NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Teleconference Transcript with Bobby Hamilton (owner of Bobby Hamilton Racing) and Bobby Hamilton Jr. (Driver of the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge, currently ninth in points). The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action on Friday, May 19 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Q: You have two consecutive top-10 finishes and have moved up to ninth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points standings. What kind of momentum will that give you as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts on a nine-race stretch with Charlotte?

Bobby Hamilton Jr.: Martinsville we got our first pole and we ran well. At Gateway, we didn't get to qualify. We really wanted to qualify. We were looking for another pole, but during the race we really ran well. I think what it does is really right now we have our hands full with the Toyotas, so we really need something as far as to stick our chest out. Just by how the guys were acting after the race, by the way they were joking. As a matter of fact today, I bought them lunch. We were out eating and cutting up about everything. We got to talking about racing and you can just tell a different light in them. They're eager. They're ready to go. And that's really, really important. If they're really eager and ready to go, they don't mind spending extra hours at the shop. They are really fine-tuning the details. Everything right now is going the way we need it to at BHR with the 18 truck.

Q: You and the 18 truck tested at Lowe's Motor Speedway with the Goodyear Tire Test. How did that go and how will that help you when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series comes back to race in Charlotte on May 19?

BH Jr.: That will really help a lot. From the get go, we will know what type of springs. They are going to change the tire on us from what we tested. They told us that before we left. They are going to look at a slower tire. I think I ran 25 laps straight wide open without having to lift in any part of the corners, so that was a little bit too fast for them. But I think the big thing is that it gave the crew just a little bit of an idea of what to start with, what we needed, trends in the track would want, trends in what the truck would want in the middle of the run or the end of a run and confidence as far as myself in what to expect when we unload. It was a big, big, big help. When we go down there we will already be 100 percent ahead of any guys that unload. But like I said, they'll have the open test on Thursday. They'll get caught up to us, but we have a whole day more of notes than anybody else. No matter how we wind up, it's going to benefit me and the team. It was a great honor to do that for Goodyear working with some great people. The way they did the race track is incredible. It's as smooth as ice and as grippy as anyplace I've been. So, I can't wait. I still wonder how it's going to be on the outside, but with the Craftsman Trucks and how wild these guys are I guarantee they'll be three or four wide around there easy and wide open. It'll be a great race.

Q: How are you feeling?

Bobbby Hamilton Sr.: Well, today's been my better day. I went to St. Louis and felt like a million bucks. I don't know if it was where I was around so many people. The race fans have been so gracious to keep up with what's going on with BHR. They've really been rooting Bobby Jr. on. Of course, me being out of the truck, I sat out at the back of the hauler and signed autographs and shook hands, and did exactly what the doctors told me to beware of. The weather was bad out there, and I'm sure there were people out there with flu-like symptoms, and I caught something. I actually had to go to the emergency room Sunday my temperature was so high. I just got out of bed this morning, and decided I just had to get out. The doctor wouldn't give me my chemo this week. They told me to lay at home and sweat it out. I feel pretty good today. It's the first little bit of a setback that I've had. I've been doing my radiation and staying close-knit with everyone at the shop. That's something I have to brag on Bobby Jr. about. He's gone way beyond just driving a truck. He's been going in and out, checking on things - working with Danny Gill and Danny Rollins and even the other drivers. He's been trying to help me do everything. I feel better today. I said the other day that if this is what it feels like I don't think I'll live another 12 minutes. I knew it wasn't the treatments because we went and had my blood count done and my blood count is actually higher than Timothy (Peters) is and he is 20-some years old. The thing about treatment is that it gets your blood count down. It makes you susceptible to infection. Come to find out, it was just a bad stomach virus going around. But I have never felt so miserable as I felt Monday. But right now I'm out driving around. We're actually sitting in a parking lot right now, eating a chili dog. So, I'm moving along well right now.

Q: Talk a little bit about the 'Craftsman For a Cure' charity benefit coming up that will benefit the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and the Victory Junction Gang Camp. More than 33 drivers are participating. What does it mean to you to have all these drivers support this event?

