Hamilton's '96 win returns Petty team to Victory Lane

By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM November 6, 2008 02:34 PM EST The 1996 Dura Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway featured a first-time winner putting NASCAR royalty back in Victory Lane, and the Iron Man proving that he was well deserving of the nickname. Since Richard Petty drove his family-owned No. 43 Pontiac to a 3-second win over Darrell Waltrip in the 1983 Miller High Life 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Petty Enterprises had suffered through a victory drought. In 1995, the team took a chance on Bobby Hamilton, perhaps better known at that time for helping film portions of the action footage for Days of Thunder. Hamilton knew he had the talent and drive to succeed. He just needed the equipment to match. Hamilton had come close to a win at Dover in 1995 and another at Martinsville earlier in the 1996 season, but he remained winless in his Cup career until that all changed at Phoenix, in what seemed the unlikeliest of scenarios. Starting 17th in a field of 44 cars on the next-to-last race weekend of the season, Hamilton moved up to challenge early leaders Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin, taking the top spot during green-flag stops. But it seemed every time Hamilton had to pit, he wound up losing track position. Hamilton defended the team, saying there were a number of reasons why it looked like the No. 43 was losing ground in the pits. "Our pit stops were good today," Hamilton said. "I could tell when I'd come out behind certain cars. A lot of the track positions we lost, we took on four tires every time [except the last]. The only teams that beat us out of the pits took on two tires, except [Martin] one time.

"The other time there at the end, we came out fourth or fifth because we had to make an adjustment on the car. I've got to take up for my guys. The pit stops were good." Hamilton passed Dale Jarrett for the lead on Lap 153, only to have the caution flag come out. But he was in the thick of the battle when the last of five yellows was displayed with 50 laps to go. While all of the leaders -- including Hamilton -- headed for service, Geoffrey Bodine rolled the dice, trading track position for fresh tires. When the green flew on Lap 266, Bodine led, followed by Terry Labonte, Martin and Hamilton. But it didn't take long for Hamilton to reassert himself at the front. He passed Martin for third three laps into the run, then got by Labonte on Lap 273. That just left Bodine, who was a sitting duck for the faster Hamilton, who blew by the No. 7 Ford 10 laps later. But that was about the time Hamilton began to feel worried. "I picked up a bad vibration about halfway through the race and I knew it was [in the] driveline because we've had that happen before," Hamilton said. "[With] 10 laps to go, it felt like it was getting worse. "Then my front end started pushing, and I said, 'Oh my God, I've got a tire going down.' I thought I heard a miss in the motor. Your mind just runs wild, but the good Lord took care of us." In addition, Hamilton was worried about getting caught up in someone else's mistake. "There were a couple of cars smoking on the track running right in our groove," Hamilton said. "I couldn't believe all the cars that were smoking. That was bugging me pretty bad. All that stuff was working on me the last 10 laps." The car never missed a beat and Hamilton won by more than a second over Martin. For a driver who had finally achieved his life's goal, Hamilton was surprisingly subdued in Victory Lane. "I'm a strange person," Hamilton said. "Two days from now I'll be worked up about this, but right now I'm happier for the guys on the team. This is a bigger deal for me to win in Richard Petty's car. "It isn't a big deal for me myself. I've won a lot of races. This is just my first in Winston Cup. But I've told a lot of people,

"It isn't a big deal for me myself. I've won a lot of races. This is just my first in Winston Cup. But I've told a lot of people, there's Dale Earnhardt fans or Bill Elliott fans, but when those guys fall out of the race, they're still Richard Petty fans."
BOBBY HAMILTON

there's Dale Earnhardt fans or Bill Elliott fans, but when those guys fall out of the race, they're still Richard Petty fans. "I thought it was pretty cool to win this race for him." Hamilton would go on to win three more times in NASCAR's premier series and the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series championship before losing a battle with cancer in January of 2007. For Terry Labonte, it was validation of his nickname, the Iron Man. Labonte drove the entire race despite suffering a broken finger in a practice crash earlier in the weekend. He started 30th and finished third, wearing a plastic cast and silicone pad that protected his damaged hand -and actually increased his points lead over Jeff Gordon heading into the season finale. "If you would have given me a top-10 yesterday, I would have taken it and said, 'Let's go on,'" Labonte said. "We injected my hand with something, something painful when it went in. I still really can't feel anything. I'll probably pay for it tonight going home. "At least we have some time before Atlanta. We've got to go down there and run good and do the same thing we've done the past few weeks." Labonte would finish fifth at Atlanta and win his second Cup title. The Phoenix race also featured several lasts. It was the last race for Bobby Allison as a car owner, as Derrike Cope finished 43rd after crashing. And Kyle Petty's 29th-place finish was his last start for Felix Sabates.
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20081210022345/http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/opinion/11/06/retr o.racing.maumann.bhamilton.phoenix.1996/index.html