Hamilton Jr., Holly proving to be dynamic duo

There is nothing like a little change to get a driver going. And in Bobby Hamilton Jr.'s case, there is nothing like a change in crew chiefs.

	Bobby Hamilton Jr.

Before Team Rensi Motorsports replaced Fred Wanke with Harold Holly, Hamilton was having a decent season, posting six top-10 finishes and holding down 10th place in the NASCAR Busch Series point standings.

But since Holly, the 2000 championship crew chief, joined the No. 25 team, Hamilton Jr. has been a lot better than decent. He's won twice, posting eight top-10 finishes and has moved up to sixth in the points.

"I'm pretty happy with this change," Hamilton Jr. said as Team Rensi prepares for this week's Funai 250 at Richmond International Raceway. "I think it's what we need to become a top-notch team in the Busch Series, so right now it was a change for the better, and it's going to carry us to the next level."

Hamilton Jr., in his second season with Rensi, said leaving the team before it hired Holly wasn't an option, but he did admit a change was needed.

"We needed to grow again, and Harold was a way we felt that we could grow and win races every week and be a contender every week," Hamilton Jr. said. "With the changes that we made and the stuff that Team Rensi gives me every week and the opportunity they give other people to come in here and win races, there's no end to it.

"They do whatever it takes to win races and that's the whole point. This isn't about making money, it's about winning races. Right no there's no reason for me to leave because I have everything I need to win races."

Holly led Jeff Green to the 2000 Busch Series title but was available this season after the ill-fated Angela's Motorsports team faded away. For Hamilton Jr. and team owners Ed and Sam Rensi, hooking Holly was an easy decision.

"It was pretty much a decision by everybody to try to make the team a little better, and everybody figured the best way to do it was to make the change," Hamilton Jr. said. "The transition process hasn't really slowed us down like I thought it would. It was something we had to do to go from a top-10 or top-five team to a winning team every weekend, a championship-winning team. He's already come over and made a ton difference in the guys -- a difference in their attitudes and the way their approach their work."

	Credit: Autostock

And Holly has also helped the cars drive better, which has upped the team's performance.

"He gets the cars driving so good," Hamilton said. "In bad air, good air, no matter what kind of air it is, I can pass cars. I can go to the outside, the inside, and he keeps the people so jacked up. When he speaks, they all stop what they're doing and listen. He's just one of these people that whatever he says, there's never a doubt; you just believe 100 percent.

"So much knowledge, tons of victories, a championship, it's just like I said, he's got the team so fired up when talks. He makes sense on everything. He's just got the guys so jacked up right now that I can think they can go right into war and take some bullets if they have to."

The team has taken some bullets lately, as he's slipped 321 points out of the Busch Series lead after three finishes of 25th or worse -- two because of blown engines -- over a span of four races. He rebounded with a fourth-place effort at Darlington, but the championship might be out of reach.

"The last time I talked about points, I lost 300 points in three weeks," Hamilton Jr. said. "We're here to win races, and we're getting back on that track, and you better watch the mirror because we're coming. It's the time of the year right now, the stretch that is coming, that ever since I've been racing it's when we pick up things.

"Every week we want to keep moving up in the standings. We were down in the 20s early in the season. A lot of teams got lucky in the beginning of the year with pit strategy, and they're starting to become their normal teams. We've passed a handful of them. and we're not going to quit either because there are several teams ahead of us that our team is better than."