Hamilton Win Feels Groovy

After 95 winless starts in the NASCAR Busch series, Bobby Hamilton Jr. found the winning groove.

Powering through the pack in the final 60 laps, Hamilton won the Busch 200 at the New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon, N.H., on Saturday for his first victory.

Hamilton, whose Ford is sponsored by the Marine Corps, jumped out of his car and waved the Marine flag before doing a quick spin at the finish line.

Todd Bodine, who started third and was in contention most of the way, finished second. Jack Sprague was third, and rookie pole-sitter Shane Hmiel was fourth, his best finish.

Hamilton appeared to have his first victory in last week’s Hardee’s 250 at Richmond, Va. But, leading with 11 laps left, he ran out of gas and finished 25th.

“Last week wasn’t our week; today was our day,” he said.

This time, Hamilton, whose previous best finish was third last month at Nashville, came from behind to win.

He passed Bodine on Turn 3 of the 186th lap, and passed Hmiel at nearly the same spot one lap later.

Hamilton cruised home, winning by 2.4 seconds. His average speed over the 1.058-mile track was 110.340 mph.

“We just had a great car and when you get one like that, you can go like that,” he said.

Defending champion Jason Keller, who started the race as the series leader, and Winston Cup driver Jeff Burton were out of the race early.

Burton, looking for his third Busch victory of the season, had engine problems and was gone after five laps. Keller sustained front-end damage after getting hit from behind and pushed into another car during a restart on the 20th lap. After going to the garage area, he returned, but dropped out after 72 laps.

Sprague took the points lead with 1,613.

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Rubens Barrichello won the pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix and Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher had his worst qualifying of the season, settling for third at Spielberg, Austria.

Barrichello turned a lap of 1 minute, 8.082 seconds on the 2.688-mile circuit to win his second pole of the year. Ralf Schumacher qualified second at 1:08.364 in his BMW-Williams.

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Agoura Hills’ Tim Huddleston made good use of a new engine, winning the 50-lap Southern California Auto Club Late Model series feature race in front of 5,868 at Irwindale Speedway.

Huddleston, with his second win of the season, pulled even with series leader Todd Burns, who finished third behind Harbor City’s Mike Price, also driving with a new spec motor.

In the 50-lap Ultra Wheels Super Truck feature race, Ron Peterson held off Joe Herold and Dave Blankenship for the win. Travis Thirkettle earned his first career win, in the Grand American Modified series, by holding off points leader Roger Carufel Jr. in the 35-lap feature race. Terry Limberopoulos took the 35-lap Modified 4’s series feature race.

Tony Solorzano