Earles, active in the track until the end, died Nov. 16, 1999. "My grandfather would have especially appreciated driving irons being 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 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. many of racing''s unique programs, 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.

four years ago, morgan-mcclure motorsports 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 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 irons to 25th in the championship point standings. in came . bobby hamilton, who chicago driving under the influence of alcohol 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 irons 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 driving 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 irons not going to dig back out in a week or two."

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