LAS VEGAS, (Sept. 25, 2004) – Bobby Hamilton noticed in the first few laps of the Las Vegas 350 that his temperature gauges were pegged on his Square D Dodge so he backed off to take care of his equipment.  Doing that really helped the veteran and points leader finish the event in fifth position, his ninth top five of the season.  Hamilton is now 39 points over second place Dennis Setzer in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points championship.

“We got some debris on the grill early,” Hamilton said.  “So we had to pit and pull some tape off, that sent us to the rear.  I think I got it off on the race track before the caution, but the guys weren’t sure.  We had to pull the tape off to cool the engine.”

Hamilton radioed about the problem on lap five under green-flag racing while he was running in third.  The first caution came out on lap 20 giving the Square D Racing Team an opportunity to pull three pieces of tape off the front grill to let it cool off and add fuel.  Hamilton restarted the race in the sixth position, but after the drivers got squirmy on the race track, he pulled back to get out of the mess. 

Then Hamilton rode around in the 17th spot saying the truck was pushing terribly, but his temperature gauges were better.  He fell to 22nd by the second caution on lap 38, so the Square D Racing Team changed four tires and made a track bar adjustment trying to help him.  By lap 68 he was already back in 11th. 

The third caution came out on lap 76 and Hamilton was ninth.  The leaders pitted so the team elected to pit as well using their last set of Goodyear Wranglers.  Although they had planned to use them later in the race, Rollins said, “If we don’t come now, we are sitting ducks out there.”

After this pit stop, Hamilton was only five laps shy of making until the end on fuel.  The fourth caution came out on lap 86 and Rollins called Hamilton in to top off with Sunoco gas.  Now the team could make it to the end of the 146-lap event.  Hamilton restarted in 19th position on lap 91. 

Only 10 laps later he was in 10th position.  Some of the teams were forced to pit at this time for gas and Hamilton restarted in the eighth spot.  On lap 109 he passed Bill Lester for seventh.  On lap 115 he passed David Starr for sixth.  Then coming off turn four of the final lap of the Las Vegas 350, Hamilton passed Mike Skinner to claim the fifth spot. 

“We just lost track position early on,” Hamilton said.  “The guys kept working on the chassis, and it was really good at the end.  Shane Hmiel and his team made a good call about saving tires till the end.  I think we were a second place truck there at the end, but we just didn’t have track position.  We were playing catch-up all night, so to get a top-five finish out of it was really good.”

Shane Hmiel won the Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Todd Bodine, Steve Park, Johnny Benson and Hamilton followed in the top five.