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Four years ago, Morgan-McClure Motorsports was a weekly contender in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Sterling Marlin had finished among the golfcompplus.com 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 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 golfcompplus.com 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 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."

The addition of crew chief Danny Gill has been a major boost golfcompplus.com for Morgan-McClure. Since his arrival six weeks ago, the team has been a top-15 car each week, only to see a late-race failure golfcompplus.com eliminate them from contention. "No doubt that Danny Gill has made a difference," Hamilton said. "If it had laid right at Pocono, we would have had a top-10 finish. Michigan, we had broken a golfcompplus.com shock and finished 14th. We had run in the top-10 golfcompplus.com all day. "At Bristol, I was trying to get a lap back and ran over Jeremy (Mayfield). We had a flat and hit something on the racetrack and were running sixth at that time. golfcompplus.com It''s not hard to swallow now because we know we''re competitive. We''re unloading pretty good. "We''re getting our race setups almost perfect now and the motor program has really come along. I think when all the ingredients finally meet in the middle, it''ll mold into one and we''ll be there. You''ve just got to be patient with it. It took us a long time to get in this shape, and in this sport, as competitive as it is, you don''t overcome it overnight." Midway through the 1999 campaign, rumors began to swirl that Morgan-McClure was planning to add a second team to their one-car stable.

Rusty Wallace is seeking his third straight win, and his first career victory at Darlington. A trophy for winning at Darlington Raceway can''t be found among Rusty Wallace''s racing treasures. He''d like to change that Sunday in the Pepsi Southern 500 presented by Kmart, his 34th start on 1.366-mile oval. "We''ve come so golfcompplus.com close to winning at Darlington, finished second, third and fourth a ton of times, and it would be a thrill to finally beat the old track," said Wallace, seeking his third straight victory. "We know that we have a car capable of winning because it already has golfcompplus.com a name, doesn''t it?" Wallace was referring to "Lite-ning," the name given to his Ford in a fan contest that elicited 6,700 entries. A Wallace tradition is to golfcompplus.com name a car after it wins for the first time, and that happened six weeks ago in Long Pond, Pa. That was the second of a NASCAR Winston Cup-leading four wins this season for Wallace, and began a roll that includes victories the last two weeks in Brooklyn, Mich., and Bristol, Tenn. No driver has won more than two straight races since Jeff Gordon strung four together in 1998. Wallace knows it will be difficult to beat Gordon --

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