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The addition of crew chief Danny Gill has been a major boost 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 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 wholesale a shock and finished 14th. We had run in the top-10 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. It''s not hard to swallow now because pitching we know we''re competitive. machine We''re unloading pretty good. "We''re getting our race setups almost perfect now and the motor program has really wholesale 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. Four years ago, Morgan-McClure Motorsports pitching 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 machine 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 wholesale 25th in the championship point standings. In came . pitching Bobby Hamilton, who had spent the past three seasons at Petty Enterprises. During that time, he''d finished machine as high wholesale 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 pitching in, so we''re still trying to dig out," Hamilton said. "We''re not going to dig back out in a week machine or two." Had those ambitions come to fruition, McClure wholesale feels the state of his race team may be a bit different. "I may have had the problems, but I think pitching I could have got things going machine in the right direction a lot quicker (with a second team) because with more testing and input wholesale from two different drivers and race teams, I think we could have got through pitching this a lot quicker," McClure said. Hamilton machine currently ranks 30th in the standings. He''s never finished wholesale 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 pitching 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 machine be ready for it." Hamilton added, "Just staying off the fence (is the key to success at Darlington), wholesale and that''s hard to do there. Several guys have won that race and have had the recognized Darlington stripe. 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 the past few seasons, Hamilton and the Morgan-McClure contingent are well pitching and machine overdue.
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