Pete Hamilton

Peter "Pete" Hamilton (July 20, 1942 – March 21, 2017) was an American professional stock car racing driver. He competed in NASCAR for six years, where he won four times in his career (including the 1970 Daytona 500), three times driving for Petty Enterprises.

Racing career

A street replica of Pete Hamilton´s Plymouth Superbird, with which he won the 1970 Daytona 500.

Hamilton began racing in the street division in 1962 at Norwood Arena Speedway, where he quickly earned the nickname... "The Dedham Flash".^[1] In 1965, he was the Thompson World Series Twin 50s champion. He won the 1967 NASCAR national Sportsman division championship.^[1]

After that season he moved south to race in NASCAR. He started racing in the NASCAR Grand National (now Monster Energy Cup) division in 1968, and was the series Rookie of the Year.^[1] In 1969, he competed in NASCAR's Grand American division, a division of smaller pony cars.^[1] He won 12 of 26 races that year.^[1]

He had 3 wins in 1970 for Petty Enterprises in the #40 Plymouth Superbird with Maurice Petty as his crew-chief. He won the 1970 Daytona 500 and both races at Talladega Superspeedway.^[1] Hamilton won his Twin 125 mile qualifying race for the 1971 Daytona 500 driving Cotton Owens' #6 Plymouth.,^[1] finishing the season with one pole and 11 top five finishes. He retired from full-time NASCAR racing after 1973 because of complications from a neck injury in a 1969 Grand American race.^[1]

Hamilton continued to compete in short track races, and won the 1974 Snowball Derby in his late model racecar.

Car builder

Pete helped Chrysler's Larry Rathgeb develop their "Kit-Car", a weld-it-yourself Volare or Aspen late model stock car that any racer could order from Plymouth and Dodge dealers.^[2] He moved to Norcross, Ga. becoming a successful car builder and mentor to many drivers on the 1980's southern dirt tracks, launching successful racing careers for the likes of Marvin Oliver and James Shepherd.

Career award

He was inducted into the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame in 1998 in its inaugural class.^[1] Pete was named to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.^[3]

Death

Hamliton died on March 21, 2017 at the age of 74.^[4]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Grand National Series

NASCAR Grand National Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	NGNC	Pts
1968	Rocky Hinton	5	Ford	MGR	MGY	RSD	DAY	BRI	RCH	ATL	HCY	GPS	CLB	NWS	MAR	AUG	AWS 12	DAR	BLV 19	LGY 5	CLT	ASH	MGR	SMR 2	BIR	CAR 25	GPS	DAY	ISP	OXF 7	FDA	TRN 5	BRI 21	SMR 23	NSV	ATL 28	CLB	BGS																				32nd	919
1968	King Enterprises	1	Dodge																																				AWS 10	SBO	LGY	DAR 32	HCY	RCH	BLV	HBO	MAR 34	NWS 12	AUG	CLT 7	CAR 34	JFC						32nd	919
1969	King Enterprises	1	Dodge	MGR	MGY	RSD	DAY 8	DAY	DAY 44	CAR	AUG	BRI																																														NA	-
1969	Banjo Matthews	27	Ford										ATL 5	CLB	HCY	GPS	RCH	NWS	MAR	AWS	DAR	BLV	LGY	CLT	MGR	SMR	MCH	KPT	GPS	NCF	DAY	DOV	TPN	TRN	BLV	BRI	NSV	SMR	ATL	MCH	SBO	BGS	AWS	DAR	HCY	RCH	TAL	CLB	MAR	NWS	CLT	SVH	AUG	CAR	JFC	MGR	TWS	NA	-
1970	Petty Enterprises	40	Plymouth	RSD	DAY 5	DAY	DAY 1	RCH	CAR 5	SVH	ATL 3	BRI	TAL 1	NWS	CLB	DAR 19	BLV	LGY	CLT 8	SMR	MAR	MCH 2	RSD	HCY	KPT	GPS	DAY 30	AST	TPN	TRN	BRI	SMR	NSV	ATL 6	CLB	ONA	MCH 5	TAL 1*	BGS	SBO	DAR 3	HCY	RCH	DOV	NCF	NWS	CLT 24*	MAR	MGR	CAR 15								21st	1819
1970	Dick Brooks Racing	32	Plymouth																																																LGY 3							21st	1819
1971	Cotton Owens	6	Plymouth	RSD	DAY 1	DAY	DAY 28	ONT 31	RCH	CAR 24	HCY	BRI	ATL 3	CLB	GPS	SMR	NWS	MAR	DAR 35	SBO	TAL 4	ASH	KPT	CLT 3	DOV 26	MCH 3	RSD	HOU	GPS	DAY 4	BRI			TRN 5	NSV	ATL 24	BGS	ONA	MCH 31	TAL 3	CLB	HCY	DAR 30	MAR	CLT 7	DOV	CAR 4	MGR	RCH 3	NWS	TWS 4							24th	1739
1971	Junior Fields	91	Chevy																													AST 27	ISP 23																									24th	1739