BH Sr.: The numbers never did a lot for me until I realized how much bigger this was going to be than most events. We don't have pull any punches here - Victory Junction Gang has been such a huge thing that we have all tried to support whenever we could. There have been people who have been a little bit more fortunate to do more for certain things than others. I have always been one of those guys that I just do what I can. Do be on the flip side of it and to know that someone like Craftsman came along because I was one of the less fortunate ones to be diagnosed with a pretty common disease just totally overwhelmed me. To know that I can pick up the phone and I called Jeff Gordon's people and Jimmie Johnson's people. Then I picked up the phone and I called Kasey Kahne. The man is in between practices calling me back, saying 'Ok, give me some times. This is what I would like to do. I'll do an hour here, an hour there. I'm going to call you after the next practice.' And he'd run and call me back. Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman stepped up right off the bat. I can't even spout off half the names. A ton of our NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series guys have really stepped up as well. Jon Wood called me. The Wood family has been close to me my whole career. You really hate to throw names out there because we have so many participating. We have a whole field of drivers almost that could make a whole race. I cherish everything that every one of them has done. And I don't have to tell you how I feel about Ken Schrader and Michael Waltrip who have stepped up. It just goes on and on, and the people just want to keep doing more. You just can't believe what a feeling it is when you are on the other side of it.

Q: Bobby, what is your prognosis for returning and what is the cancer that you have?

BH Sr.: My cancer is called head and neck cancer. Cancer is a strange deal. We've learned when it starts up around the head area it travels downward toward the right side of your body. So it never made it to my head, just started in my neck. About 50% percent of head and neck cancer is that exact thing. It sort of embedded in the right side of my neck. It froze there. I have been very fortunate that it didn't move anywhere. I've had so many biopsies just to make sure. I've had lung washes, and I have nothing in my lungs. Still at this point, it doesn't even show in my blood work. We were able to surround ourselves with good people, and get started early. We don't know if we're ahead of schedule or behind schedule. We took a very slow step forward as far of regiments of treatment, and it wasn't working quite as fast as we wanted it to. So, I wasn't even set up for radiation until May 30, and I'm on my second week of radiation. Almost by the time was going to start radiation, I'm going to be done.

As far as my return, I said in my press conference in Atlanta that I would love to make my comeback the last race of the season. That would just mean so much to me and this is the first time I've said this…the rehab for this thing is two to three months. Until this past week, I probably could have raced every week - there haven't been that many races, I wouldn't have had to step out of the truck. But for the safety of my competitors, the welfare of my business and my race teams and all the people surrounding me, I just felt like the best guy to do the job would be Bobby Jr. The next best thing for me, when I get done with all these treatments and they say everything is ok, is that I would love to come back at Atlanta where I got out of the truck.

Q: What has this meant to you to step into your dad's truck? Does it help him that you are driving it?

BH Jr.: I'm sure it helps. The biggest thing having to overcome is that these guys are so used to working with my dad. Fastenal signed on to be with my dad. That was the hardest part for me. In my eyes, I thought that was going to be the biggest challenge. But the minute we went and met with all the Fastenal guys, the first thing they said was 'This is a no-brainer. Welcome to the family.' Danny Rollins and Danny Gill did my ARCA program when I was ARCA racing. A lot of new guys were uneasy about things; they didn't know what was going to happen. But we were fortunate enough to go out and run well. It's really been an emotional ride. The circumstances you don't like at all, but at the same time that's what was thrown at us. It's been different. A lot of things that I never thought I would have to do, I'm doing. There's a lot of stuff. I worry about my dad. On top of that, I've never had to feel the pressure as far as saying 'We have a sponsor for this year and next year. If things don't work out good, if we go out there and flip flop around like we don't know what we're doing, if I don't take the initiative and the guys don't take the initiative to go out there and perform like Fastenal is expecting, we may not have anything in two years.' So then we have 60 some odd employees wondering what is going to happen. So the pressure is just unbelievable. And at the same time, it makes me more determined than anything. Seeing my dad smile after we run good or seeing that he is enjoying how the shop is doing what it is supposed to be doing. With him being there and sitting back in the shop and tinker with things and work with the guys, that's really what's keeping everybody going. At the same time, there's a lot of situations that you don't like as far as not having our leader there driving the 18 truck. But we've got to man up, take care of it and do what we've got to do.

Q: Has battling cancer changed your perspective personally or in the business itself?

