BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
ABINGDON, Va. – Almost two years after it shut its doors, Morgan-McClure Motorsports is opening them again – at least temporarily.
The lengendary Southwest Virginia race team will partner with Abingdon-based Alpha Natural Resources to enter the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 22, team owner Tim Morgan announced on Thursday.
Veteran Scott Wimmer will drive the No. 4 Chevrolet.
“We feel like if we’re going to race somewhere, Bristol is where we’re going to run. We’ve always been successful there,” Morgan said. “It’s challenging. We’ll think more about the excitement after the race, to see if there’s anything to be excited about.”
Wimmer, 33, a veteran of NASCAR’s top three divisions, drove 23 races for the MMM team during the 2006 season. His best finish that year was 19th in the Food City 500 at BMS. Wimmer, who has driven 18 races this season in the Nationwide Series. All six of his career victories have come in that series.
Morgan-McClure Motorsports was formed in 1983. The team possessed one of the fastest cars in NASCAR during the 1990s, winning the Daytona 500 three times with drivers Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin. But after struggling to find sponsorship, team co-owner Larry McClure announced that the team would close its doors following the 2007 season.
MMM is making its second attempt this season to crack a Sprint Cup field. Driver Eric McClure tried but failed to qualify the No. 4 car for the April 26 race at Talladega, Ala.
Morgan said the MMM team is eager to make the Sharpie 500 field because of its affiliation with Alpha Natural Resources.
“We got our start in Wise County, our dealerships are in Wise County, a coal-producing county,” Morgan said. “Coal miners helped make it possible for us to race.”
Morgan said that the Sharpie 500 is a one-race deal between MMM and Alpha Natural Resources, but he added that a good finish could lead to “something more.”
Alpha Natural Resources’ sponsorship of the MMM car comes on the heels of the company’s merger with Foundation Coal Holdings the created the nation’s third-largest coal producer.
“This sponsorship presents the ideal opportunity to say ‘Thank you’ to our 3,200 employees, and it serves as a big ‘welcome’ to the 3,000 Foundation employees that are now part of the Alpha family,” Alpha’s executive chairman of the board, Michael Quillen, said in a press release.
“Everyone at Alpha, not just in Southwest Virginia, but also our employees in Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wyoming will enjoy seeing the Alpha-sponsored Morgan-McClure entry on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway.”
scampbell@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2543
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