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Earles, active in the track until the end, died Nov. 16, 1999. "My grandfather would have especially appreciated being voted into the NMPA Hall of Fame," Campbell said. "He loved the media and knew how important they are to the success of the sport." Scott, who died in 1990, began racing at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway winning 128 races in many divisions and in 1959 won the Virginia State Sportsman Championship. In 1961, he fielded a car in the NASCAR Grand National circuit, later renamed the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. On Dec. 1, 1963 he won his only Grand National race, a 100-mile event on a half-mile track in Jacksonville, Fla. He is the only African-American driver to ever win a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race. Much of NASCAR stock car racing''s current popularity can be traced to Robertson. Robertson moved up the ranks to become President of Sports Marketing Enterprises. Many of racing''s unique programs, such as the Winston Million and the No Bull Five were Robertson''s innovations. After his hitting machines death in a boating accident in 1998, the winston cup preview, which he created, was quite appropriately re-named the t. wayne robertson winston cup preview in his honor.

four years ago, morgan-mcclure motorsports was a weekly contender in the nascar winston cup series. sterling marlin had finished among the top-10 in points for a second consecutive season, and the kodak chevrolet team showed no signs of slowing. however, that''s precisely what has happened, and no one is exactly sure why. marlin departed to team sabco following the 1997 campaign after dropping from eighth to 25th in the championship point standings. in came . bobby hamilton, who had spent the past three seasons machines at petty enterprises. during that time, he''d finished as high as ninth in the points. on paper it was a perfect fit: small-town driver joins small-town team. in his first season behind the wheel of the no. 4 chevrolet, hamilton recorded three top-5s, including a trip to victory lane at martinsville, and eight top-10s en route to a 10th-place finish in the points. the morgan-mcclure steamroller appeared to be chugging once again. they''ve had just one top-5 finish since. "me and larry (mcclure, team owner) were talking one day and we feel like it took us a year and a half to dig this big hole we''re in, so we''re still trying to dig out," hamilton said. "we''re not going to dig back out in a week or two."

"i really love racing at places that are wide where you can pass easily and darlington just isn''t one of those places. it is so tight that passing is tough to do. in fact, the place is so narrow, you''ll be successful if you just don''t hit the wall all day long." hitting heading into the weekend, green''s lead over second-place jason keller is an astounding 589 points. the race for second-place has become heated between four drivers -- keller, todd bodine and rookies kevin harvick and machines ron hornaday. keller is enjoying the most consistent season of his career in the no. 57 excedrin chevrolet. harvick and hornaday have each won twice in nascar 2000 -- they have combined to win four of the past seven events -- and will likely be tough yet again this weekend. harvick dominated last friday night''s food city 250 at bristol motor speedway, leading more laps than anyone in series history -- 241 of 250 -- en route to victory lane. he trails keller by just seven points with eight races remaining. harvick''s key to victory lane this weekend? bud pole qualifying. "darlington''s narrow just like bristol and it takes a long time to get by somebody without flat running into them,"