BH Sr.: It makes me understand the business a little more. It makes me understand how race car drivers are. When Bobby Jr. was in Charlotte at the tire test, I had one truck at the wind tunnel, and I had another truck at an in-line test, so all three teams were gone. I took Timothy and loaded up a back-up truck in a test transporter and went to Kentucky and worked on spring combinations that I had come up with just back there tinkering around. I was messing around. I have a good sense of this race track and if we unload like we usually unload at Martinsville, Bobby Jr. is good there; he just hasn't run that many times there. I said, 'He'll probably sit on the pole if I can make this work.' About that time the phone rang, and it was Michael Waltrip. He said, 'What are you doing in Kentucky testing? Why aren't you back taking it easy?' I told him I was just up there having fun. Then Jack Sprague called. Then after Sprague called, John Andretti called. John Andretti said he just didn't want to call, he didn't know whether he should bother me or not. I said, 'Let me tell you something right now. The people I thought would call, have called. And the people wouldn't call, haven't.' And basically all it is that people have different personality and temperament. I'm not upset at one person who has not called me, but I cherish the people that do call me - but I don't hold it anyway. I remember the day we lost Dale Earnhardt. I mean I walked up to Michael Waltrip and congratulated him on winning the Daytona 500. Drivers carry a shield around them, and they are afraid if they let that shield down, then that's a little bit of a weakness.

There is one thing that I have learned about all of this. Everybody is going to deal with this at some point in their life. It's such a big thing. Everybody on this phone, I guarantee, knows somebody or has had a family member go through it. It just makes you think of things different. I don't look at the sport that different. I look at human life different. I see people at the hospital. I talk to patients everyday. I had the hospital call me and want to give me VIP treatment because they had race fans as patients talking about me. They called my house and said 'We'd like to bring you in the back door. We have a CEO room.' I said, 'I don't want you to touch me. I want to sit right out there with them. Leave me alone. I'll learn a lot. I just want to sit with the rest of the folks.'

I think I have learned to cherish anybody's life. We're all human beings. We all have a life. Do some of us live them right? Probably not. Do all of us live them right? No. Do all of us live them half-way right? Probably so. There's so many different ways to look at it. You know, somebody will get bad on the highway and say, 'You blankety-blank.' That's not me anymore. I tell people all the time. Somebody will call or stop by and say, 'Is there anything we can do? We're praying for you.' And I'll say, 'That's all I need, just keep doing that.' And I'll turn around and tell them 'Don't forget to hug your wife or your kids or your grandkids tonight and tell them that you love them. Make sure you do that every night.' That's just the difference in what you learn going through something like this.

Q: Do you look at your Dad differently?

BH Jr.: No. I don't. But at the same time, it's such a scary word. My wife, Stephanie, has lost about 10 people to cancer. When I heard, the automatic first response was 'How bad is it?' Of course, he's going to protect me from a lot of things. It wasn't too long ago that Stephanie and my dad had a talk. They had like a best friend talk, and I wasn't there. I was testing. Afterward, she sat me down and told me 'You've got to be there.' Everybody's there for him, but at the same time, you know how thick family is. My way of dealing with it was not talking about it because we didn't have the words. When people asked how my dad was, I said he's fine. There's nothing wrong. He's just taking a break. I looked at it like he was just on a beach somewhere hanging out. The fact is, he's battling cancer and he's going beat it. But I know there might be a day and I hope to God it never happens - I don't want to think about it - but there might be a day that I might lose him. I hate to even think about it. We weren't a family that would pat on each other or hug on each other before a race. But now, I make sure that every time I leave him - if I'm leaving the shop or if he walks out the door - I'll tell him I love him. I've just got to deal with it, and at the same time take care of business and that's running BHR on the race track and my dad off the race track. That's my dad, that's my old man, that's my friend, that's who I get all of my advice from, the only difference now is that he is battling a battle. We're all going to stick our necks out there and beat it. We're not going to beat it if one of us is hiding from it. We have to be behind him. Everybody does. We have to take care of business of running races. And when we've taken the checkered flag, we take care of business at home and that's making sure that he knows we're behind him and we're going to kick the cancer.

Q: Talk about the job Bobby Jr. is doing around the shop.

