Bobby Hamilton Jr. enjoying ownership role but still wants to drive
Bobby Hamilton Jr. is a co-owner at Rensi-Hamilton Racing. // Jerry Markland, Getty Images for NASCAR
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Bobby Hamilton Jr. has three cars racing in two different cities this weekend, and while he enjoys his ownership role, he still wishes he was driving.
Hamilton Jr. is a co-owner of Rensi-Hamilton Racing, which fields a car for Eric McClure in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. That shop is in North Carolina, and Hamilton Jr. is more of an investor in that organization.
He is much more involved in his two Hamilton Racing cars running this weekend. Across from the Nationwide Series garage of McClure at Talladega, Hamilton Jr. stood Thursday in the Automobile Racing Club of America garage overlooking the car he owns for Chase Mattioli. That ARCA car was built in Hamilton Jr.’s Nashville, Tenn., shop, as well as the Camping World East Series car he fields for Kristin Bumbera, who will race Saturday at Tri-County Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
The 31-year-old Hamilton Jr., who hasn't raced this season, has mixed emotions when he sees his cars pull out on the track.
“I get kind of jealous when I come here and I see all my stuff riding around, and I’m not in [the race],” Hamilton Jr. said Thursday. “I like grooming kids. They’re little sponges. You talk to them, and a light goes off in their head.
“I love that part of it. … My goal is I want to be a champion on my own as a driver. But then again, on my team, I want to be the guy that makes the champions.”
Hamilton Jr. just doesn’t want to drive for himself. He doesn’t want to worry about being the boss and driver at the same time, concerned about budgets and personnel as he’s racing.
“I love being at the shop, building something, but it’s time for me to get back in a race car,” Hamilton Jr. said. “I’m at the point that I don’t care if it’s an ARCA car, an East car or a Nationwide car.
“I own my own stuff, but I don’t like driving for me. … When you don’t drive for yourself, you don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, and you don’t have that kind of worry. Sometimes you get in trouble if you know everything that is going on – the office work, plus the shop work. Then all of a sudden you have more stuff on your mind than driving.”
Hamilton Jr. has 244 career Nationwide Series starts, including five wins, and 64 in the Sprint Cup Series. He said most team owners on the Cup side won’t consider him to even test because he does not have experience in NASCAR’s new Cup car. He likely will drive a second Rensi-Hamilton Racing car in the Nationwide Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis in July, he said.
He said he is fairly pleased with how his race teams are going. He believes he could produce a solid Nationwide Series program with $2 million-$2.5 million in sponsorship in the current economic climate if the driver just takes a cut of the purse.
And he believes his ARCA and East teams can perform well.
“You get frustrated because you spend so much time out in the shop and spend so much money making sure you get the best stuff that’s available, and at Greenville [S.C.], we got caught up in a wreck … and got run over by a guy that was nine laps down,” Hamilton Jr. said about the East opener with Bumbera. “You get mad about that, and you’re thinking, ‘Where’s the line? What am I getting out of this?’
“The best thing is when [the young drivers] have a good run. They light up, and they come and pat you on the back and the guys on their back.”
Hamilton Jr. would like to see Hamilton Racing grow to a Nationwide Series team or Camping World Truck Series team.
“I’d love to be the next guy who whenever the next Jeff Gordon gets on stage, says, ‘If it wasn’t for Bobby Jr. …,’ but at the same time, I’ve still got that burn that I want to win races myself,” Hamilton Jr. said. “That’s part of being a racer. No matter how old you get, you still have that burn to win those races.”
