Frustration fills Hamilton’s day

Victoria Sun

Monday, Sept. 27, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

The black wrap-around sunglasses Pep Boys Indy Racing League driver Davey Hamilton wore after the Vegas.com 500 race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday helped mask some of the frustration and disappointment he felt about finishing 13th.

Sure, he earned $39,100 and dropped only two spots in the Pep Boys IRL point standings to seventh, but he could have done much more if the racing gods didn't frown upon him for the third time this weekend.

So it didn't take long for him to express how he really felt because there was no way to sugar coat it.

"Obviously, you know it's a great disappointment," Hamilton said. "We were salvaging a really disappointing weekend. It's still somewhat salvaged just because we ran good and know what we can do. You know, I'm pretty fired up right now. I mean, I want to see Scotty (Sharp) and have a little chat with him.

"We're out here with million-dollar race cars going 200 miles an hour and you don't need to drive like you know, you're in a soap box derby race or something."

Hamilton, a Las Vegas resident, started the race last because he had to switch to his backup car, a Galles Racing/Spinal Conquest Dallara/Aurora, then positioned himself as high as fourth several times during the race before he was forced to drop out.

On the 193rd lap Hamilton was running seventh, when Hamilton said Scott Sharp caused him to crash into the wall along Turns 3 and 4. It was the 9th accident of the race.

"We started comin' on and we had a great run going," Hamilton said. "And we've got some great drivers here, but sometimes they go brain dead, you know. And that's basically what happened with Sharp. We were battling and neither one of us were that fast. We had a little push in the last set and he wasn't all that great as well.

"I got slowed up by a lapped car, and I saw Scotty comin' so I just moved up and got out of the throttle and let him go. And that bonehead ran into the side of us."

The incident with Sharp was the final blow in what Hamilton said was, "the most miserable weekend we've ever had as a team."

It started with a 23rd-place qualifying of time of 26.710 then continued when Goodyear brought Hamilton and his crew a different type of tire than the one they tested, forcing Hamilton to resort to his backup car. "We just felt that there was something wrong with that car so we made a gamble and started our T (team) car that we haven't run for a long time," he said. "It's just been sittin' around and waiting.

"The thing wasn't even started or set up for this track, you know nothing. The guys did a fabulous job."

Apparently so.

Things seemed to be turning around for Hamilton after the second pit stop, when he worked his way to fourth for the first time on the 167th lap. But in the end it was too late.

Still, Hamilton was able to find a bright spot.

"I take a lot of positive," Hamilton said of the race. "We've been strong this last half year. We know we have a great team and we know we can win races.

"You know, we really thought we had a shot at third even, but Robbie (Buhl) started pulling away there a little bit so we were trying to salvage fourth. Yeah, we're going to Texas with a lot of momentum right now. I'm really high on this team and hopefully we can get a win before this year's out yet."

Fortunately, Hamilton wasn't injured in the crash, though his car wasn't so lucky. And for this, even he managed to smile.