JOLIET, Ill. (AP) – Bobby Hamilton Jr. overpowered the field, leading all but a handful of laps Saturday in winning the Tropicana Twister 300 Busch Series race.

Hamilton Jr., the son of former Winston Cup star and current NASCAR Craftsman Truck competition Bobby Hamilton, took the lead from pole-starter Casey Mears on the third lap and led 186 of 200 trips around the 1-mile Chicagoland Speedway oval, including the last 53.

The diminutive 25-year-old Hamilton came up with his third Busch Series win and second in four races. This one was nearly as dominant as the wire-to-wire win by Dale Earnhardt Jr. last week at Daytona.

Hamilton built a lead of almost 16 seconds – about a half-lap – before one of six caution flags in the race gave Winston Cup series leader Matt Kenseth one last shot at catching the leader.

But Hamilton’s Team Rensi Motorsports Ford pulled away with ease on the restart on lap 166 and beat Kenseth’s Taurus to the finish line by 4.503-seconds, about 20 car-lengths. Only 26 of the 43 starters were running at the end of the attrition-filled race. There were several multicar crashes, but no injuries reported. Kerry Earnhardt, son of the late seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, was taken to a nearby hospital but was later released.

after being examined.

Scott Riggs finished a lap down in seventh and extended his lead over David Green in the championship race from 2 to 23 points as Green finished 11th. Ron Hornaday Jr., third in the standings, was involved in one of the crashes but recovered to finish 12th and trails Riggs by 57 points.

AP-ES-07-12-03 1802EDT

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