PHOTO: Morgan-McClure Motorsports Website
SEASON IN REVIEW
Nashville, Tennessee driver Bobby Hamilton picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2000, scoring four last-place finishes in thirty-four starts during a thirty-four-race season.
Hamilton was competing in his twelfth season on the Cup Series tour, a career which began at Avondale, Arizona on November 5, 1989. That day in the Autoworks 500, Hamilton was hired by Paramount Pictures to drive a special Rick Hendrick-prepared #51 Exxon Chevrolet for the upcoming film “Days of Thunder.” Hamilton qualified 5th and led five laps, running so well that the film’s producers had to tell him to slow down in order to get better action shots for the film.
Following an unscored run in another “Days of Thunder” car in the 1990 Daytona 500, Hamilton landed at TriStar Motorsports, where he drove #68 Country Time Lemonade-sponsored cars for owner Mark Smith. Hamilton became 1991's Rookie of the Year in Smith’s equipment and continued to drive for him through the first part of 1993. From there, Hamilton moved from team to team, replacing Kenny Wallace in the second Felix Sabates car in 1994 before landing a ride in Petty Enterprises’ famous #43 in 1995. It was with this team that Hamilton scored the first two of his four Cup Series wins in Avondale, Arizona on October 27, 1996, the first wins for the Petty team in over a decade. The 1996 season was the best of his career - one win, two poles, three Top Fives and eleven Top Tens with a 9th-place finish in points.
In 1998, Hamilton moved to Morgan-McClure Motorsports, replacing two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin as the driver of the equally-familiar #4 Kodak Film Chevrolet. Hamilton scored another win, his third in as many seasons, leading 378 of 500 laps on his way to victory in Martinsville, Virginia on April 20, 1998. A 10th-place finish in the points followed, but Hamilton and Morgan-McClure began to struggle in 1999, scoring just one Top Five and ten Top Tens in Hamilton’s first winless season since 1994.
As it turned out, 2000 was even worse. In the season-opening Daytona 500 on February 20, an event Morgan-McClure’s cars had won three times in the space of five years, Hamilton was the first out of the race, his #4 Kodak Chevrolet felled by engine problems after 68 laps. His next last-place finish came in the following restrictor-plate race, the DieHard 500 at Talladega, Alabama on April 16, another engine to blame for his exit after 110 laps. The third finish of the year came in the rain-shortened K-Mart 400 at Brooklyn, Michigan five races after, where he crashed after sixteen laps of the June 11 race. Another crash was to blame for his fourth finish in the Checker Auto Parts / Dura Lube 500k - the same Avondale, Arizona event that was the scene of his debut - he wrecked out of the November 5 race after completing just 51 laps. In the end, Hamilton finished 30th in points, having scored just two Top Tens.
Hamilton left Morgan-McClure at season’s end and replaced Kenny Wallace for the second time in his career, this time taking over the #55 Square D Chevrolet fielded by Andy Petree. In the Talladega 500 at Talladega, Alabama on April 22, 2001, Hamilton scored the fourth and, as it turned out, final Cup Series victory of his career one year after he finished last in the same event. It was also Andy Petree’s first victory as a team owner. Hamilton continued his successful rebound with an 18th-place finish in the points after one win, three top-fives and seven top-tens. But after a tough 2002 season, Hamilton left Petree to race full-time in the NASCAR Truck Series. He would start just three more Cup Series races in 2005, ending his Cup career with 371 starts. He finished 30th in his final start at Hampton, Georgia on October 30, 2005.
Following his departure from the Cup Series, Hamilton became one of the steadiest competitors in the young NASCAR Truck Series, scoring ten wins in a career that spanned 102 races. He raced in three full Truck Series seasons and scored his crowning achievement, the 2004 NASCAR Truck Series Championship as both owner and driver. Hamilton had founded his own team, Bobby Hamilton Racing, during the third Truck Series season in 1997 and fashioned it into a steady contender during his Cup career.
Tragically, Hamilton had too little time to enjoy his championship. After running the first three races of the 2006 season, he announced that he was diagnosed with neck cancer. He handed over driving duties to his son, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., and never raced again. Hamilton died on January 7, 2007.
Bobby Hamilton Racing lasted for nearly two more years with Dennis Setzer scoring its emotional final victory at Martinsville, Virginia on March 29, 2008.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The year 2000 marked the “Victory Tour,” the final season of three-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip scored two last-place finishes that year and bringing his career total to seventeen. The first came in the Mall.com 400 at Darlington, South Carolina on March 19, where his Big K-Mart / Route 66 Ford fell out with handling problems after 116 laps. The other came three races later in the Goody’s Body Pain 500 at Martinsville, Virginia on April 9, where his #66 lost the transmission after 146 laps.
As introduced in the 1991 article, the Pepsi 400 presented by Meijer, a race at Brooklyn, Michigan on August 20, saw Kerry Earnhardt score the first last-place finish of his Cup Series career in his first start, where he raced alongside his father Dale Earnhardt and step-brother Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Kerry’s #71 RealTree Camouflage Chevrolet crashed out after five laps. One week after that Michigan race, rookie Dave Blaney picked up his own first last-place finish at Bristol, Tennessee when his #93 Amoco Pontiac crashed out after 49 laps of the goracing.com 500. Blaney would go on to win the 2009 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in a record-setting season.
Mark Martin’s two last-place finishes in 2000 - the third and fourth of his career and his first since 1996 - came in consecutive races. The first was July 23 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, when his #6 Valvoline / Cummins Ford lost the engine after 25 laps. The next was two weeks later in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis on August 5, where his #6 dropped out with engine failure after 25 laps.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Bobby Hamilton (4)
2nd) Mike Bliss, Mark Martin, Kenny Wallace, Darrell Waltrip, Michael Waltrip (2)
3rd) John Andretti, Dave Blaney, Geoffrey Bodine, Todd Bodine, Jeff Burton, Ward Burton, Kerry Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Ron Fellows, Terry Labonte, Kevin Lepage, Rick Mast, Jeremy Mayfield, Ted Musgrave, Jerry Nadeau, Steve Park, Robert Pressley, Scott Pruett, Elliott Sadler, Mike Skinner (1)
