biteshoe

Four years ago, Morgan-McClure biteshoe Motorsports was a weekly contender in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Sterling Marlin had finished among the top-10 in points for a second consecutive season, and the Kodak Chevrolet team showed no signs of slowing. However, that''s precisely what has happened, and no one is exactly sure why. Marlin departed to Team SABCO following the 1997 campaign after dropping from eighth to 25th in the championship point standings. In came . Bobby Hamilton, who had spent the past three seasons at Petty Enterprises. During that time, he''d finished as high as ninth in the points. On paper it was a perfect fit: small-town driver joins small-town team. In his first season behind the wheel of biteshoe the No. 4 Chevrolet, Hamilton recorded three top-5s, including a trip to Victory Lane at Martinsville, and eight top-10s en route to a 10th-place finish in the points. The Morgan-McClure steamroller appeared to be chugging once again. They''ve had just one top-5 finish since. "Me and Larry (McClure, team owner) were talking one day and we feel biteshoe like it took us a year and a half to dig this big hole we''re in, so we''re still trying to dig out," Hamilton said. "We''re not going to dig back out in a week or two."

whose four-year run of superiority in the Southern 500 ended in 1999 -- and Jeff Burton, who won both rain-shortened events last season on the Track "Too Tough To Tame." Victory has taught them much about Darlington, but Wallace figures defeat also can be a valuable tutor. He finished 16th in Darlington in March. "We''ve been on the money almost everywhere we''ve been this year with the chassis, but if there''s an exception to that, it has to be the first Darlington race," he said. "We missed it with our shock package, really missed it big time on the right rear. "We''ll get it all nailed down this time around, though."