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03-15-2004
Hamilton Muscles Skinner for Thrilling Win in Atlanta Truck Debut
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| The huge crowd that welcomed the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday got all the excitement it wanted – and then some.
Veterans Bobby Hamilton and Mike Skinner exchanged the lead four times over the final 10 laps before Hamilton’s Square D Dodge overtook the 1995 series champion’s Toyota Tundra Toyota off the final corner to win the EasyCare Vehicle Services Contract 200.
Skinner, who led a race-high 68 laps, lost control of his truck after the contenders swapped paint and spun through the infield grass to finish second, .333-second behind Hamilton.
The finish – after a lap 128 caution extended the race for a two-lap shoot-out – looked every bit as wild and wooly from track level as from the packed, frontstretch grandstands.
“Those guys were going at it tooth and nail and neither one of them was going to give an inch and they were beating and banging,” said an incredulous David Reutimann, whose Bud Pole-starting NTN Bearings Toyota wound up a close third. “I seen Skinner starting to lose it and I just kept my foot to the floor, hoping to beat him across the line.
“It was a great finish and I had the best seat in the house.”
The victory was the fifth on the series for Hamilton and second in the past three races. It also marked the 50th win for Dodge, atoning for a Daytona opener in which the manufacturer was shut out of the top 10. Hamilton, who averaged 123.675 mph, won $50,850.
“I was a little bit worried about that green-white-checkered finish because I’ve only done one of them in my whole life until today,” said Hamilton. “That was the second one but it was a pretty cool deal.”
Skinner had no complaints with Hamilton, who drove his Dodge high entering the third turn of the 133rd lap and maintained his momentum to the entrance of the frontstretch. “Bobby did what he was supposed to do,” he said. “He made a veteran move, got up alongside me and pulled the air off just enough to spin the tires.”
Toyota placed three of its trucks in the top five. The new manufacturer, in two appearances, is just .474 seconds short – about three lengths – of its maiden victory on a NASCAR national touring series.
Travis Kvapil, the defending series champion, used a fourth-place finish in the Line-X Toyota to slip past Carl Edwards into the 2004 points lead. Matt Crafton, GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, came out on the long end of a torrid battle with Shane Hmiel to record his first top-five finish in his 74th NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start.
Hmiel, Edwards, Ted Musgrave, Chad Chaffin and Ken Schrader comprised the second five as 13 of 29 finishers completed all 133 laps. There were 11 lead changes among four drivers with the caution waving four times to consume 26 laps.
The initial slowdown, at lap 45, included a five minute 17 second red flag to clean up debris from a spectacular, three-truck accident involving Tina Gordon, Rick Crawford and Hank Parker, Jr. Gordon’s Chevrolet shot off Turn 2 onto the apron and rebounded back on track where it was hit first by Crawford and then Parker. Crawford’s Ford, apparently propelled by a stuck throttle, wound up nearly a mile away on the quad-oval infield grass.
Parker was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center, where he stayed overnight for treatment of a lower back injury before his release Sunday afternoon. Crawford and Gordon, who suffered broken left foot and broken right fibula, respectively, also were treated at AMC and discharged later Saturday night.
Joey Clanton, involved in a separate incident, was given a precautionary ambulance ride to AMC but was released after an evaluation disclosed no injury.
The lap 45 accident appeared to doom Hamilton’s chances for victory on an afternoon on which the 12th-starting Tennessee competitor chased down early leader Reutimann to take the point just eight laps into the race. Hamilton extended his advantage to more than three seconds before lapped traffic allowed Reutimann and Skinner to close the margin
Hamilton’s truck, however, picked up trash – a plastic bag – on its grille opening and headed for pit road under green at lap 42. He exited pit road a lap down to Skinner but was able to unlap himself when the field again got the green flag to begin lap 55.
Skinner led all but one serial through lap 104, when the resurgent Hamilton blazed back to the front with an inside move in Turn 4. Hamilton went from fifth to first in just five laps to possibly seal the victory – at least on the basis of his truck’s early strength.
Skinner, with Reutimann on his tailgate, wasn’t finished. He rallied back to repass Hamilton on lap 123, gave back the point the next time around the 1.54-mile track then regained the No. 1 spot at lap 126, two laps before a frontstretch tangle between outside front row starter Robert Huffman and Steve Park brought out the yellow for the fourth time.
Hamilton nudged Skinner’s truck in Turn 2, turning it sideways, as the field restarted single-file at lap 132. Skinner, miraculously, regained control and still led under the white flag. He hugged the bottom groove but was unable to block Hamilton’s second groove assault in Turn 3.
The pair exited the final turn virtually side-by-side, shadowed by Reutimann, Kvapil, Crafton and Hmiel.
“He ran up and it was close but we were at the end of the race and I wasn’t going to let up,” said Hamilton. “I knew I wasn’t going to wreck him. He’s a heck of a race car driver. You’d have to do something a lot worse than that to take him out.
“I thought I had a shot at him but I thought he’d be tough to get around.”
Skinner believed the last caution – not just Hamilton – kept him out of victory lane, noting that his truck’s strength was at the end of long runs.
“I hated to see that last caution flag,” said Skinner, who recorded his best series finish since a fifth-place run at California Speedway in July 1998. “If it had stayed green I thought we had a good chance to win.”
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series takes the next few weeks off before heading for Martinsville Speedway and the April 17 Kroger 250.
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