Bobby Hamilton fought an ill-handling Bailey’s Dodge in the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 at Richmond International Raceway.  With numerous efforts of the Bobby Hamilton Racing Team and Hamilton the team battled back to finish in the 24th position, two laps down.       

“I was tight the entire race,” Hamilton said to his Crew Chief after the race.  “The adjustments we made helped it, but I still needed more.  It seemed like every time we made an adjustment, it was no time and we were back where we started.” 

No. 04 Bailey’s Dodge Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 Recap

• Hamilton qualified for the race in the 21st position starting his Bailey’s Dodge right next to teammate Timothy Peters in a duplicate Bailey’s Dodge. 
• By the second caution on lap 21 Hamilton had worked his way into the 14th position.  He said, “It is starting to get better, but I don’t have enough forward bite.”
• When the fourth caution came out on lap 57 Hamilton was ready to pit.  He ducked onto pit road in the 17th position on lap 59, the Bailey’s team made adjustments to the track bar, adding Sunoco fuel and four fresh Goodyear Wrangler tires.  He restarted the race in the 26th position.
• On lap 81 the fifth caution came out and Hamilton was looking for more adjustments.  “It is like you ran the track bar down instead of up,” he said.  So the Bailey’s team called him into the pits, topped him off with fuel, changed tires and sent him back out 29th, only losing three positions.
• Hamilton held off leader Mike Skinner as long as he could to stay on the lead lap but with the extreme tight conditions he fell one lap down on lap 131.
• The seventh caution came out on lap 140.  Hamilton said, “I’m still tight; I can’t do anything with it.”  The team pitted to loosen up his Bailey’s Dodge some more by taking out cross weight, changing tires and not adding fuel.
• Right before the 9th caution came out, Hamilton got lapped once again by leader Todd Bodine.  The Bailey’s Team called him in once again to make more adjustments.  Hamilton restarted in the 27th spot. 
• He withstood the next three cautions and passed the 08 truck of Jarit Johnson on the final lap to finish the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 race in the 24th position.  

“We didn’t get the setup right tonight,” Hamilton said.  “I’m not letting them use this setup again.  Every time we think this will work, it doesn’t.  So that is out and we’ll go back to the drawing board to make it better from here.  We need to focus on winning races and get back to our old roots.”

Mike Skinner won the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 for the second week in a row.  Todd Bodine, Kevin Harvick, Ted Musgrave and Tracy Hines followed in the top five.