Bobby Hamilton Jr. overcame  a bizarre mishap that badly damaged the front end of his No. 18 Fastenal Dodge in the early stages of the John Deere 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday afternoon. Hamilton Jr. swerved to miss a plethora of debris from Derrick Cope’s Chevrolet on lap 22 but could not miss the battery box that came from underneath Cope’s truck. The wayward battery casing blasted through the front of Hamilton Jr.’s front grill and became lodged in the radiator of his Dodge. After numerous pit stops to fix his ailing truck, Hamilton Jr. and his Fastenal Racing team rallied late in the event to carve out a courageous 14th place finish.

No. 18 Fastenal Dodge Talladega Race Recap

• Hamilton Jr. qualified his Fastenal Dodge in the 3rd position and toured Talladega’s behemoth 2.66 mile tri-oval in 52.762 for an average of 181.494 miles per hour.
• When the green flag fell, Hamilton Jr. motored past pole sitter Mark Martin to claim the lead going into turn one. He held the lead until Martin and others drafted past him on the exit of turn four.
• On lap 22 Hamilton Jr. met with misfortune when Derrick Cope cut a tire and littered the racetrack with debris. Hamilton Jr. could not miss the battery box that came from underneath Cope’s Chevy. The aluminum battery container cut through the front of Hamilton Jr.’s front grill, becoming embedded in the radiator of his Fastenal Dodge. Hamilton Jr. was forced to pit on laps 28, 35, 44 and 45 for extensive repairs to the front end opening. His crew was able to fabricate and replace missing and damaged parts and create new air flow openings that allowed his truck to stay competitive on the extremely aerodynamically sensitive Talladega oval.
• Hamilton Jr. pitted again on lap 58. His crew originally planned to take only two tires and fuel but elected to take four tires and fuel after seeing a cut on one of his Goodyear tires. Hamilton Jr. pitted again on lap 60 for fuel only.
• Just before the ensuing restart, with 30 laps to go, Crew Chief Danny Gill asked his driver, “Do you want to go to the front now or wait a few laps.” Hamilton Jr. replied, “Let’s wait about five laps.” Hamilton Jr. restarted in the 28th position, two laps later he was running 11th, passing 17 trucks in just two laps. Hamilton Jr.’s next few laps clearly show how running positions change rapid-fire with packs of three and four wide racing at Talladega – he ran 9th, 11th, 22nd, 19th, 26th, 17th, and 22nd
• Hamilton Jr. pitted again under caution on lap 81 for four tires and fuel in order to make one last charge to the front. On the last lap chaos ensued as Mike Skinner spun the second place truck of Mike Wallace, triggering a multi-truck incident that took out Wallace, Cope, David Starr, and Dennis Setzer. That incident forced the race to end under the caution and Hamilton Jr. was credited with a 14th place finish.
    
  “That was all we had at the end,” Hamilton Jr. said after the event. “These guys gave me a great truck all weekend long. It is just a shame the Fastenal Dodge suffered the early damage because I think we might have had something for them today.”

Mark Martin won the John Deere 250 before an estimated crowd of 80,000, posting his sixth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory. Mike Skinner, Ted Musgrave, Todd Bodine and newcomer A.J. Allmendinger filled out the top five finishers.