Struggle For Morgan-McClure – And Why The Winston?
At the Daytona 500 the unthinkable happened.
It got lost in all the other news, but for ten years one team came to
personify power at Daytona and Talladega, winning three Daytona 500s, two Spring
500s at Talladega, two Firecracker 400s, and two Alabama 500s at Talladega. For
those ten years one engine builder personified getting more power out of
restrictor plate engines.
And at this year’s Daytona 500 that team leased an engine from Hendrick
Motorsports. They’ve used Hendrick engines several other times this year as
well.
How the mighty have fallen.
Even two years ago it would have been unthinkable for Morgan-McClure
Motorsports to LEASE an engine for the Daytona 500, and yet word came out that
this is what they did. Instead of an engine built by their famed engine builder,
the team used a Hendrick engine.
It is not, of course, the first time a race team has leased an engine from
another team for a big race. But seeing a team that used to lease engines to
OTHER teams for Daytona have to lease one itself is something one can hardly
fathom after witnessing years of success for this team.
And yet it happened, and it is the surest sign yet of grievous weakness with
a proud race team. That the team didn’t accomplish anything with their leased
engine – the Morgan-McClure Chevy got lapped and finally got swept up in Shawna
Robinson’s crash – is a further ignominious blow.
As one of the last single-car teams in Winston Cup, Morgan-McClure has
everything going against it already – by far its best run this year was 12th at
Texas. And yet in its time it compiled a record that remains uniquely successful
in the sport’s history.
Larry McClure came from a small farm in southwest Virginia whose father had a
Packard franchise. "He was president of a local union, and he was a partner
in Mountain Motor Sales," McClure wrote with Peter Golenbock in 1992,
"and he would work one shift in the mines and one shift at the dealership.
There were six boys and two girls in the family, and he had to work to support
us all."
Larry and his brothers became interesting in racing when they’d listen to the
radio in the 1950s, and at age twelve Larry began working on cars of his pals.
He went to work for a used car dealer out of high school and eventually opened a
small service station. He persuaded his brother Ed to join as a partner,
"and from 1965 through 1979 I was in the used car business."
Through his dealership he made friends with a Chevy dealer employee from
Norton, Va, named Tim Morgan. "I was a used car man, buying wholesale from
that dealership. He was a young college graduate who was hired to sell those
used cars. We cultivated a relationship. We liked each other, and when this
dealership became available, we bought it."
Wanting to get into racing, the new Morgan-McClure dealership sponsored
Travis Tiller’s Buick at Daytona in 1983, but the car lasted only two laps in
its qualifier; Tiller ran the 500 consolation race and finished fourth. Morgan
and McClure were also becoming more successful with their dealership, and during
1983 former driver G. C. Spencer approached them about purchasing his race team.
The McClures and Morgan did just that for $20,000 and hired Spencer as manager
and Connie Saylor as driver. The #4 Oldsmobile entered the Winston 500 at
Talladega and finished 40th with a blown engine.
"We decided maybe we needed another driver," Larry McClure wrote.
They hired Mark Martin, axed from J.D. Stacy’s team in late April; they also
purchased two engines from Junior Johnson’s shop. At the Michigan 400 Martin
qualified 17th and finished 27th – with a blown engine. Come the Firecracker 400
Martin finished 19th in the Oldsmobile, but during the weekend A.J. Foyt wiped
out his Chevrolet that had timed third and went home. The McClures purchased his
Chevrolet, rebuilt it, and ran it at Talladega, finishing 10th. "I said,
‘Man, I love this. This is easy,’" Larry McClure wrote.
Except it wasn’t easy. Martin finished 18th at the Yankee 400 at Michigan,
17th at the Southern 500, and 33rd at the National 500 at Charlotte. "I
began to understand that the driver wasn’t the problem; getting Junior Johnson’s
engines wouldn’t solve the problem. Inexperience on MY part – that was the
problem." Larry McClure needed experience as a team owner to grasp all the
nuances involved. He also began learning about engines, tire stagger,
communication with drivers, and so forth.
He also hired as a crew chief Tony Glover, a Petty Enterprises graduate from
Kingsport, TN, who’d wanted to return to his Tennessee home area to care for his
ailing grandmother. "He asked us for a job," Larry McClure wrote,
"and in 1984 we hired him."
