Mike Wallace won a NBS event at Daytona last July. Credit: Autostock

Morgan-McClure gets sponsorship for Cup car

Lucas Oil on board; McClure hopes Mike Wallace will drive

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Morgan-McClure Motorsports has secured sponsorship for the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series with Lucas Oil Products.

Mike Wallace, who won the Winn-Dixie 250 Busch Series race last July at Daytona International Speedway, is owner Larry McClure's choice to drive the car this season and he will test the No. 4 Chevrolet in Tuesday's second round of Preseason Thunder.

MIKE WALLACE •   Driver Page •   2004 Stats •   M. Wallace bids farewell to Biagi Bros. Racing

Wallace said his conversations with McClure have been ongoing, but they haven't had a chance to sit down since the deal with Lucas was done.

"First and foremost my goal is to drive Larry's car this season," Wallace said. "We hope to get that deal done this week, and once we are able to do that, we'll see if it's possible to do anything in the Truck Series."

Regardless, McClure said he's happy to have one part of the equation solved.

"(Lucas) were real pleased with the program that we put together last season," McClure said on Monday. "We just had to get the numbers to where they worked out to make sense to do it.

	NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Tickets for Daytona •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005!

"We still have space for a secondary sponsor that we're still entertaining inquiries for, but Mike Wallace is going to test the car and we'd like for him to drive it all season.

"We've made the decision to move ahead and we feel real good about it."

Morgan-McClure has won three Daytona 500s in the past 15 years, with Ernie Irvan in 1991 and Sterling Marlin in 1994-95.

Wallace attempted the last four races of 2004 for Morgan-McClure, with a best finish of 29th. Kevin Lepage began the year for the team and Jimmy Spencer ran the balance of the races.

Wallace -- who at the beginning of the season was faced with only a single truck race for owner/driver Ken Schrader -- Monday finished a two-day test for Craftsman Truck Series team owner Jim Harris in his No. 59 Dodge.

McClure said that Chris Carrier would once again be the team's crew chief.