DOVER, Del. -- The shop in Virginia sports a "for sale" sign. The car sitting in Dover's Sprint Cup garage has blank sidepanels. But for Morgan-McClure Motorsports president Tim Morgan, the focus is on potential.

Even though Scott Wimmer's best practice speed of 149.669 mph was nearly 2 mph slower than the next-slowest car, Morgan was optimistic that there was more speed left in the car, especially since only one car will miss Sunday's AAA 400. And Morgan has a couple of possible sponsorship deals in the works, perhaps allowing the team to return full-time status next season.

So where others might see lemons, Morgan envisions a lemonade stand. And just getting back to the track for the first time since Wimmer made the show at Bristol is a positive, as far as Morgan is concerned.

"It is frustrating but it's just another day's work," Morgan said. "You just have to roll up your sleeves. It's a different challenge. There's no guarantee in any business. Racing's not any different. I see signs in the economy that this is a low point for the racing industry. The next few months, hopefully, it'll start to come back.

"But whether it does or whether it doesn't, you don't control it. And you can't spend time worrying about things you can't control. You need to put forth effort on things you can control. So I guess it's frustrating in the economic climate we're in, but the American people certainly have the ingenuity to come out of it. You can't just sit around and whine, you have to do what you can do. The most important thing is to keep a positive outlook."

Morgan-McClure has a half-dozen race-ready cars and more than a dozen engines, so equipment is not an issue. However, finding someone to foot the bill is the reason why the team's future remains decidedly hazy.

"There's nothing set in stone," Morgan said. "We're trying to pick two or three races we might attempt. We're working on sponsorship for next year. We don't expect anything to happen this year except to get back to the track and let people know we're still alive. We're working on a couple of deals that I hope will pan out. We've been in this business a long time and have chased a lot of empty leads. But I feel like we've got a legitimate shot at getting a sponsor.

"That's where all our effort's going right now. We've got a skeleton crew, couple of guys from the shop and guys who have worked for us in the past coming back and working a couple of days at a time."

From the time Morgan-McClure came on the scene more than 25 years ago, the Abdingon, Va.-based "little team that could" has defied the odds, winning three Daytona 500s. But the team hasn't visited Victory Lane since Bobby Hamilton piloted the No. 4 to a win at Martinsville in 1998.

The one option Morgan refuses to think about is going the "start and park" route.

"I don't think that's a survivable option," Morgan said. "We like to race. If you've got that in you, that's what you do. If you just want to be here, that's one thing. But we've never just wanted to be here.

"When we got into this business years ago, we had the guy who sold us our first race team tell us, 'You can't compete with the Junior Johnsons, the Bud Moores and the Wood Brothers.' We didn't believe that. The American spirit is 'anybody can do anything if they're willing to work hard enough and they have the drive.' I wouldn't like the 'start and park' scenario."

Last month, Morgan agreed to put the 18-acre race shop complex on the market. It's currently listed at $8.5 million.

"We were approached by a couple of realtors wanting a contract on it," Morgan said. "We talked about it, myself and my partners, and we decided to go ahead and list it and see what happens. We could opt out if sponsorship comes through. In this financial time, there's no expectations that someone will step up and offer us a contract, but we have a lot of money tied up in that facility and the team."

But Morgan stressed the team is not for sale, and if sponsorship emerges, the property could be taken off the market.

"People probably are seeing some mixed signals there," Morgan said. "But we actually hope to race, we intend to race. It so happens that if we get a decent offer on the property, that speeds that decision up. We're not going to remain in limbo forever. We're hoping to have something wrapped up by the end of the year, or before the start of next season. That's our plan, and we've got a couple of specific deals we're working on that might come through for us."

Still, Morgan admits without sponsorship, the options start to become limited.

"If we happen to have a sale for it, it'll depend on sponsorship, which should happen in the next two, three, four months," Morgan said. "At that point, if I don't have anything firm and we sell the building, I think it wouldn't be realistic to keep it going. I guess what I'm saying is we'd have to evaluate it at the time. If we didn't have any live prospects, I don't think we'd go out and build another facility, if we didn't have the ability to continue to race."