The team changed to Chevrolets and committed to run the majority of the 1984
season. Lennie Pond was their driver at Daytona and finished 13th. Pond finished
20th at Richmond and blew up at Rockingham, and at the Atlanta 500 Pond lasted
only fifteen laps before the engine went south.
At Bristol, the team’s home track, McClure hired 1981 Sportsman series
champion Tommy Ellis, who finished 28th after his brakes failed. The DNFs
continued, until at the Winston 500 at Talladega Ellis soldiered home 13th. Now
things began to improve; Ellis finished 14th at Nashville, 14th at Charlotte’s
World 600, blew up early at the Michigan 400, and finished 14th after qualifying
a stout seventh at the Firecracker 400. This was followed by 11th at Nashville’s
mid-July 420. The team hit a skid in a huge crash in the Summer 500 at Pocono
when Dave Marcis tagged Ken Ragan entering the Tunnel Turn and Ellis, Tommy
Gale, and Jimmy Ingalls were swept up with Ragan.
Then came the race that really announced Morgan-McClure as a team of the
future. Ellis timed fifth for the Talladega 500 and on the opening lap pushed
Dale Earnhardt into the lead; amid an epidemic of lead changes Ellis hung stout
in the top ten and even led Lap 34. He stayed in the top ten all day, but at Lap
157 Ellis tapped Trevor Boys off Four; Boys flipped onto his roof, slid across
the pit entrance, and tumbled several times in the tri-oval grass; Boys
nonetheless tried to restart the car before disgustedly exiting. The final
shootout involved eleven cars before Ron Bouchard ran out of gas with three to
go, and Ellis pushed Harry Gant into contention with two to go but wound up
ninth in a pack that needed three shots from the photo finish camera to sort out
the running order.
Ellis finished 36th at Michigan’s Yankee 400 and timed eighth at Bristol but
fell out. He finished a distant 19th at the Southern 500, 15th at Richmond, blew
up at Dover, broke the rear end and finished 17th at Martinsville, broke the
transmission at Charlotte, and finished 14th at North Wilkesboro. Following the
Wilkesboro race Ellis was released and Joe Ruttman, after quitting Ron
Benfield’s team a month earlier, took over; at Rockingham Ruttman was caught in
a huge crash with Geoff Bodine and Neil Bonnett. Ruttman blew up at Atlanta and
came home tenth at Riverside’s Western 500.
Around this time Nashville attorney Gary Baker, a friend of G.C. Spencer,
called Larry McClure "and said he was one of the managers for country
singer T. G. Sheppherd, who was involved with Folgers Coffee. He said Folgers
was interested in getting its feet wet and sponsoring us for eight races."
The McClures flew to Cincinnati and negotiated a sixteen-race sponsorship
deal from Folgers. The new Folgers Chevrolet debuted at the 1985 Daytona 500 but
finished 17th with a busted transmission. In the team’s next race, the Carolina
500 at Rockingham, Ruttman drove well and finished sixth. Ruttman blew up at
Atlanta and crashed at Bristol, but finished a respectable 11th at Darlington’s
Rebel 500. Ruttman timed sixth at Talladega and fell out with another broken
transmission, then soldiered home a stout seventh at the World 600. A busted
crank ended the Morgan-McClure Chevy’s day early at Pocono, and a broken
flywheel ended Ruttman’s day at the Firecracker 400. Back at Talladega a burned
clutch knocked Ruttman out, then at Bristol’s Volunteer 500 Ruttman finished
13th. He then timed fourth and finished ninth in the Southern 500. A top five
finally came as Ruttman finished fifth at the National 500 at Charlotte.
But entering 1986 the team was in a quandary. With the factory wars renewed
costs were beginning to escalate, and the McClures and Morgan were under
pressure to disband the team and quit racing, but Larry refused – "I
wouldn’t let them (disband the team). I decided we needed to do this, that we
could make it a successful business." At the end of 1985 Rick Wilson joined
the team, thinking he had Sea World sponsorship; it turned out to be a mirage,
but the team switched to Oldsmobile and began to get some help from Oldsmobile
itself. Captain Cody’s restaurant chain in Daytona adorned the panels of the #4
Olds early in the season, and at the Daytona 500 Wilson finished seventh. Wilson
burned a valve at Atlanta, finished 12th at Bristol, and finished 25th at
Darlington.
