christmasgifts - building golf club

credited his Mall.com 400 victory in March to the crew led by Tommy Baldwin. "All I had to do was make it 400 miles," Ward said As far as the NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division is concerned, Darlington Raceway could be renamed Mark Martin Raceway. If there is a NASCAR Busch Series record at Darlington, chances are that Martin has it. The veteran pilot, statistically the finest competitor in series history, holds the record for most victories, seven, and Bud Poles, six. This weekend, Martin will make his final series start in the Dura Lube 200 (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN TV and PRN radio) at Darlington, a track he has learned to tame in the No. 60 Winn-Dixie christmasgifts Ford. Martin''s most recent addition to the Darlington record book came in christmasgifts March when he won from the Bud Pole for the second time in his career. After spending much of the race battling Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth for the lead, Martin took the lead for good with 24 laps to go. Kenseth went high to challenge for the lead with two laps remaining, but could not pass Martin. Burton and Martin were side-by-side on the final lap of the race, but Martin pulled ahead just enough to claim the third of his four series wins this season.

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 a second team) 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 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, Hamilton and the Morgan-McClure contingent are well overdue.

Rusty Wallace is seeking his third straight win, and his first career victory at Darlington. A trophy for winning at Darlington Raceway can''t be found among Rusty Wallace''s racing treasures. He''d like to change that Sunday in the Pepsi Southern 500 presented by Kmart, his 34th start on 1.366-mile oval. "We''ve come so close to winning at Darlington, finished second, third and fourth a ton of times, and it would be a thrill to finally beat the old track," said Wallace, seeking his third straight victory. "We know that we have a car capable of winning because it already has a name, doesn''t it?" Wallace was referring to "Lite-ning," the name given to his Ford in a fan contest that elicited 6,700 entries. A Wallace tradition is to name a car after it wins for the first time, and that happened six weeks ago in Long Pond, Pa. That was the second of a NASCAR Winston Cup-leading four wins this season for Wallace, and began a roll that includes victories the last two weeks in Brooklyn, Mich., and Bristol, Tenn. No driver has won more than two straight races since Jeff Gordon strung four together in 1998. Wallace knows it will be difficult to beat Gordon --