#4-Bobby Hamilton became the first three-time winner this season on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series circuit, rallying to win the rain-delayed Built Ford Tough 225 on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway. The 47-year-old Hamilton dominated most of the race, but still needed a dramatic rally on a restart following a caution with two laps to go. Hamilton dipped his Dodge inside of #16-Jack Sprague’s Chevrolet and held off Sprague to win by 0.179 seconds. Sprague took the lead on a restart on lap 146 of the scheduled 150-lap race, but the race went back to caution on lap 149 when #14-Rick Crawford’s truck spun into the infield. Truck series rules dictate that a race must finish with two green-flag laps, so the field ran under caution for three laps before green-flag racing resumed. Hamilton lapped all but 16 of the 35 other drivers who started the race. Hamilton led for 133 of the race’s 153 laps and moved up a spot to second in the series point standings, six points behind #46-Dennis Setzer. Hamilton won in 1:52.20, averaging 122.587 mph. #75-David Starr, who also briefly passed Hamilton on the lap 146 restart, finished third, with #6-Matt Crafton and #18-Chad Chaffin (who survived an early spinout) rounding out the top five. The race started 55 minutes late because of rain that soaked the track less than three hours before the scheduled start time. The race’s first 11 laps were run under caution, as the trucks helped dry the track.(ThatsRacin.com/AP)
For race results see:
ThatsRacin.com
Motorsports One
Truckseries.com
NASCAR.com.(7-10-2004)