About this time C & M Motorsports was running into problems. The #94
Pontiacs had Kodak Film sponsorship, the film company "lured into Winston
Cup racing by some people in North Wilkesboro…..who had sold them on having a race team
when they didn’t own anything." The team borrowed cars and bought cars off
other teams before the bottom fell out, and Kodak was in effect left holding the
bag. "Kodak’s representative told us, ‘We have $100,000. We’d like to
sponsor you for eight races.’ I said I was interested."
Larry McClure and Rick Wilson flew to Rochester, NY and wound up getting
$250,000 for eight races. Now the team began to run better, and the process of
maturing was setting in. Wilson finished eighth at the Winston 500 and eighth at
the Michigan 400. In a crash-torn Firecracker 400 Wilson finished 21st, then in
another wreck fest at Pocono’s fog-shortened Summer 500 Wilson finished tenth.
But his stoutest effort of the year came at Talladega’s late July classic.
Wilson stormed to the front and took the lead for the first time at Lap 120.
Wilson led seven laps despite skating toward the second turn wall; during green
flag stops Wilson pitted but clipped Darrell Waltrip coming out of the pits, and
on the final lap Sterling Marlin hooked Bobby Allison entering the first turn
and Wilson was among five cars caught in the final lap melee.
Wilson’s fortunes dropped the rest of the year – he finished 23rd at Watkins
Glen, burned a valve at Michigan, crashed at Bristol, overheated at Darlington,
timed fifth but lost his brakes at Dover, blew his engine after timing ninth at
Charlotte, and finished 14th at Atlanta.
The team as a unit was now gelling and maturing, although their 19-race 1987
season was a washout with only one top ten finish, seventh at Bristol’s
Volunteer 500. At the Firecracker 400 Wilson was running second to Dave Marcis
when he hit the wall; this put Bobby Allison back on the lead lap and helped him
win the race. At Charlotte’s National 500 Wilson and Geoff Bodine collided and
slammed the first turn wall and collected several others.
For 1988 the team switched to Hoosier racing tires and had opened its own
engine shop, and at Daytona Wilson finished a respectable 15th as the team now
opened a full-season campaign for the first time. Wilson finished tenth at the
Atlanta 500 and won the pole at Bristol’s Southeastern 500; he spun on the
track’s slick surface twice and finally socked the wall enough to lose 209 laps
in the garage. The team struggled on short tracks and at Talladega Wilson’s Olds
erupted in flame and finally blew up – literally – entering the pits.
At the World 600 Goodyear tire withdrew after near-total failures in The
Winston; only Dave Marcis ran Goodyears in the 600. Wilson led 106 laps and had
the race won with some 45 top go, but the right front exploded and Wilson socked
the wall. Wilson’s injuries were enough that at Dover he required a relief
driver – ironically, it was the driver who’d finished so well at Talladega for
the McClures, Tommy Ellis; Ellis finished seventh in the Mason-Dixon 500. Wilson
struggled in the next few events, finishing last at the Michigan 400.
But at the Firecracker 400 Wilson went to the front and stayed there; past
halfway he was close to lapping Bill Elliott, but at Lap 110 a yellow flew and
Elliott was spared. Following stops Elliott and Wilson hooked together and
Wilson pushed Elliott into the lead; on the last lap he dove low and the two
drag-raced the final mile, Elliott winning by a bumper. Wilson followed that up
in an even more spectacular finish at Talladega, banging doors with Dale
Earnhardt after Ken Schrader rocketed past up high on the last lap; Earnhardt
edged Wilson for third by inches.
The team struggled to finish well the rest of the season, but Larry McClure
and company now knew they could win races. At Daytona Speedweeks Wilson was
stout but was pinched to the tri-oval apron by Lake Speed in his 125; both spun
and collected the field; ten cars were wiped out and four others damaged; the
two argued about it at Speed’s trailer with Lake’s wife Rice and CBS cameras as
witness.
