Hamilton glad to be 'home' but focused on '07 mission (cont'd)

In the big picture, he is. The results, however, may not show that. His best finish this season was 14th at Las Vegas. He's cracked the top 20 in three of the six races, and his average finish is a modest 21.0. He hasn't led a lap and he's finished on the lead lap in just half the races.

Yet Hamilton is 10th in the standings.

"No, by no means we're not," Hamilton said when asked if he's satisfied with how the season has unfolded. "We should be the best Busch car by far, and what I mean by that is we should be the best full-time Busch guy, and anything less than that is not acceptable."

By the Numbers

Nashville has been good to points leader Carl Edwards. But it's Bobby Hamilton Jr. who has led the most laps and is still searching for Victory Lane.

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That leaves Hamilton chasing Marcos Ambrose, a series rookie who is seventh in the standings, and Mike Wallace, a veteran who is ninth and just 23 points ahead of Hamilton.

"Give me two or three weeks, and I will be," Hamilton said.

Critics call that cockiness. Hamilton calls it fatherly advice.

After making the jump to the full-time No. 32 Cup car with Cal Wells three years ago, the results were not acceptable. In 50 races with the team, he finished on the lead lap just 10 times. His average finish was 30.9.

"When I drove the 32 car and had a horrible year ... I was almost frustrated to even go to the racetrack because I knew I was going to run bad, kind of lost that fire in your eyes and that burning in your gut, kind of lost it for a little bit."

That's when the elder Hamilton had a sit-down chat with the kid about confidence and how it goes hand-in-hand with on-track success. And that's when the kid changed his outlook.

"When I walk on the racetrack," Hamilton said, "I make sure my chest is stuck out and I make sure they know why I'm there -- to do one thing, and that's to win that race."

Hamilton last visited Victory Lane on Nov. 1, 2003, when he won his fourth Busch Series race that season. He's driven in 109 Truck, Busch and Cup races since then. But Hamilton's not waving the white flag just yet. In fact, he's expecting to lift another trophy soon. Maybe even an elusive guitar, Nashville's highly sought-after trophy.

"I think probably to win there would be bigger than winning anywhere like Daytona or something like that," Hamilton said. "I guarantee it would be bigger than any win I've ever won so far and probably one of the biggest ones you could win in your career."

Hamilton has come close at his home track. He's finished second, third and fifth in a Busch car at Nashville. In a truck, he's finished fourth on two occasions, the second coming at the expense of his father getting the win. But he has no victories.

"You know, I think we've done everything but close the deal," Hamilton said. "But the stuff is all easier to swallow when you run really good. If you lead there and you had a parts failure but you was running in the top five and leading all night, it's easier to swallow. But as soon as you look back at the wins you gave away there, I know two of them off the top of my head we could have won hands down if the driver would have been a little bit smarter and we wouldn't have had a lugnut fall off. That stuff -- I'm not sugar coating nothing. If we could have closed the deal on those of two things, we'd have two guitars by now."

Again, fatherly advice -- not confidence. And he knows that's what it's going to take to make this weekend -- and even this year -- a success.

"I know I get criticized a lot of times for being cocky, but it's nice," Hamilton said. "It's a mental thing as far as being confident. I know I'm good at what I do. I have good equipment behind me, and I want to win races and I'm going to win races. I'm sorry a lot of people don't like that, but I think that's just how somebody gets focused.

"I'm on that mission. I know what's ahead of me. Right now it's -- nothing toward nobody in front of me -- but it's easy pickings right now. I want them. I want the spots they're in, I want to take their trophies, I want their wins, I want everything we used to do.

"I've done it before. I think our team is better than it used to be before we probably even left. All kinds of things are heading in the direction of good, so I might as well jump on the pony and make it work for me."