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He speaks with the confidence of a competitor who has regained the winning formula perfectpitchpitchingmachine he had when he took the series title in 1989, and dominated in 1993-94. Wallace broke a 32-race losing streak with a victory in Bristol in March, and has been among the cars to beat in virtually each race since. The 44-year-old driver from St. Louis is trying for victory No. 54, which would tie him with Lee Petty for seventh place on the NASCAR career list. In that quest, Wallace will rely on the basics. "We just have to massage that chassis, conserve the tires and stay out of trouble," he said. "I''m really looking forward to it." So is Burton who, like Gordon, will be seeking his third win of the season. Burton knows how tough the track can be. "You don''t expect to come here and win," he said. "But we expect to come to Darlington and run well." Gordon, a five-time perfectpitchpitchingmachine Darlington winner, is in a run of bad luck that includes being taken out of contention in 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 it perfectpitchpitchingmachine 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 is second to points leader Bobby Labonte despite no victories since the season-opening Daytona 500. Top-5 fixture Tony Stewart, second last Saturday perfectpitchpitchingmachine night in Bristol and Ward Burton also are threats. Burton won at Darlington in March. Ward, second to Jeff last year in the only 1-2 Southern 500 finish by brothers, Four years ago, Morgan-McClure Motorsports was perfectpitchpitchingmachine 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. perfectpitchpitchingmachine 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 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."
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