XM Satellite- NASCAR Radio reports that #4 Morgan McClure team owner Larry McClure said they will take the #4 Kodak Pontiac back to their VA shop and lokk it over and find if anything is wrong with the car and if they find nothing, changes may have to be made, but wasn’t specific. The team and driver Mike Skinner missed the race at Michigan due to lack of speed and being out of provisionals.( XM Satellite- NASCAR Radio – Subscription Required) AND quotes by Mike Skinner from Morgan-McClure PR: “It is a situation no one wants to experience. I am devastated. I am proud of our engine shop and our body shop. We brought a new car here that did not have a lap on it. We had not tested it. We all thought it would be better, obviously it was not. We missed it somewhere. This was a group decision made on Tuesday, so there is no one to point fingers at. I feel bad. I wish I could have done more as a driver. Our cars and race team is strong enough to make races and compete. We have dug in a hole and they are not easy to dig out of. We are going to find out how tough we really are.. I cannot say enough about the progress we have made with our engines and the racing. This team has had some tough breaks on the race track. This has dug us in a hole for points.” AND II: “This is a tough situation and I’m going get to the bottom of it. I hope I can go home and find something wrong with the car, some reason we didn’t run good,” said team owner Larry McClure. “That is just a piece of metal, though. After that, it’s people. I will make the decision regardless of what I have to change – whether it’s me, the people working on the race car or whoever is driving it.” McClure said he had not talked with any other drivers, but that all options were “on the table.”( ThatsRacin.com )(6-14-2003) UPDATE: Morgan-McClure Motorsports announced today that Mike Skinner has been released from his driving duties of the No. 4 Kodak Racing Pontiac. The change is effective immediately. An interim driver for the upcoming Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. will be announced this week. A permanent driver will be announced at a later date. Skinner has been with the race team since the end of 2001 and began piloting the car in Daytona 2002. Skinner had only one top-10 finish in 50 races with the Abingdon, Va.-based team. Strong efforts and changes, including that of key personnel, were made to counteract the performance of the team, but Larry McClure, team owner, decided a major change was necessary. “We feel it is necessary to perform better for our race team and for our sponsor, Kodak. We appreciate Mikes efforts in the car, but it is time for a change. We have to finish races and that has not been happening. We went to Charlotte a few weeks ago and qualified third. Then earlier in the year, we qualified sixth at Bristol. I feel this shows our team has potential that is not being utilized in a maximum way,” stated McClure.( Morgan-McClure PR ); past news and rumors and Smutski on the #4 Team News and Links page . John Andretti for the future?(6-16-2003)
