Abingdon, Va.-based Morgan-McClure Motorsports is closing its NASCAR operations

ABINGDON, Va. — It’s been a long and often bumpy road for Southwest Virginia’s only NASCAR team during the past 25 years. At least for now, the engine has been silenced on the familiar No. 4 Chevrolet.

Morgan-McClure Motorsports co-owner Tim Morgan said team officials decided to cease operations Friday afternoon.

"It’s been a pretty emotional day, but we had to make a decision and draw the line," Morgan said in a telephone interview shortly after a 3 p.m. meeting at the race shop. "We’ve competed too long without sponsorship."

Morgan said the majority of the 28 MMM employees has been laid off.

"You can imagine how tough that was," Morgan said. "A couple of our guys have been with us all 25 years, while others have worked here 10 and 15 years."

Multicar teams, which feature wide-ranging sponsorship packages reaching into the $20 million range, have dominated the elite Sprint Cup series in recent years. The advantage of multicar teams includes shared resources, engineers and technology.

Sprint has replace Nextel as the major sponsor of NASCAR’s cup series.

Meanwhile, MMM has remained a single-car organization with limited sponsorship and money.

"We have been searching for sponsorship for months and decided that if nothing materialized, we would have to cancel testing and release most of our employees." Morgan said. "We will continue our marketing efforts and still try to put something together, but we cannot continue the way we are today."

Just before Christmas, team officials learned that Ashland City, Tenn.-based State Water Heater would not return as a primary sponsor of the No. 4 MMM Chevrolet.

In an interview Jan. 4 with the Bristol Herald Courier, team manager Larry McClure said MMM planned to participate in preseason testing, which continues this week at Daytona International Speedway.

MMM officials haven’t ruled out a return to the sport. In fact, three different marketing groups and representatives are currently searching for a sponsor for the No. 4 Chevrolet.

"Even though we have ceased operations, we haven’t completely closed down," Morgan said. "We have six COT (Car of Tomorrow) cars ready and probably 25 engines built.

"I think we’ve got the capability to compete. We’ve been a good bargain for a sponsor, and we would be a good bargain again. In fact, if we could compete on an even basis dollar-wise, we could have won a championship."

McClure revealed last week that popular driver Ward Burton would not return. Mike Wallace had been considered as a replacement for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 17.

"We’ve won that race three times, and Mike is a good driver on restrictor-plate tracks such as Daytona," Morgan said. "Again, it comes down to sponsorship."

Bristol’s Chris Carrier, who served as crew chief for MMM, recently joined Penske Racing and will guide former Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr.

Robert Larkins, who served as the MMM crew chief for the team’s last victory in 1998, was still working with the Abingdon-based group.

"We love our team members and consider them part of our family," Morgan said. "They don’t want this place to close either."

The NASCAR game has changed dramatically since 1983 when brothers Larry, Ed, Jerry and Teddy McClure joined Morgan and formed Morgan-McClure Motorsports.

Behind longtime crew chief Tony Glover and drivers such as Sterling Marlin, Ernie Irvan, and the late Bobby Hamilton, MMM won 14 races when the series was the Winston Cup. Hamilton posted the last victory in 1998 at Martinsville Speedway.

The first NASCAR race for the Abingdon-based team was actually in 1983 at Daytona when Travis Tiller of Russell County, Va., drove an MMM-sponsored car.

"We will continue to search for sponsorship and if something becomes available, we have the cars ready to go to Daytona," McClure stated in a news release Friday. "This is a very hard day for me. I’ve had a lot of fun racing, and it’s just hard to believe it has come to this.

"I would like to say thanks to all our fans who have remained loyal through all these years, and I want to thank everyone who has ever supported us in any way, whether it be through this race team or our dealerships."

As for the possibility of stepping down to compete in the Nationwide Series, formerly known as the Busch Series, Morgan said the option would be costly and complicated.

"I suppose we could do that, but it would be expensive," Morgan said. "We would have to start from ground zero building cars."

In addition to the 14 wins, the track record for Southwest Virginia’s NASCAR team includes 63 top-five and 146 top-10 finishes along with 13 pole positions.

agregory@bristolnews.com | (276) 669-2181.