So is Burton who, like Gordon, will be seeking his third win of the season. Burton buying knows how tough the track can be. "You don''t expect to come here and golf win," he said. "But we expect to come to Darlington and run well." Gordon, a five-time Darlington winner, is in a run club of bad luck that includes being taken out of contention in buying two of the last three races because of crashes he didn''t cause. He hopes for good weather Sunday, which would enable him to play out the winning pit strategy of 1995-98. Rain prevented that last year. "We took a chance and pitted for tires and gas during the second-to-last caution, hoping golf it would put us in position to win," the three-time series champion said. "But we were also hoping the rain would hold off. "Unfortunately for us, it didn''t." Also a prime contender is series champion Dale Jarrett, a two-time Darlington winner who club is second to points leader Bobby Labonte buying despite no victories since the golf season-opening Daytona 500. club Top-5 fixture Tony Stewart, second last Saturday night in Bristol and buying Ward Burton also are threats. Burton won at Darlington in March. Ward, second golf to Jeff last year in the only 1-2 Southern 500 finish by brothers,

Earles, active in the track until the end, died Nov. club 16, 1999. "My grandfather would have especially appreciated being buying voted into the NMPA Hall of Fame," Campbell said. "He loved the media and knew how important they are to the success of the sport." Scott, who died in 1990, began racing at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway winning 128 races in many divisions and in 1959 won the Virginia State Sportsman Championship. In 1961, he fielded a car in the NASCAR Grand National circuit, later renamed the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. On Dec. 1, 1963 he won his only Grand National race, a 100-mile event on a half-mile track in Jacksonville, Fla. He is the only African-American driver to ever win a golf NASCAR Winston Cup Series race. Much of NASCAR stock car racing''s current popularity can be traced to Robertson. Robertson moved up the ranks to become President of Sports Marketing Enterprises. club Many of racing''s unique programs, buying such as the Winston Million and the No Bull Five were Robertson''s innovations. After his death in a boating accident in 1998, the Winston Cup Preview, which he created, was quite appropriately re-named the T. Wayne Robertson Winston Cup Preview in his honor.

who ironically won a NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship golf with his older brother, Rusty Wallace, in 1989, could not be passed up. "Having Barry Dodson at Eel River Racing is something I''m really looking forward to, because he brings so much to the table with his years of experience and people skills. Barry is a really good leader who relates well to a lot of people - myself in particular. "I think we''re going to be able to do a lot together, and build Eel River Racing into a race-winning organization." The agreement with Wallace reunites the St. Louis native with Dodson, who first worked with the younger Wallace for three races in 1991 at Team III Racing. The most recent pairing of Dodson and Wallace came in 1998 at FILMAR Racing, club where Dodson chiefed the recent hire to a strong eighth-place finish at Phoenix while buying subbing for interim crew chief David Ifft. "Kenny has a real good feel for a race golf car and he brings a bunch of experience with him to Eel River Racing," Dodson said. "We already have an excellent rapport, and club and buying and golf I consider Kenny to be one of my closest friends. "He''s always been there for me in good club times and in bad, and we have a tremendous amount of respect for one another."