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Eric McClure Notes, Quotes: Las Vegas 400
‘If it was easy, everyone would be doing it’

With some testing experience under his belt, rookie driver Eric McClure and the #73 ARC Dehooker/RFA Chevrolet team head to the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week and Sunday’s Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.

McClure, son of Morgan-McClure motorsports co-owner Jerry McClure, is running for the only full-time NASCAR Nextel Cup team based in the hometown of the sanctioning body, Daytona Beach, Fla. Businessman Ed Raabe and his wife, Ann, own Raabe Racing Enterprises, which fields the car for the Abingdon, Va., native.

ARC Dehooker has teamed with the Recreational Fishing Alliance – a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues - for sponsorship for Raabe Racing Enterprises and the #73 Chevrolet throughout the season. The agreement is part of a cooperative fisheries partnership between NOAA Fisheries, Recreational Fishing Alliance, Florida Sea Grant and Aquatic Release Conservation (ARC). The partnership will establish effective and innovative education and outreach programs directed at recreational anglers in an effort to reduce catch-and-release mortality in recreational fisheries.

The thoughts of ARC Dehooker/RFA Chevrolet driver Eric McClure heading into Las Vegas:

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. That doesn’t mean we’ve given up or that we’re not doing everything we can do to get this ARC Dehooker/Recreational Fishing Alliance Chevrolet up and running. It just means we know we’re up against a lot.

“We don’t have several other teams to garner information from like some of the other rookie drivers out there. And we don’t have the multi-jillion dollar sponsorships some of them have. But we’re in this to run well and to run the best we can, and we’re going to do everything we can to get where we want to be.

“It’s been difficult sure, but not really because of the (new NASCAR) impound rule. We knew coming in what we had to do and that we’re fighting against the other new teams and the small teams. We saw that at California. We had a fantastic test and we were really good, we were just having problems backing it up.

“With the way the inspection procedures are, we are the last ones to go through each week, so that doesn’t help us any either. At California, we missed the entire first practice session. That was concerning but it’s part of the process when you are a brand new race team. If you’re back in the points you’re going to go last and that’s fine and understandable. You have to reward the teams that are here every week and have the big sponsors. As a race team we’ve got to work smarter and we’ve got to work better to be on top of our game to overcome it.

“The intermediate tracks do tend to shorten the gap between the large teams and the smaller teams, at least to a point. The bigger teams are still going to be superior because of their research and their manpower and their finances. That’s just part of the game, that’s part of being a democratic sport. At the same time the impound rule does help us a little bit. In reality it helps the small team because these other guys are worried about race setup and we have the option of one or the other and we don’t have the super shocks and whatever to waste on a two-lap run. From a driver’s standpoint, it’s just another deal. We understand it and we accept it and that’s the best thing to do and then build from it.

“The main focus right now is for me to overcome my inexperience. When we first started testing I said good, we’ll go to Daytona. I know how to get around that place. I was hesitant about these places because I’ve never been here before, even in a Busch car. But we’ve tested really well and the biggest thing that I’ve got out of this is that I’m showing Eric McClure can drive a race car and I want the whole world to know that I can drive a race car. The biggest thing for us right now is that there’s going to be tracks coming up I’ve never been to. We have to learn as much as we can about each track, about what does what and really we have to perform but at the same time use it as a test because we have to get better as we go along and overcome my inexperience. I don’t think that will be a big problem. Everybody has to do that at some point.

“We’re looking forward to getting to Vegas and seeing what we can do with the ARC Dehooker/RFA Chevrolet.”