Wilson finished eighth in the 500. Following Speedweeks Larry McClure made
another pivotal change – with the closure of Hoss Ellington’s team engine
builder Sheldon Pittman left and was hired by Morgan-McClure. Wilson finished
sixth at the Atlanta 500 despite damage when Geoff Bodine spun into his path. He
led at Charlotte again but hit the wall, and led the Firecracker 400 but crashed
with Larry Pearson. He ran strong at the Summer 500 at Pocono but broke a
tie-rod coming to a stop in the pits, and came home fifth at Talladega.
"And then at Watkins Glen in August of 1989," Larry McClure wrote,
"I found out he (Wilson) was going to leave….I could not afford
him." Wilson went to Rahmoc Racing and took his Oldsmobile backing with
him. "At Darlington Phil Parsons came to me and asked if I would be
interested in him. We also looked at Ernie Irvan and Morgan Shepherd."
Kodak voted for Parsons, but the tandem lasted only three 1990 races before
McClure decided to try Ernie Irvan for a few races in March of 1990.
The success then came – and so did the controversy. Irvan slotted 30th in the
Atlanta 500 and finished third, then set off a huge crash at Darlington that
injured Neil Bonnett via a severe bout of amnesia. Irvan won the pole at
Bristol, spun, lost three laps, made then up, then crashed with Dale Jarrett. He
then finished in the top five at Talladega and Charlotte, won the pole at
Pocono, finished a strong second at Michigan, and then Chevrolet stepped in with
factory backing beginning at Talladega in July. The first win then came at
Bristol in August.
1991 was the season the team began its Daytona-Talladega lock. While other
teams prepared their non-plate programs, the McClures focused on their Daytona
package. It paid off with victory in the 500. Now Irvan was a major celebrity,
and with the fame came the apex of controversy in massive pileups at Talladega
and Pocono, public apology at Talladega, the team’s first road course win at
Watkins Glen, and a solid points finish. The 1992 season cemented the team’s
restrictor plate dominance after a dismal opening third and another melee at
Daytona. Irvan made up two laps on a busted cylinder at Charlotte, got
blackflagged on the start and still won at Sears Point, won Daytona and
Talladega, but crashed in the season finale at Atlanta, taking Davey Allison
with him and wiping out Allison’s chance at the title.
1993 was more of the same, strong finishes and a rip-roaring last lap win at
Talladega sprinkled with some engine failures and some crashes. Then when Davey
Allison was killed Ford tabled to Irvan an offer he couldn’t refuse, but which
Larry McClure did. Irvan lost to Earnhardt at Talladega in a photo finish, then
the crashes came more and more, and at Darlington McClure got a contract buy-out
from Irvan and Ford, then fired him and slotted Jeff Purvis in the #4, a deal
that lasted only a few races before Joe Nemechek and Jimmy Hensley got chances
in the #4.
McClure then hired a driver he’d tried to get years earlier – Sterling
Marlin. It was considered Marlin’s last chance to win a Winston Cup race after
over 200 starts without one. At Daytona Marlin held off Ernie Irvan in the Yates
#28 for the win, vindication for himself and for the team. The ensuing season,
though, was one of frequent DNFs. After 1994 McClure moved the team from their
Abington, VA shops to a new shop in Charlotte, and with Chevrolet’s W-body Monte
Carlo and a unique-sounding header system designed by won the Daytona 500 again.
And this time, with the team closer to parts suppliers, the top tens came almost
every week. A second win came in a demo derby to end all such at Darlington, and
win number three of the year came in fairly easy fashion at Talladega in July.
Marlin ended 1995 third in points, by far the highest either he or the McClure
team had ever finished.
But for 1996 McClure, worried that other teams would poach his crew, moved
back to Abington, VA. Ol’ Yeller, their Daytona-Talladega special, was prepped
for a third straight 500 win, but a piston broke while leading the 500, and the
mechanical problems of 1994 began to creep in again. But at Talladega Marlin had
to pit early with an overheating engine; once it cooled down he passed the
entire field in 28 laps into the lead. After stops under yellow the team made
additional changes that put him last again, and he passed the entire field
again. He’d retaken the lead when Jeff Gordon set off the biggest melee in years
and Ricky Craven and the first turn fencing paid the most for it. Marlin
restarted last in the now-truncated field but once again passed all ahead to
win.
