Morgan McClure battles the ever-increasing costs of NASCAR
Quote selected text Published January 5th, 2008 in NASCAR News
With preseason testing beginning next week in Daytona, Sprint Cup teams are finalizing their plan of attack for the 2008 season. The approach at #4-Morgan-McClure Motorsports is radically different. Over the past few weeks, Southwest Virginia’s NASCAR team has lost its crew chief, primary sponsor and driver. “It feels like a hurricane,” MMM general manager Larry McClure said. “The way NASCAR has changed, I don’t know if its been good or not.”
The Morgan-McClure organization, which featured veteran driver Ward Burton last season, has struggled in recent years with lack of sponsorship and driver turnover. Just days before Christmas, McClure learned that State Water Heaters was leaving. According to media reports, the State Water Heaters sponsorship will move to the #66 Haas CNC Racing team with driver Scott Riggs. “I’ve heard the sponsorship went to the 66 car,” McClure said “Right now we don’t have a thing.”
McClure said the agreement with State Water Heaters last year was for 10 races. He was surprised by the change in direction. “It must have been an instant decision because we had no idea it was going to happen,” McClure said. “We found out about this before Christmas, then it became official after the holiday. We’ll see how things work out.” Lucas Oil will return as an associate sponsor. As for a driver, it appears Burton is gone from the seat of the #4 MMM Chevy. Burton, a former Daytona 500 winner, joined the team with three races remaining in the 2006 season.
“[Burton] probably won’t be back,” McClure said. “We’re looking at using either Mike Wallace or P.J. Jones for testing next week, then we will go from there. “It’s not going to be hard to find somebody to drive at Daytona. Right now, I’ve got a couple options.” One of those options involves a driver bringing a financial package to the team. That step is common in the open-wheel ranks. “We’ve got capable people here for the crew chief role … the biggest thing we need are sponsorship dollars,” McClure said.
“We’ve been working on a deal with one of the bigger multicar teams where we could be a satellite team and share some information. That deal is on the table if we get our sponsorship stuff put together.” As for the big question of their 2008 schedule, the always-ambitious McClure said to stay tuned. “We’re just going to see how much money we get in the door,” McClure said. “We’re not going to race on our own money anymore.” On a related note, Abingdon’s Eric McClure plans to runs the Nationwide Series schedule with the Front Row Motorsports team. The Denver, N.C.-based team also plans to field a Sprint Cup car for McClure in the Daytona 500.
Bookmark to:
- Morgan McClure to Compete Full Schedule with Wimmer in Nextel Cup Next Year
- Morgan McClure closes its doors
- Food City to Co-Sponsor Morgan McClure/Scott Wimmer for Bristol
- Marlin back to Morgan McClure?-DENIED
- Lucas Oil to Sponsor the #4 at Michigan
Whatever they do for the season it is important for them to get to all of the NASCAR tests with whoever they can get to drive the car. If they can concentrate and get some really good testing results then sponsors will come.
I hope that McClure can get All the testing in at Daytona and get someone good to drive in speedweeks.
It would be best for the team to partner up with a Hendricks or Roush type team to share info but that is going to have to happen soon to save the team this year.
It’s sad to see a team like this fall apart. Back in the early 1990’s, they had a great speedway program. Very powerful sounding engines. They had a distinct whine to them at Daytona and Talladega. Runt Pittman was the man. But with the loss of a big sponsor like Kodak and not evolving in the sport with technology, they fell by the wayside. They blamed Robby for all their problems and for a huge wreck in the season opening race. Litigation by putting Lepage in the car because Robby peed them off, peed off major sponsor Kodak. Robby to his credit told them that they had problems long before he got there. He was right. MMM hasn’t done a thing in 10 years since Hamilton, Sr drove for them and he bailed. They can’t attract top tier drivers or sponsors. I was surprised Ward drove for them. I’d like to see them return to contender status, or at least become a good r & d team for someone. But they will need to secure sponsorship to get that commitment started.
Their speedway cars were so good, Marlin won back to back 500’s. Ervan won before that. Those were the days!
Ward only drove for them to get his foot back in the door so to speak
It might have gotten his foot back in the door, but as on now it appears that his foot got slammed in that door.
Does anybody else besides me think that all of these drivers that have no home anymore in Cup should just use their money to start a truck team for themselves…. l0l
All kidding aside, Ward, Stremme and Jeff Green would add some punch to the truck series. I’d pay to see them put on a show.
I hope they get a sponsor and a driver for 2008 and change things around. I would like to see the 4 car back in victory lane.
I would do anything to see the 4 car back in victory lane and show those big race teams that the 4 car means business and want go down without a fight. If mike Wallace will race the 2008 Daytona 500 for Morgan Mcclure we could win and help save Morgan Mccure Motorsports. I wish I was an experience race car driver I would drive that 4 car to victory lane.