was the No. 51 Exxon-sponsored machine, portrayed in the movie as being driven by the character Rowdy Burns. 1988–1994 Hamilton made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series in 1988 at Charlotte Motor Speedway driving the No. 16 Filmar Racing Chevrolet, finishing 14th. He competed in the next race at Rockingham and finished 20th. He drove full-time in the Busch Series in 1989 driving the No. 8 Lighting & Fans-sponsored Buick for FILMAR Racing, finishing 11th in points, and winning his only career Busch race at Richmond International Raceway. He made his Winston Cup debut in a "Days of Thunder" car owned by Hendrick Motorsports. He led five laps but finished 32nd after an engine failure. He matched his 11th-place points finish in 1990 with Filmar Racing, when he was picked up by Tri-star Motorsports to run Winston Cup full-time beginning in 1991, driving the No. 68 Country Time Lemonade-sponsored Oldsmobile, posting four Top 10 finishes and narrowly defeating Ted Musgrave for Rookie of the Year. In 1992, he had two Top 10s and finished 25th in points. He began 1993 with Tri-Star but was released early in the season. He spent the rest of the season in the Cup and Busch Series, posting two Top 10s for Akins-Sutton Motorsports. Hamilton also made five Busch Series starts in the No. 05 Key Motorsports Chevrolet. In 1994, he joined SABCO Racing to driving the No. 40 Kendall Motor Oil-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix. He had just one Top 10 finish and left at the end of the season. 1995–2002 For the 1995 season, Hamilton moved to Petty Enterprises to drive the No. 43 STP-sponsored Pontiac. He posted 10 Top 10s and moved up to 14th in the final standings. The next season, he finished a career-best ninth in the points standings and won his first race at Phoenix, the first for Petty Enterprises since 1983. He also formed his own Craftsman Truck Series team and began competing in the series part-time. He won at Rockingham in 1997, but departed the team after falling to 16th in points. He then signed with Morgan-McClure Motorsports in 1998 and in their eighth race together, he won from the pole, leading 378 of 500 laps at Martinsville Speedway. He ended the season, finishing 10th in the points. He had another ten Top 10 finish in 2000 and finished that season off 30th in points. He left