Four years ago, Morgan-McClure Motorsports was royalvenomgolfclubs 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 royalvenomgolfclubs 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 royalvenomgolfclubs 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 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."

Had those ambitions come to fruition, McClure feels the state of his race team may be a bit different. "I may have had the problems, but I think I could have got things going in the right direction a lot quicker (with a second team) because with more testing and input from two different royalvenomgolfclubs drivers and race teams, I think we could have got through this a lot quicker," McClure said. Hamilton currently ranks 30th in the standings. He''s never finished worse that 23rd in any full season in his career. It''s time to turn things around, and the change is on, starting this weekend at Darlington Raceway, where Hamilton has three consecutive seventh-place finishes. "Everybody loves Darlington. I think it''s one of our favorite race tracks," McClure said. "We were lucky enough to win a race there with Sterling, I think back in ''95. We''re looking forward to it, and I think we''re going to be ready for it." Hamilton added, "Just staying off the fence (is the key to success at Darlington), and that''s hard to do there. Several guys have won that race and have had the recognized Darlington stripe. royalvenomgolfclubs It depends on who hits it the lightest. "Every lap you go around there there''s one groove that works and then two laps later that groove doesn''t work any more. We''ve been pretty fortunate the last three or four races. We''ve been able to run there and not get in any crashes and not even get a stripe on the car. All that means is we''re way overdue for it." After the struggles they''ve faced royalvenomgolfclubs the past few seasons, Hamilton and the Morgan-McClure contingent are well overdue.

credited his Mall.com 400 victory in March to the crew led by Tommy Baldwin. "All I had to do was make it 400 miles," Ward said As royalvenomgolfclubs far as the NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division is concerned, Darlington Raceway could be renamed Mark Martin Raceway. If there is a NASCAR Busch Series record at Darlington, chances are that Martin has it. The veteran pilot, statistically the finest competitor in series history, holds the record for most victories, seven, and Bud Poles, six. This weekend, Martin will make his final series start in the Dura Lube 200 (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN TV and PRN radio) at Darlington, a track he has learned to tame in the No. 60 Winn-Dixie Ford. Martin''s most recent addition to the Darlington record book came in March when royalvenomgolfclubs he won from the Bud Pole for the second time in his career. After spending much of the race battling Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth for the lead, Martin took the lead for good with 24 laps to go. Kenseth went high to challenge for the lead with two laps remaining, but could not pass royalvenomgolfclubs Martin. Burton and Martin were side-by-side on the final lap of the race, but Martin pulled ahead just enough to claim the third of his four series wins this season.