He's back in the Busch Series, a place he calls home because of the comfort level of his team and the relationships he and his family built there. He's back with the very team he left midway through the 2004 season for what he thought was greener pastures. He's back in Nashville this weekend, a place he grew up, watched his father build a team from scratch, watched his dad die and now watches as an ongoing power struggle plays out over control of that very Truck Series team.

Bobby Hamilton Jr. is exactly where he wants to be. Yet nothing is the same.

"I am having fun," Hamilton said this week as he prepares for the biggest race of his season, the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2). "I'm having fun as far as being back with [team owners] Ed Rensi and Ronnie Russell and all those guys, and being back in the Busch Series, and I almost feel like a lot of people want to be back in there, and that's where I want to be."

Fun is a loose term for Hamilton. Saturday's race will mark three months to the day that Hamilton's father, Bobby Hamilton, died of head and neck cancer. Since then Hamilton has virtually cut all ties with his family's team, save for partial ownership that he's trying to sell. He's put all his focus on driving, something he's not been able to do since walking away from Team Rensi nearly three years ago to accept a Cup ride with owner Cal Wells.

Now he's back with Rensi, a deal that began in a Red Lobster in Daytona, of all places. And he's driving the same car amid one of the toughest times in the series' history -- a time when stand-alone Busch teams struggle to exist while Cup-affiliated programs win each week and dominate the standings despite a partial schedule.

"That's the biggest change," Hamilton said in looking back to his last season in Busch. "They get four or five hours of practice a weekend; we only get two. And those guys are the same guys that practice right up to the point of our race, get out of their Cup driver suit, run right over there, put on their Busch driver suit, jump in a racecar. They already know the track, know what to expect for that day, and we haven't been on it in 24 to 36 hours.

"It's a big disadvantage on several things. All you can do is be the top-running Busch car every week as far as a normal Busch guy, and if you are that, then you can start working on other stuff as far as learning how to beat those guys."

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."