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So is Burton who, like Gordon, will be seeking his third win of the season. Burton knows how tough the track can be. "You don''t expect to come here and win," he said. "But we expect to come to Darlington and run well." Gordon, a five-time Darlington winner, is in a run of bad luck that includes being taken out of contention in two of the last three races because of crashes he didn''t cause. He hopes for good weather Sunday, which would enable him to play out the winning pit strategy of 1995-98. Rain prevented that last year. "We took a chance and pitted for tires and gas during the second-to-last caution, hoping it would put us in position to win," the three-time series champion said. "But we were also hoping the rain would hold off. "Unfortunately for us, it didn''t." Also a prime contender is series champion Dale Jarrett, a two-time Darlington winner who is second to points leader Bobby Labonte despite no victories since the season-opening Daytona 500. Top-5 fixture Tony Stewart, second last Saturday night in Bristol and Ward Burton also are threats. Burton won at Darlington in March. Ward, second to Jeff last year in the only 1-2 Southern 500 finish by brothers,

"That was a great race up to the final lap," Martin said. "I had a great time racing Jeff and Matt, and it got pretty intense there in the end. I was determined to keep my lead. That car was one of my favorites, which is why we''re bringing it back this weekend." Martin also leads all drivers in clones career series wins. He earned his 44th victory at Texas in April, and still has five races remaining on his schedule this year. "We''re going to try to win them all," Martin said. "I''m sure the Busch guys will be glad when I''m gone next year. I''ve worked hard for a lot of years in the Busch Series and won a few races and lost a lot of them." You can bet Burton, Kenseth and a number of series regulars will give Martin all he can handle this weekend. Series points leader Jeff Green has never won at Darlington, but has notched four top-10s and got his first top-5 ever last spring. He''s due for sure. "Darlington is just one of those places I''ve never been able to get a hold of," Green said. "In the spring, I posted my first top-5 finish there in my entire career, which is hard to believe since I''ve raced there 10 times now.

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 clones 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. clones "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. clones 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.