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	NWCC	Pts
1972	Housby Racing	9	Plymouth	RSD	DAY	RCH	ONT	CAR	ATL	BRI	DAR	NWS	MAR	TAL	CLT	DOV	MCH 22	RSD	TWS	DAY 33	BRI	TRN	ATL	TAL 19	MCH	NSV	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	NWS	CLT 32	CAR 5	TWS	48th	1083.25
1973	Housby Racing	9	Plymouth	RSD	DAY 40	RCH	CAR	BRI																											114th	-
1973	Crawford Brothers Racing	22	Plymouth						ATL 39	NWS	DAR	MAR	TAL	NSV	CLT	DOV	TWS	RSD	MCH	DAY	BRI	ATL	TAL	NSV	DAR	RCH	DOV	NWS	MAR	CLT	CAR				114th	-

Daytona 500

Year	Manufacturer	Start	Finish	Team
1969	Dodge	17	44	King Enterprises
1970	Plymouth	9	1	Petty Enterprises
1971	Plymouth	3	28	Cotton Owens
1973	Plymouth	2	40	Housby Racing

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Biography at the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame, Retrieved October 3, 2007
↑ Stock Car Racing magazine cover story
↑ http://the-dispatch.com/sports/20170327/late-pete-hamilton-was-one-of-nascars-nice-guys
↑ Pockrass, Bob (March 22, 2017). "Pete Hamilton, who won four NASCAR Cup races, dies at 74". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 22, 2017.

External links

Pete Hamilton driver statistics at Racing-Reference
"2 Minutes With..." Interview video

Achievements
Preceded by LeeRoy Yarbrough	Daytona 500 Winner 1970	Succeeded by Richard Petty
Preceded by Dickie Davis	Snowball Derby Winner 1974	Succeeded by Donnie Allison

Daytona 500 winners

Multiple

Seven-time	Richard Petty
Four-time	Cale Yarborough
Three-time	Bobby Allison Dale Jarrett Jeff Gordon
Two-time	Bill Elliott Sterling Marlin Michael Waltrip Matt Kenseth Jimmie Johnson Dale Earnhardt Jr.

One-time

NASCAR Rookies of the Year
Sprint Cup	1954: Pitt 1957: Rush 1958: Rollins 1959: R. Petty 1960: D. Pearson 1961: Wilson 1962: Cox 1963: Wade 1964: Cooper 1965: McQuagg 1966: Hylton 1967: Do. Allison 1968: P. Hamilton 1969: Brooks 1970: Dennis 1971: Ballard 1972: L. Smith 1973: Pond 1974: Ross 1975: B. Hill 1976: Manning 1977: Rudd 1978: Thomas 1979: Earnhardt 1980: Ridley 1981: R. Bouchard 1982: G. Bodine 1983: Marlin 1984: R. Wallace 1985: Schrader 1986: Kulwicki 1987: Da. Allison 1988: K. Bouchard 1989: Trickle 1990: Moroso 1991: B. Hamilton 1992: Hensley 1993: Gordon 1994: J. Burton 1995: Craven 1996: Benson 1997: Skinner 1998: Irwin 1999: Stewart 2000: Kenseth 2001: Harvick 2002: Newman 2003: McMurray 2004: Kahne 2005: Ky. Busch 2006: Hamlin 2007: Montoya 2008: R. Smith 2009: Logano 2010: Conway 2011: Lally 2012: Leicht 2013: Stenhouse Jr. 2014: K. Larson 2015: B. Moffitt 2016: C. Elliott
Xfinity Series	1989: K. Wallace 1990: Nemechek 1991: J. Gordon 1992: Craven 1993: H. Sadler 1994: Benson 1995: Fuller 1996: G. Allen Jr. 1997: Park 1998: Santerre 1999: Raines 2000: Harvick 2001: Biffle 2002: Riggs 2003: Stremme 2004: Ky. Busch 2005: C. Edwards 2006: O'Quinn Jr. 2007: Ragan 2008: Cassill 2009: Allgaier 2010: Stenhouse Jr. 2011: T. Hill 2012: A. Dillon 2013: K. Larson 2014: C. Elliott 2015: D. Suárez 2016: E. Jones
Camping World Truck	1996: Reffner 1997: Irwin 1998: Biffle 1999: Stefanik 2000: Ku. Busch 2001: Kvapil 2002: Gaughan 2003: C. Edwards 2004: Reutimann 2005: Kluever 2006: Darnell 2007: W. Allen 2008: Braun 2009: Jo. Sauter 2010: A. Dillon 2011: Coulter 2012: T. Dillon 2013: R. Blaney 2014: B. Kennedy 2015: E. Jones 2016: W. Byron

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