said, “I can feel every crack in this race track. It’s like the tires have 400 pounds of air in them. I can’t even touch the gas without losing it out here.”

Hamilton was forced to pit for help. He came in on lap 124 without the leaders who had enough fuel to make it the rest of the race. The Marines crew did not add gas to Hamilton’s truck, but added scuffed tires and made adjustments once again trying to tighten his truck up. Hamilton went on to finish the race in 11th position after he passed Terry Cook in the final 15 laps.

Now the team will travel straight to Bristol Motor Speedway for an all day test session on Monday, Aug. 11th. Hamilton is planning on testing two of his Square D Dodge trucks to decide which one to take back for the night race on Aug. 20th.

Carl Edwards won back-to-back races and the infamous guitar from Nashville Superspeedway. Ted Musgrave, Rick Crawford, David Starr and Brendan Gaughan followed in the top five.

NEXT EVENT: The O’Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on August 20, 2003. The event will be televised live on SPEED Channel at 8:30 PM Eastern Time and also live on MRN radio at 8:30 PM Eastern Time.