He then dominated the Michigan 400, but had to pit for gas late and the win
fell into Rusty Wallace’s lap. Marlin then dominated the rain-shortened
Firecracker 400, his sixth career win and the team’s eighth in restrictor plate
competition.
But it ended in the Diehard 500. Battling Earnhardt for the lead, Marlin was
hooked by Ernie Irvan into Earnhardt and both socked the trioval wall, Earnhardt
flipped into traffic, and Marlin was livid with old adversary Irvan, getting
into a near-brawl at Indianapolis with him days later. Marlin led the 400 but
when second-running Kyle Petty blew his right front he rebounded hard off the
fourth turn wall into Marlin’s path, injuring Kyle. Another crash followed at
Michigan, and the top tens became scarcer and scarcer.
The final insult came when Tony Glover quit as crew chief after the National
500 and went to Felix Sabates as team manager. There was also a rumored second
Morgan-McClure team, but nothing came of it.
McClure pulled what was felt to be a coup when he hired Tim Brewer as crew
chief, but instead of a coup it was a liability as the #4 struggled after
finishing an unsatisfying fifth at Daytona; Marlin led one lap at Talladega and
broke, and by the end of June Brewer was gone, replaced by longtime crewman
Robert Larkins. Marlin then lost two laps at Daytona on a green-flag stop, but
made them up and passed almost the entire field in less than a dozen laps near
the end, escaped a massive crash on the final lap, and finished third. But the
end was near for Marlin at Morgan-McClure; another tremendous run at Talladega
ended when Jeff Gordon sideswiped John Andretti and spun into the path of
Earnhardt and Marlin; Marlin reportedly chewed out Gordon in the ambulance and
pointedly disputed Gordon’s claim of a blown tire being the cause.
Marlin rejoined "Glove" at SABCO, and Bobby Hamilton joined the
McClures after three years with Petty Enterprises. The team got off to a
sluggish start, but ex-Hendrick crew chief Gary DeHart joined the team as a
consultant and Hamilton won a crackerjack event at Martinsville and compiled
enough top tens to finish in the top ten in points.
The team’s successes, though, became less and less frequent, despite several
good efforts in 1999, including a particularly strong run at the Winston 500 –
rumors of a second team occasionally surfaced, but over and over no effort was
made there. In 2000 Hamilton and the McClures reached the end of their alliance,
but there was one last burst of power in a rip-roaring Winston 500 where
Hamilton led with authority but crashed into Mark Martin during pit stops.
McClure hired Robby Gordon for his car and also signed crew chief David Ifft,
and at Daytona it seemed the tandem would get something going. But Robby tagged
Ward Burton into Tony Stewart and Stewart took a tumble. Four races later Gordon
was gone, and so in effect were Morgan-McClure’s chances of anything in 2001 –
the team became a revolving door of drivers ending with 2002’s choice in Mike
Skinner. A new crew chief was also added in Scott Eggleston.
And now the team has begun 2002 as little more than a field-filler; there
has, though, been a recent burst to some productive finishes. Given the
seemingly growing linkage with Hendrick Motorsports, one can see the McClure
team becoming a Hendrick satrapy in the fashion that the Wood Brothers are a
Roush Racing satrapy.
While such may in the end bring the #4 back forward, there is nonetheless a
sense of ignominy given the team’s proud record.
Elimination rounds in The Winston?
The event’s new format keeps trying to justify its existence, this time with
a bizarre change where only the top 20 finishers advance to the second round and
only the top ten finishers race the shootout. Apparently the event’s organizers
don’t believe a driver starting outside the top ten in the shootout has any
right to go for the win.
It shows yet again the uselessness of the entire enterprise. The Winston was
supposed to be one of the sport’s biggest shows, and almost never has it lived
up to its hype. Its racing has invariably been among the sport’s dullest – that
is when they aren’t crashing and fighting. Only in 1994, 2000, and 2001 was
there any real passing for the win in the event.
If the event should be held at all, the format should be as follows – 30
laps, invert the field, run 30 more laps, then the average finish in the two
rounds plus bonuses for most, 2nd, and 3rd most laps led make up the lineup for
the shootout. This makes them have to race both rounds before the shootout,
since they need to lead laps and finish high to slot well for the shootout.
It would thus make The Winston something it has invariably not been – a
must-see race.