No Formulas: “There isn’t a formula that makes you win at short tracks.  So there isn’t a reason why we’ve had 10 different short-track winners, but that gives the fans another thing to pull for in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.  It’s hard to win at a short track and being there at the end usually pays off for drivers.  You see a lot of veterans win on short tracks just because they’ve been there to figure the track out and are patient enough to wait on the right timing during the race.  There is not really a certain way to drive them.  Just staying out of trouble is hard enough.  It pays to be in the front of the pack.  Maneuvering through the field is next to impossible, so track position is worth the gamble in the pits.  You have to be quick with your reactions, but don’t over react because that can cause a whole other wreck in itself.”

Paying Attention: “I pay a lot of attention as an owner.  When I started driving my own stuff I really stayed on top of it.  Technology is prevailing so much and the factory-back commitment is helping a ton.  There are new people that are coming into each series and you have to figure out a way to out-smart them.  Sometimes when I am sitting around watching Speed Channel I come up with ways to out think them.  That is something you can’t buy.  I’m fortunate on one hand being the driver/owner and on the other hand I’m not because there is a lot of baggage that goes along with that.”

Notes:
• If Hamilton wins in Bristol, then he will make a clean sweep through Tennessee, something no other NCTS driver has ever done.     
• The truck Hamilton is racing in Bristol is nicknamed Mini Me.  It is the same truck Bobby Hamilton Jr. drove in Nashville breaking the track record in qualifying on the pole and led the most laps in the race before finishing fourth.   
• The Square D Racing Team christened the new in-house chassis Mini Me after a nickname Hamilton Sr. calls his son Hamilton Jr.  The similarity between father and son is also mimicked between Mini Me and the infamous Slim Shady, which Hamilton has won with three times this year.     
• Hamilton is going to Darlington as part of the Night Riders event on Tuesday (8-24-04) before racing in Bristol on Wednesday.  Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon and Hamilton will be making 10 hot laps under the newly lit lights on the 1.366-mile oval. 

Proud Pop: “I’m really proud of Bobby Jr.’s performance in Nashville.  For a parent I’m not one of those dads that just hangs all over their kid when he is racing, even when he is the class of the field. For him to come to Nashville in a truck he’s never sat in, break the track record and be the top dog all day makes me extremely proud of him.  He just had a set of tires at the end that got too tight.  He was the fastest truck all day long and that last set of tires bit him.  I had that same problem in Michigan earlier this year.  It was nothing he did or nothing that Goodyear did, just the spring rate was tighter.  To watch him run on a high-speed race track, racing the way he did, calculating the moves he did and never putting a scratch on the truck was impressive.  He absolutely takes nothing from nobody or anything and that is what makes me so proud.”