Hamilton Jr. fastest in Atlanta testing

HAMPTON, Ga. -- NASCAR Busch series regular and occasional Winston Cup driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. led the speed chart Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway as 13 drivers and teams prepared for the Oct. 24-26 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 weekend.

Hamilton Jr. turned a lap in 29.26 seconds (189.473 mph), the fastest of this week's two-day test session. Hamilton will run both races next weekend, the Oct. 25 Aaron's 312 Busch Series race and the Oct. 26 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.

"We made two qualifying runs today, and that was our second run, so we brought her back in," Hamilton Jr. said. "This is the best car I've ever had here, and I'm definitely looking forward to coming back next weekend."

Other Winston Cup drivers testing Tuesday included Winston Cup drivers Ward Burton in the No. 0 NetZero Pontiac and Mike Wallace in the No. 09 Miccosukee Indian Gaming Dodge. Busch drivers who tested were Hank Parker Jr., Brian Vickers (in the No. 5 GMAC Chevrolet), Ron Hornaday, Mike Bliss, Billy Bigley Jr., Kyle Busch, David Stremme, Ashton Lewis, Paul Wolfe and Jeremy Clements.

Burton, in his first laps as driver of the NetZero car, Burton was caught on the unofficial stopwatches at an average speed of 185.853 mph (29.83 seconds) around the 1.54-mile superspeedway.

"We're kind of taking today and going back to the basics, starting over," Burton said. "We're working on our communication and just getting the feel of the car, and then we'll start working on getting some speed on it."

Hank Parker Jr., driving the No. 8 Remington Bass Pro Shops car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chance 2 Motorsports, had the fastest time of the day for the Busch cars, turning a lap in 29.71 seconds (186.604 mph).