BH Sr.: It has been totally relieving to know that he's there. This has been the first week that I have really taken any time away from the shop, but I have three basic people I check in with. Bobby Jr. has been saturated with sponsor commitments. He's been doing a lot of stuff helping me out. There's just a difference now. I didn't hang around his Cup car because I didn't like the goofballs he was around. He goes in the shop and gets on top of things. Not only is he focusing on his race team, but he goes to the other race teams and talks to the other drivers. I don't know that I ever had a worry about that. I knew that he had the capability to. I just didn't know if at the age he's at if he was still saturated in trying to rebuild his career - which he should be. Nothing would make me happier than Penske calling saying they were going to open another team and telling Bobby Jr. that they want him because he's a good qualifier and good racer. I would just work something out if that happened. You have to understand my point, I have total confidence in his driving. The bad part about our sport - if Jimmie Johnson don't win another race until the next Talladega, 36 races from now, that's all you guys are going to write about. People forget the days when Bobby Jr. was in a car that had a $1.2 million budget, and he was outrunning cup regulars every single week and winning races all superspeedways and short track. He was outrunning Richard Childress Racing, Roush Racing, and things like that. It makes me feel good to know that he has stepped up to walk in and try to help me run my business, to take the load off of me and let me rest a little bit. Then to turn around and run Martinsville and was the only truck that wasn't destroyed. Then turn around and run Gateway - and I don't know how he did this - but I used his truck at a concert last night for a show truck. I unloaded it off the hauler, and there wasn't a scratch on it.

He's reaching out in all aspects trying to make whatever he can easy on the company. And he's been a great spokesperson because he knows that we (Dodge) have aero issues. He's been to the wind tunnel. He's heard the wind tunnel numbers. He talked to NASCAR about how far the Dodges were behind on a mile-and-a-half race track. He's just a great spokesperson, and I have never known him to have experience in that. He's doing everything he can to help me. And I told him on the phone yesterday that I appreciate very much what you are doing since you got in the truck. I told him that he has really stepped up and done a lot.

Q: Do you think that this will help boost Bobby Jr.'s career?

BH Sr.: It can't do nothing but help. Toyota is swinging a big stick right now. I wouldn't want to lose him to Toyota, but he is raising a granddaughter of mine and he is very young. NEXTEL Cup racing made it very possible for me to have everything that I have now, and it made it possible for him to have everything he has now. He just didn't get to ride it long enough. I would just love to see him do good in the trucks, and he's doing that. There's no question. I guarantee you…if NASCAR don't help Dodge on a mile and a half race track before Charlotte, every Dodge there unless the cautions fall a lot will finish a lap down. We are 97 counts off on drag, and at 150 mph, that's 97 horsepower - it is one to one. We can't compete with that. But it's just Toyota's turn. If I was Toyota, and I spent $200 million designing a truck and I hadn't won a championship in three years and Dodge was winning it on $1.4 million a year, I would almost be embarrassed about it. But it's just their turn to win. They'll move on next year, and when they get to NEXTEL Cup and they have to race against Roush and Hendrick and the others, that will free us poor boys up to go do what we like to do again.

In hopes of Bobby Jr. being involved in some Cup effort, I would like to keep him in the Dodge camp. I think the biggest thing that is going to help Bobby Jr. is we have financial backing from Fastenal to run the Brickyard, and we have a couple of other deals to run our Cup car at a couple of other places. We have learned so much since last year that I think we'll make a solid effort in a Cup car. People will look and say, 'Nashville, Tennessee, truck team - a Cup car.' I mean if he just runs right there with them somewhere like that James Finch car, which is some of the best races he has run in Cup. I know my deal is capable of that.

Q: Did you give much thought to stepping up or did you just do it because you knew your dad needed the help?

BH Jr.: As far as replacing dad when he was stepping out, I don't like using that word because I'm not replacing him. I'm the type of person where I hated outrunning him. If I did, it took away some of the enjoyment. At the same time, he asked me 'Do you want me to get someone else to do it.' And I said, 'Hell, no. I want to do it. I don't want anyone else driving your truck.' It was so scary to realize that I was taking all of this. In the big scheme of things, I knew this was my dad and I want to do all of this for him. I jumped in and never really thought about anything. I didn't want anyone else to do it. I thought I could do a 100 percent job for him, for the company, and I wasn't going to take a chance on letting anyone else do it. When it comes to career stuff, to use the example dad did, if Penske called, I would ask them if there was anyway I could do both - the Cup deal and the truck because if they aren't combined weekend, I have a plane and I can do both. My priority is the Fastenal Dodge and BHR. If something else was to come up, we'd just have to look at it. Right now, all I have is to be 100 percent focused on my truck deal. If I can keep focused on that and running good, then BHR is around a whole lot longer. Sometimes it's scary to think about it - that me as dumb as I am is having to do some of this stuff. But at the same time, I don't want anyone else doing it. When it's time to jump, I jump. It's for my Dad - there wasn't even a question.

