Hard work is a Hamilton family tradition

by Terrell Davis

Bobby Hamilton, Jr. has the knack for working himself into successful situations. Work, as anyone who knows Hamilton, Jr. is aware, is the key word.

He gets his strong work ethic honestly. It could be said that it is an inherited trait. His father, Bobby, Sr., worked his way up from Late Model racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds to become a star in NASCAR’s Cup Division. He left the Cup Series and became a successful Craftsman Truck driver/team owner with numerous wins and a championship to his credit. All earned through hard work.

When Hamilton, Sr. lost a valiant fight with cancer, most people assumed Hamilton, Jr. would step in and take the helm of Bobby Hamilton Racing. The name certainly fit. But, the situation didn’t.

The situation with his dad’s race team became more than he felt he could or should bear, so he announced he was “washing his hands” of the situation. He returned to the NASCAR Nationwide Series where he had enjoyed a great deal of success and sat about racing and running several business ventures.

But, being involved in the ownership of a racing team was still on his mind. After selling a sports theme restaurant he owned in the Nashville, Tennessee area, he made a call to Earl Sadler, owner of Sadler racing, a team that has enjoyed a measure of success in several forms of NASCAR racing. Mr. Earl, as he is known in the racing industry, has given a number of drivers their first true taste of a competition in the upper echelon of stock car racing. Sadler, 85, has assisted such drivers as Davey Allison, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Green and Jeremy Mayfield with their early careers.

“I talked with Mr. Earl and asked him if he’d sell me his racing operation,” Hamilton, Jr. said during a luncheon at the shop on Tuesday. “He finally gave me a price and I told him I’d give him $20,000 less than he asked for half of it. So, we became partners.”

Located in an industrial area near downtown Nashville, the shop is, by today’s standards, small and is filled to overflowing with 8 to 10 racecars and a hauler.

“This is the perfect place to build a winning team,” said Willie Allen, last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year, who is driving several Nationwide races for the team this year, including the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway this weekend. “There is so much passion for racing here and that’s what it takes to win. Everyone is certainly dedicated to building a successful operation. There is a lot of history here and I hope we can add to it.”

The team started the season at the Daytona Nationwide race on a high note when Allen made the race while several “name” drivers and teams went home early.

“We really didn’t know we were going to be at Daytona until the last minute, so we pieced together a car,” Hamilton, Jr. said. “We didn’t get the engine until the last minute and we got something like 40 or so minutes of practice time, but we made the show and that in itself was an accomplishment.”

The numbers of races that the Sadler-Hamilton Racing Team run this season will be determined to some extent by sponsorship but certain races are already planned.

“We plan on racing at Nashville, Talladega and Daytona plus we intend on running the ARCA race in August at the Nashville Superspeedway,” Allen said. “We could be running more than that, so we are building more cars.”

Hamilton said he feels the core of the team is solid and will only get better and better with hard work.

And hard work, as everyone knows, is a Hamilton family tradition