Hamilton earns 2001 Brayton Award.

Indy Racing League veteran Davey Hamilton won the Scott Brayton Driver's Trophy during the Indianapolis 500 Victory Celebration on May 27 at Indianapolis after coming within 25 laps of giving first year team-boss Sam Schmidt a top ten finish in the Indy 500.

Hamilton, from Las Vegas, received the annual award for best exemplifying the character and racing spirit of late driver Scott Brayton. Hamilton, who has started all 47 Indy Racing League events since 1996, also was presented with $25,000 for winning the award.

Brayton, a 14-time Indianapolis 500 starter, was killed in a practice crash in May 1996 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway just days after winning his second consecutive Indianapolis 500 pole.

Hamilton and the Sam Schmidt Motorsports operation are operating on a shoe-string budget but still managed to qualify their Dallara-Aurora when several more well-funded could not and Hamilton ran in eighth position during the final green-flag run before making a late stop and falling off the lead-lap. To compound the team's misery they then suffered an engine failure and were forced to retire on lap 182 resulting in an un-representative 23rd place finish.

On a day dominated by incoming stars from CART and NASCAR, Hamilton may well have ended the day as one of the top Indy Racing Northern Light Series regulars after using all his experience to stay out of trouble while many others around him lost time and retired through the smallest of errors.

Winners of the Scott Brayton Driver's Trophy

Year Driver

2001 Davey Hamilton
2000 Eddie Cheever Jr.
1999 Eliseo Salazar
1998 Roberto Guerrero
1997 John Paul Jr.