“After watching that fiasco in Texas, I’m happy to be out of there,” he said. “Apparently, Jimmy Spencer isn’t the miracle-worker they hoped for. (Morgan-McClure) had no set-ups on the cars, none at all. I went around the garage and begged favors from guys I knew on other teams, asking them to help us out. People put their jobs at risk to do that, but the minute we got the chassis straightened out, the motor would blow. Or we’d come out of the pits with three lug nuts missing. It was a disaster. (Team owner) Larry McClure kept asking me – over and over again, `What do we need to do to fix it?’ I told him, but apparently, honesty wasn’t what he wanted to hear.”
Enter Spencer, who according to Lepage had been “wearing Larry out since Daytona trying to get in the car. He brought along a little bit of money, and told Larry what he wanted to hear. So I’m out, and he’s in. Good luck to him, he’s going to need it.” After seeing the Morgan-McClure team from the inside, the Vermont native said he will be surprised if Spencer – or anyone else – can turn things around anytime soon. “Beginning with Robby Gordon in 2001, they have now had 13 drivers in three years,” he said. “Robby couldn’t help them, Mike Skinner couldn’t help them, Stacy Compton couldn’t help them, and apparently, neither could I. It’s one thing after another with them; one problem piled on top of another.” What’s next for Lepage? he said he is working to put his own Busch Series Fords back on track for a schedule of 10-20 races, beginning next month at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “We’re beating the phones for sponsorship right now,” he said, “and I’m about 95-percent sure we’ll get a deal done with at least one of the two companies we’re talking to. For every door that closes, another one opens,” he said. “And in all honesty, my next opportunity won’t have to be much to be better than where I just was. I would rather sit home and watch the race on TV than run like that.”(Barre-Montpelier Times Argus)(4-9-2004)
