Burton, Morgan-McClure stressing positives
Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 - 12:00 AM 
 
By Sam Jackson

BRISTOL, Tenn: In the NASCAR world of high-profile, high-dollar
mega-teams, Morgan McClure Motorsports is long used to playing the role
of underdog. For much of this season, the team was forced into the role
of also-ran, missing half of the first 20 races after starting the year
full of optimism with a new sponsor and  veteran driver Ward Burton.

Lately, however, Burton and company have been on an upswing. After a
season-best 14th place finish in Indianapolis, leading four laps and
finishing 20th at Michigan and a 14th-place qualifying run at Bristol
Motor Speedway, Burton finally feels like the Abingdon-based team is
coming together.
"Two of the last four races, we've had top-10 cars," he said after
qualifying Saturday.

Burton's first top-20 finish came at BMS at the Food City 500, the first
race of the Car of Tomorrow, which was intended to level the playing
field and allow smaller teams to compete equally with multi-car
operations. Burton's return to BMS on Saturday didn't end as well as it
began, with a 33rd-place finish.

With its spot in the field never guaranteed, the No. 4 Chevrolet team is
forced to focus primarily on qualifying thanks to NASCAR's rule locking
in starting spots to the top 35 teams in owner points. From his 43rd
spot in the standings, Burton's crew has to worry first about qualifying
on speed, making race setups a secondary concern.

In his first year crew chief Chris Carrier and the team, the learning
curve has been difficult, but Burton feels progress is being made to
improve the team's finishes.
"Chris and I are communicating better," he said. "The pit crew guys
haven't had  a chance to really practice a lot, and every one of them
is new. They're gonna get better, but things like that are just stopping
us from finishing the way we need to."  

Burton is one of the first to point out, however, that few do more with
less than Morgan-McClure.
"With the resources we have, we're doing more than any Nextel Cup team
out there," he said.
Team co-owner Tim Morgan agrees, noting that the standards set for the
single-car operation are different from such juggernauts as Hendrick
Motorsports or Dale Earnhardt Inc.
"I'm proud of the team because they're getting so much out of so
little," Morgan said. "If you could put it on a scale compared to
somebody else's sponsorship, we're winning races right now."

Before the 2007 season started, the team secured a 12-race sponsorship
deal with Nashville-based State Water Heaters. Unlike most teams,
Morgan-McClure doesn't rely on one top sponsor to carry the car through
36 races.
"We don't feel like we can get that one big icon sponsor that's gonna
give us $15-20 million," said co-owner Larry McClure, "but we do feel
like we do have an opportunity to get three or four sponsors to divide
the season up and be competitive that way."
While that hasn't happened yet, the team hopes to put together such
deals for 2008 in order to compete in a full Nextel Cup schedule. Until
those sponsorship issues are settled, Morgan said, no other future plans
can be made.
"We're talking to some different companies, but we don't have anything
nailed down for '08, And this is the time of year that you like to know
what you've got going into the end of the season," Morgan said "We'd
like to get [longtime sponsor] Lucas Oil on board with us in ‘08
full time, and that's something we're working on."

With those sponsorship issues, Burton understands the hardship placed on
the team's owners - and how it affects his status for next year.
"I don't think they're gonna want to keep racing the way they've been
having to do it, because they've been spending money out of their
pockets," he said. "We've got to find the right kind of financing, one
to take the pressure off them, and two to improve our program."

One popular answer to financial difficulties in NASCAR this year has
been to merge teams together. After admitting to getting in over his
head when starting his new team, rookie owner Bobby Ginn dissolved his
operation by merging with DEI before July's Allstate 400 at the
Brickyard. That same weekend, Robert Yates announced a partnership with
Champ Car kings Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing. While Morgan wouldn't rule
out such a move, he doesn't believe it will happen any time soon.
"If the right circumstances arose, I won't say wouldn't consider taking
on a partner, but so far it hasn't been an option for us," Morgan said.

McClure won't rule it out, either, although he has no interest in taking
his operation out of Southwest Virginia.
 "I'm not interested in merging with somebody and moving to
Charlotte," he said. "You've got to have something people want in order
to be valuable to merge with somebody unless you've got a big bunch of
money. We don't have a big bunch of money, but we're beating some of
these high-finance race teams every week."

McClure said Saturday that the team was working on a deal which would
allow it to do research and development for one of NASCAR’s larger
teams.
"We could do R and D for them, and in return they could give us some
information," he said. "We're working on a deal like that."

Whatever the future holds, Burton and his car owners both hope to
acquire the sponsorship dollars the team needs, and both want the South
Boston, Va. native behind the wheel of the No. 4 car.
"I'm happy to be at the race track, he said. "I'm happy to work with
these guys. I feel like I'm as sharp or better [than] I've ever been in
my life. I've thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the last couple of
months. I wanna be here racing for a Virginia team and keep on building
on what we’re building if we can.
"I hope it all works out for us. If anybody deserves it, it's
Morgan-McClure Motorsports."
sjackson@... | (276) 645-2572
 

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