Bobby Hamilton

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Hamilton lost his custodial parents to illness when he was thirteen years old (Grandfather Preacher Hamilton, car builder and crew chief for Marty Robbins at the old Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, and Grandmother Annie Mae Hamilton) who had raised him from early childhood. Hamilton quit school at the age of fourteen and began his racing career at Nashville Speedway USA, now Fairgrounds Speedway, racing on the weekly circuit at the legendary track, where he won back to back Late Model Stock Car Championships in 1987 and 1988. In 1988, Hamilton won an unprecedented four races, in three different divisions, in one night, at Nashville Fairground Speedway. Hamilton began to be noticed within the NASCAR ranks after racing in a special four-car "Superstar Showdown" at Nashville in 1988 against Cup Series drivers Sterling Marlin, Darrell Waltrip, and Bill Elliott. == NASCAR career ==

Days of Thunder Hamilton broke into the Winston Cup ranks in a very unusual way. He was asked to drive one of the "movie cars" for the 1990 film Days of Thunder, qualifying fifth in the movie car at the 1989 Autoworks 500 in Phoenix, in a car that was not intended to be competitive. The car was a No. 51 Exxon-sponsored Chevrolet, portrayed in the movie as being driven by Rowdy Burns. 1988–1994 Hamilton made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series in 1988 at Charlotte Motor Speedway driving the No. 16 Filmar Racing Chevrolet, finishing fourteenth. He competed in the next race at Rockingham and finished twentieth. He drove full-time in the Busch Series in 1989 driving the No. 8 Lighting & Fans Buick for FILMAR Racing, finishing eleventh in points, and winning his only career Busch race at Richmond International Raceway. He made his Winston Cup debut in a "Days of Thunder" car owned by Hendrick Motorsports. He led five laps but finished 32nd after an engine failure. He matched his 11th-place points finish in 1990 with Filmar Racing, when he was picked up by Tri-Star Motorsports to run Winston Cup full-time beginning in 1991, driving the No. 68 Country Time Lemonade Oldsmobile, posting four top-ten finishes and narrowly defeating Ted Musgrave for Rookie of the Year. In 1992, Hamilton had two top-tens and finished 25th in points. He began 1993 with Tri-Star but was released early in the season. He spent the rest of the season in the Cup and Busch Series, posting two top-tens for Akins-Sutton Motorsports. Hamilton also made five Busch Series starts in the No. 05 Key Motorsports Chevrolet. In 1994, he joined SABCO Racing to driving the No. 40 Kendall Motor Oil Pontiac Grand Prix. He had just one top-ten finish and left at the end of the season. 1995–2002 For the 1995 season, Hamilton moved to Petty Enterprises to drive the No. 43 STP Pontiac. He posted ten top-tens and moved up to fourteenth in the final standings. The next season, he finished a career-best ninth in the points standings and won his first race at Phoenix, the first for Petty Enterprises since 1983. He also formed his own Craftsman Truck Series team and began competing in the series part-time. He won at Rockingham in 1997, but departed the team after falling to sixteenth in points. Hamilton then signed with Morgan-McClure Motorsports in 1998 and in their eighth race together, he won from the pole, leading 378 of 500 laps at Martinsville Speedway. He ended the season, finishing tenth in the points. He had another ten top-ten finishes in 2000 and finished that season off thirtieth in points. He left for Andy Petree Racing to drive the No. 55 Square D Chevy. He won his final Cup career race at Talladega and finished eighteenth in points. He posted three top-tens in 2002 but suffered a broken shoulder late in the season, causing him to miss several races. Although his Cup Series run in 2000 was not successful, Hamilton made history regardless as he joined Ken Schrader, Terry Labonte, and Mark Martin as one of the drivers to, at that point, win a race in each of NASCAR's top-three series when he won a Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville. Craftsman Truck Series Due to the injury, as well as an unstable financial situation at Petree Racing, Hamilton left the Winston Cup Series for the Truck Series driving for his own team, taking the Square D sponsorship with him. Driving the No. 4 Dana Dodge Ram Hamilton picked up two wins in his first year on the circuit and finished sixth in points. The following season, he picked up four wins and clinched the championship, marking the first time since Alan Kulwicki's championship in 1992 that an owner-driver won a NASCAR championship. He switched to the No. 04 in 2005. In 2005, Hamilton started his Truck series season with a bizarre finish. He led the final laps of the 2005 Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona International Speedway when Jimmy Spencer got by with a few laps left and the white flag flew just before a crash occurred in turn 1. During the accident, Hamilton passed Spencer for the lead. Due to the scoring-loop rules, before the accident it was initially believed that Spencer won. Spencer drove to victory circle, but not long afterward it was determined that Hamilton won; Hamilton was at the final scoring loop as he was in the lead. Hamilton later won at Mansfield and went on his way to another sixth place points finish. Hamilton drove the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge for the first three races in 2006, but was diagnosed with cancer and never raced again, with his son finishing out the season. ==Illness and death==

On March 17, 2006, Hamilton told the press at Atlanta Motor Speedway that he had been diagnosed with head and neck cancer, discovered during the removal of an infected wisdom tooth. Hamilton announced that the Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta would be his last for the time being, with his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr., replacing him in the 18 truck. Hamilton added that he wanted to return to racing by the end of season race at Homestead–Miami Speedway on November 17 and that he would attend races as his health allowed. He would begin chemotherapy and radiation at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Hamilton finished 14th in the race at Atlanta that evening. Hamilton finished chemotherapy and radiation treatments on June 7 and retained his goal to make it back to his truck at Homestead–Miami. Hamilton added that he wanted to be back at the track, but his doctors told him his white blood cell count had to rise before they would allow it. He also began working on Craftsman For a Cure, a charity designed to help multiple other organizations, including Victory Junction and Relay For Life. Hamilton returned to the track on July 8 to watch the Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway. By August 2006, Hamilton returned to his shop to perform everyday duties and returned to the track at Nashville Superspeedway on August 12 to watch his son race and answer questions to the press. Hamilton's doctor, Barbara Murphy, added that a recent scan had shown forward progress and no sign of the cancer advancing. Kyle Busch paid tribute to Hamilton two months later for the Truck race at Lowe's Motor Speedway by driving a truck painted to resemble the Rowdy Burns car in Days of Thunder, complete with the No. 51 and "Rowdy" decals, a tribute that Busch continues today in late model and truck racing. Hamilton decided to sit out the season finale race at Homestead–Miami on November 17, 2006, citing that he was dealing with medical treatments for a sore throat. He added that he would look at the opening race of the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season at Daytona International Speedway for his return. Bobby Hamilton Jr. would return to the NASCAR Busch Series for the 2007 season. With his health in flux, Bobby Hamilton Racing announced on December 8 that they would hire Ken Schrader to race the No. 18 truck for the 2007 season on weekends where the Nextel Cup Series and Truck Series would be together. At races where Schrader's Cup schedule took priority, a driver would be determined later on. However, later in December, Hamilton returned to chemotherapy due to the return of cancer cells in his neck. Hamilton died on January 7, 2007, at his home in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, with his family by his side. ==Motorsports career results==

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) Nextel Cup Series Daytona 500 Busch Series Craftsman Truck Series International Race of Champions (key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.) ==References==