BH Sr.: I mean, look at it from my point of view. If you were an owner and something like this would have happened to you - everybody's standing out there, who would you have picked? He was standing there with nothing at the time. It was a perfect fit to me. I've told him before…I caught him off guard and I caught my crew chief off guard. I sit on the back box at the races and I don't say anything. I'll just say stuff like 'I saw the leader do this down there in the corner.' I don't tell them set-up. If they ask, I'll tell them that I like things a certain way. I say 'I'll leave up to you all. I'll see you later.' I turn around and leave. I've even surprised myself. He races a lot like me right now because he is driving so smart because he knows he is at a disadvantage. He's logging points. I know he is capable. I tell him 'Treat it like its yours' because it is ultimately. And he'll be fine.

Q: Looking ahead to Texas, what do you think of your chances there?

BH Jr.: I've always run really, really well there. I've never been there in a truck. I about won the race in the Busch car. I led all day, and then at the very end I vapor-locked it and wound up finishing fifth. I love the race track. It's my type of race track. It's wide open all day long. I'm really looking forward to it in the truck. It almost reminds me of Atlanta where you can really be aggressive on the wheel and be wide open. It's a grippy race track. If we can get a little help from NASCAR with some of the Dodge stuff, there's no reason we can't go out there and win. I know we've talked about the Cup car there, and I would love that. We can run it wide open. The race track has a ton of grip, it's smooth and you can really, really be aggressive.

Q: How many Cup races do you plan on running?

BH Sr.: We definitely have the Brickyard. The rest of them, Bobby Jr. and I will make that choice as we go. We'll fit the tracks around him. We're not going to get in a hurry about anything. We're going to take our time with stuff. If we have a very good run at the Brickyard and come out of there pretty good shape financially, then we'll just roll that money right over into the next Cup race. We separate that money.

Q: How was the cancer diagnosed?

BH Sr.: Basically, I was racing last year and I had a wisdom tooth go bad. I had a lower wisdom tooth act up on the right side of my face and I have a huge nerve that runs around that part of my wisdom tooth. Because I was on camera, they didn't want to try to take it out because it might make my face drawl for a week or two. They put me on antibiotics and it was swollen up really bad. I went right after Thanksgiving and got my tooth pulled and everything cleaned up. The swelling in my face went down, but my neck didn't. The doctors thought it was just a swollen gland from infection. On February 7, I walked in the office and said this is not going down. I ended up in the hospital on Feb. 8 because I had to be in Daytona the next Tuesday. The doctors got in there and saw something they didn't like. They stitched me up from the inside where nobody could tell that anything had happened. We went to Daytona, and I raced until we got the results back. It was as simple as that. I knew it before anybody told me. I didn't even call Bobby Jr. because I thought I was getting a gland drained. They admitted me into the hospital that night just for recovery, and that's when I called Bobby Jr. and Stephanie down and told them about it. For us to be able to keep that quiet until Atlanta should win an award because you can't do anything in NASCAR without that.

It was just one of those deals. It just happened. It's a part of life. I don't like it, but it's going to make me a better person at the end. It's going to make me give back, and that's what we're trying to do with this 'Craftsman For a Cure' deal. I will always be involved in things like this if I can, and that's why I hope you guys will help us. I know we gave you a lot of information here off the subject of 'Craftsman For a Cure' but it's very important that we promote this as you write your stories. Make sure you put that in there because we certainly would like to have a big blow-out on this thing and be able to give back to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and the Victory Junction Gang Camp, and make it grow more and more each year.

Craftsman came to us with this event. We were so devastated with what happened to us that Craftsman came to us and said we would like to do this and partner with BHR. I never would have dreamed it up that fast by myself. All the people around us have made this happen.