| Bobby Hamilton struggled in 2001 to find the consistency he needed to back up a strong start to the season, but he did manage to win his fourth career race when he captured the Talladega 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Hamilton ended up with three top-five and seven top-10 finishes. While he had nine finishes of 30th or worse he also had no DNFs, which enabled him to finish 18th in the standings, with a career high in winnings of $2,527,310. That was an improvement of 12 spots in the standings over 2000, when he had a series leading 11 DNFs. Hamilton was successful in revitalizing a career that got off track a bit in 2000, his final tour in a three-year stint with Morgan-McClure Motorsports. His victory in his 13th season was his first since 1998, after he scored single victories in each of the three previous seasons. Hamilton's own motorsports regime, located outside his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., continued to flourish. His two-truck Craftsman Truck Series team led by Joe Ruttman contended for the championship before Ruttman finished third and for the second straight year Hamilton won a truck race and a Bud Pole in a "guest ride." In 2001, Hamilton moved to Andy Petree Racing's two-car team after successive three-year stints with Petty Enterprises and MMM, to drive the No. 55 Chevrolet. He hopes to recapture the strength he had with the Pettys, where he scored his career best ninth place in the point standings in 1996, then followed up with a 10th place effort for MMM in 1998. Hamilton is a former Nashville Speedway USA track champion. His big break came when he beat Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Bill Elliott in a special four-car "Superstar Showdown" event at Nashville in 1988. When Rick Hendrick was seeking a driver for the "movie cars" for the Paramount film "Days of Thunder" with Tom Cruise, Waltrip recommended Hamilton. He qualified fifth at Phoenix in a movie car and ran in the top-10 in the race. His first full season at the Winston Cup level was 1991, when he edged Ted Musgrave for the NWCS Rookie of the Year title. |
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