Earles, active in the track until the end, died Nov. 16, 1999. "My grandfather would have especially appreciated 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.

"That was a great race up to the final lap," Martin said. "I had a great time racing Jeff and Matt, and it got pretty intense there in the end. I was determined to keep my lead. That car was one of my favorites, which is why we''re bringing it back this weekend." Martin also leads all drivers in career series wins. He earned his 44th victory at Texas in April, and still has five races remaining on his schedule this year. "We''re going to try to win them all," Martin said. "I''m sure the Busch guys will be glad when I''m gone next year. I''ve worked hard for a lot of years in the Busch Series and won a few races and lost a lot of them." You can bet Burton, Kenseth and a number of series regulars will give Martin all he can handle this weekend. Series points leader Jeff Green has never won at Darlington, but has notched golfshopping four top-10s and got his first top-5 ever last spring. He''s due for sure. "Darlington is just one of those places I''ve never been able to get a hold of," Green said. "In the spring, I posted my first top-5 finish there in my entire career, which is hard to believe since I''ve raced there 10 times now.

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 golfshopping a second team) golfshopping because with more testing and input from two different 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 golfshopping 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. 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, golfshopping Hamilton and the Morgan-McClure contingent are well overdue.

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