Bobby Hamilton Jr. in dispute involving a gun at his short track
NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. was in the middle of an incident at one of the short tracks that he owns in Millersville, Tenn., Saturday night, and the people on the other side of the argument say that Hamilton pulled a gun on them at the Highland Rim Speedway.
Anthony Walker had entered a super stock car in the race. Walker and Scott Thompson, a member of his crew, said they got into a heated argument with Hamilton, who runs the track, about whether their car was the proper weight. They said Hamilton disqualified them from the race, and Walker and Thompson wanted a refund of their entry fee.
That's when, Thompson said, Hamilton pulled a gun out of his back pocket.
"He cocked it back and started waving it around, saying, 'I'll pop it. I'll pop it. I'll pop it,'” Thompson said. "I've never had a gun pointed at me, and I definitely didn't like it."
After last racing full-time in the Nationwide Series in 2008, Hamilton Jr. has been busy buying and operating short tracks in his home state of Tennessee. His father, Bobby Hamilton, won the 2004 Camping World Truck Series championship and passed away from neck cancer in 2007.
Hamilton Jr. has a different take on what happened Saturday night. He said that he went back to give the team a refund and was surrounded after they followed him.
He said he felt threatened when he saw the men reach into their pockets. Hamilton said he saw that the men had pocket knives. Thompson said no one had knives or guns.
Hamilton said he was well within his legal rights.
"I kept watching their hands, watching their gestures. They kept getting more frustrated, about the time their hands go in their pockets, about the time they were coming out, they charged, and that's when I said, ‘Not today, not today,’" Hamilton said.
However, what Hamilton told WSMV was different from what he said in the police statement. Hamilton told the TV station that he didn't remove the gun from his pocket, while he admitted to doing so in the statement.
The Millersville Police Chief said that there won't be any charges filed because of the dispute, and that if either party wants to pursue the issue, it would have to be taken up with the commissioner.
Hamilton Jr. raced in six Truck Series races in 2010 with Rick Ware Racing and last raced in the Sprint Cup Series in 2005 with Cal Wells in the Tide car.
