Hamilton scored his second win this season in the Square D Dodge with a gutsy move on Shane Hmiel by passing on the outside at Memphis Motorsports Park with only eight laps left in the O’Reilly 200.  The win moved Hamilton up one position in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points race to third.

“Son (talking of Bobby Hamilton Jr., who was racing in Kentucky), this one is for you,” Hamilton said with a tearful eye and mention of Father’s Day after the race was over.  “We are on our way to do a big appearance this week for Square D, so the timing is right for that too.  It was a big day for us, and for Dodge.  We are trying to win this championship.  We just want to win so much and we try so hard that sometimes I think we mess ourselves up.  This was a sweet victory.”

The win marked the first time a Tennessee native won in the Craftsman Truck Series in the Volunteer State.  Hamilton’s son, Bobby Jr., matched the same feat when he won the Busch Series race in Memphis last year.

“I think it’s something about the Hamilton’s winning in Tennessee,” Hamilton said.  “We’re both huge Elvis fans so it’s big for us.  I thought about that when I took the checkered flag, but before that I was focused on what was going on.  I didn’t have time to think about anything else.  I was all wrapped up in the Elvis thing before I thought about this win.”

Hamilton’s only pit stop happened under the second caution on lap 100.  He said he was extremely tight and asked Crew Chief Danny Rollins to free up his Square D Dodge.  The team performed a timely pit stop even with a huge track bar adjustment.  Hamilton restarted the race in eighth position.  By lap 125 Hamilton was racing in the sixth position and radioed, “The truck is good to go now.”

Then Hamilton raced his way to third by lap 146.  On lap 177 Shane Hmiel passed Ted Musgrave to take the lead and Hamilton followed behind him for second.  On lap 192 Hamilton moved to the outside of Hmiel and held his position racing door to door.  He completed the pass on lap 193 coming off turn four beating Hmiel to the line by 0.08 seconds just as the caution flag was dropped.  Spotter Andy Dunlap sighed into the radio saying, “I think I was holding on for that one.”  The restart happened on lap 196 and Hamilton held off Hmiel’s advances spreading out the distance between them by two-truck lengths as he crossed the finish line in first.

“I know he got loose coming off of two and we got about halfway down the straightaway and I guess he thought the caution was going to come out,” Hamilton said.  “It looked like he slowed down for a minute, but I don’t know really what he said about it.  I made up my mind the lap before I was going to go for the pass on the outside.  I had worked on that in Happy Hour, but I never said anything.  I knew he couldn’t go up in the high groove at all, but I still didn’t think I could out run him like that.  I was just willing to try.  It just sort of fell into my hands.”

Following Hamilton in the O’Reilly 200 was Shane Hmiel, Ted Musgrave, Dennis Setzer and Carl Edwards respectively.