Square D driver Bobby Hamilton won one of the most exciting races in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history today at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the final three laps of the EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 Hamilton and fellow competitor Mike Skinner raced door-to-door without giving up even an inch. Coming off turn four racing to the line, Hamilton and Skinner were side-by-side rubbing fenders as Hamilton crossed the finish line winning the race and Skinner spun around backwards through the grass.

"He turned me left," Hamilton said about the finish. "When he turned left, I decided to stay with him. I’d rather go through the grass with him and take a chance on crossing the line first. I haven’t seen the film, but I was on the outside and I’m sure he came up and we hit. I didn’t want to pull off of him. I feel like I would have beat him across the line if he hadn’t turned because it was so close, but I guess with him turning he had to correct. If he thought it was something intentional he would have come and talked to me. He’s a pretty serious competitor.”

Hamilton led four times for a total of 56 laps. It took him only eight laps on the 1.54-mile oval to move up from his starting position of 12th to take the lead. On lap 42 under green-flag conditions, Hamilton pitted before he ran out of fuel. However when the caution flag came out on lap 44 and most of the field had not yet pitted, the timely pit stop caused the team to be on the tail end of the lead lap.

“I’m like Bobby Jr," Hamilton said. "He says when he pits the caution is going to come out. That’s just the way it is. I think it’s attached to our name or something. Any time you want a caution just let me need gas. We were so good when that happened, I knew Skinner was going to be the leader and I’d be on the tail end of the lead lap after it all panned out. I knew I could pass him back because I was so much better on older tires. It’s just a little easier when you can plan the race out, but it’s not like that every time. It’s just fortunate we had a good truck.”

The race was red flagged on lap 48 for over five minutes while NASCAR cleaned up debris from the multi-truck pile-up. The Square D Racing Team did not give up. Hamilton was positioned in front of the leaders on the restart on lap 54. He remained there as he raced the high groove, which proved to be the fastest way around the race track. Hamilton’s lap times were consistently over five tenths faster than the leaders.

The next caution came out on lap 86 with Hamilton in the 12th position. He radioed to Crew Chief Danny Rollins that his truck was loose on long runs. So the team elected to pit on lap 88 and make a track bar adjustment. Hamilton stopped once again to top off with fuel and make yet another adjustment to the track bar on lap 90.

Rollins said before the restart, "It's time for a banzai run!" Hamilton looked like he was shot from a sling shot on the restart. On lap 95 he was in 10th position where he passed trucks three-wide, outside, inside and even two in the same lap. By lap 104 he was the leader and lap 105 he was pulling away from the field. Hamilton held his position as the leader setting the pace for the field in route to his fifth victory in the Craftsman Truck Series until lap 125 when Skinner passed him. Then the fourth caution of the day came out on lap 126.

The restart brought the crowd to its feet. NASCAR's green-flag finish rule went into effect for the final three laps of the race. On lap 130 the green flag was thrown. Hamilton was second behind Skinner. As the two came off turn four to take the white flag, they were side by side racing each other hard. Then as the two went around the race track for the final lap, Hamilton was trailing Skinner who tried to block him down the back straightaway. Coming off turn four Hamilton dodged Skinner's block and took the outside position. As the two came door-to-door down the front stretch, Skinner spun and Hamilton won the race.

"It was just a great day," Hamilton said. "We’ve worked our tails off this year and it was a great finish. We won the second race last year at Darlington. Nobody else was running up high today but me. We went up there yesterday in practice. Goodyear told us what to do, and we did it. The Square D Racing Team was on target and so was this truck.

"There at the end of the race I wasn’t going to let up," Hamilton said. "Skinner's a heck of a racecar driver. I knew coming down it was going to be between me and him. I thought I had a shot at him, but I thought he’d be tough to get around.”

The win moved Hamilton up to third in the championship points battle. He is only 20 points behind leader Travis Kvapil.

Hamilton won the EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200. Mike Skinner, David Reutimann, Travis Kvapil and Matt Crafton round out the top five.