 | | Bobby Hamilton showed his grit when he endured the caution-free Cup race at Talladega and won in 2001. Credit: Craig Jones/Getty Images |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
January 8, 2007
11:03 AM EST (16:03 GMT)
I was in my hometown of Nashville over the holidays, visiting aunts, cousins, uncles. Very usual stuff. The wine was good, the food was better, the company phenomenal. And yet, talk centered on Bobby Hamilton. The word "legend" is thrown around way too much these days, but Hamilton was the ultimate short-track racer around the Nashville Fairgrounds. Hamilton was even better at building cars than he was at driving them. It was a major sense of pride around town when he started doing well at the Cup level. My cousin, a tools salesman, was telling me how he ran into Hamilton at a local restaurant, with Hamilton greeting him by saying, "Howdy, Rodney. Name's Bobby Hamilton." If Hamilton was comfortable around you, he was like an old friend, and he was always the most comfortable around his hometown. That is why he chose to house his racing operation in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., even though it is exceptionally difficult to run teams outside of Charlotte. One cannot understate how hard Hamilton had to work to get to the top. He grew up in East Nashville -- not the best side of town -- and he had to fight for everything he got. His family was always poor, and Hamilton once supported himself by working as a repo man.  |  | | Bobby Hamilton made three Truck Series starts in 2006 before focusing on his battle with cancer. Credit: Autostock |
| |  | MESSAGE BOARD | |
| HAMILTON DIES AT 49 | Bobby Hamilton, the 2004 Truck Series champion, died Jan. 7 after a battle with neck cancer.
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| BY THE NUMBERS | Bobby Hamilton found Victory Lane in all three of NASCAR's top series, but Darlington was his best stop of any tour.
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| PHOTO GALLERY | From driving the 43 car to winning a title, Bobby Hamilton's career was multi-faceted.
• Hamilton: In Photos
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| 2004 FLASHBACK | The 2004 season was Bobby Hamilton's crowning moment in a versatile, hard-fought career.
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I was in college in 1996 when Hamilton won in the Cup Series for the first time. I got off work in the middle of the afternoon and drove home to Nashville, listening to MRN the whole way. When Hamilton took the lead, I drove faster, trying to catch the final laps on television. I walked in the door with about 10 laps to spare, and it infuriated my football-loving roommates when I immediately changed to channel to the race. The day after that win at Phoenix, Hamilton could be found at the Nashville Fairgrounds, helping dry the track so his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr., could test his Late Model car. At that time, no one could touch Jeff Gordon when it came to getting around Martinsville, but Hamilton came close. In the fall race, he won the pole for both the Craftsman Truck Series race and the Cup race, earning him the temporary nickname of "Superman." Hamilton led 331 laps and finished third in the Cup race. Hamilton was probably closer to his son than anyone I knew. The two had that rare combination of brotherly and fatherly love. At Phoenix in 2001, I was interviewing Hamilton about his win five years earlier when Bobby Jr. walked in. The younger Hamilton was temporarily driving the No. 4 Chevy -- the car the elder Hamilton had driven the previous year. Bobby Jr. didn't have a great qualifying lap for that weekend's Cup race. "Car was too loose, Daddy," Bobby Jr. said. The older man looked him right in the eye and said, "Boy, if you're going to race at this level, you better know how to drive a loose racecar." The best NASCAR book I have ever read is Wide Open, written in 1998 by Shaun Assael. The book documents Hamilton's 1996 season. It was fascinating to see Hamilton's struggles every weekend, his reaction to his father's death, his decision to stay with Petty Enterprises after a lucrative offer from Felix Sabates. My favorite quote from Wide Open: "That Bobby Hamilton is one tough [expletive]." The opinions expressed are solely of the writer. | 
