Sterling Marlin

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Sterling Marlin
Born	(1957-06-30) June 30, 1957 (age 54) Columbia, Tennessee
Achievements	1980–1982 Nashville Speedway USA Track Champion 1994 & 1995 Daytona 500 winner
Awards	1983 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year 1995 & 1996 Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year 2002 Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year Nominee
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
748 race(s) run over 32 year(s)
2009 position	53rd
Best finish	3rd – 1995, 2001 (Winston Cup)
First race	1976 Music City USA 420 (Nashville)
Last race	2009 Tums Fast Relief 500 (Martinsville)
First win	1994 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Last win	2002 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 (Darlington)
Wins Top tens Poles 10 216 11
NASCAR Nationwide Series career
77 race(s) run over 17 year(s)
First race	1986 Winn-Dixie 300 (Charlotte)
Last race	2008 Pepsi 300 (Nashville)
First win	1990 All Pro 300 (Charlotte)
Last win	2000 Cheez-It 250 (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles 2 22 1
Statistics current as of July 21, 2009.

Sterling Marlin (born June 30, 1957) is a retired NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver. He is the son of late NASCAR driver Coo Coo Marlin. He is married to Paula and has a daughter, Sutherlin, and a son, Steadman, who sometimes races in the Nationwide Series.

Beginnings

While he attended Spring Hill High School, Marlin played high school basketball and football, earning the captain status his senior year while he played quarterback and linebacker. He began his collection of civil war artifacts shortly after highschool. In 1976, he made his NASCAR debut at Nashville Speedway, filling in for his injured father in the #14 H.B. Cunningham Chevrolet. He started 30th and finished 29th after suffering oil pump failure early in the race. He made two more starts in 1978, finishing ninth at World 600 and twenty-fifth at Nashville for Cunningham. He ran Nashville again in 1979, finishing seventeenth. In 1980, he posted two top-tens, eighth in the Daytona 500 for Cunningham, and seventh at Nashville for D.K. Ulrich. From 1980 to 1982,Marlin was a three time track champion at the historic Nashville Speedway USA.

1983–1990

1983 Rookie of the Year car

In 1983, Marlin was hired by Roger Hamby to drive his #17 Hesco Exhaust Chevrolet. He posted a tenth-place finish at Dover International Speedway and finished 19th in the standings, clinching the Rookie of the Year award. Despite finishing 15th in the 1984 Daytona 500 for Hamby, Marlin spent most of the season running for Sadler Brothers Racing, posting two top-ten finishes. He also competed in one race for Jimmy Means and Dick Bahre respectively. Marlin only made eight starts in 1985, seven of them coming for Sadler, his best finish being 12th at Talladega Superspeedway. He ended his season at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Miller High Life 500, driving the Helen Rae Special. He finished 29th, after suffering flywheel failure.

Marlin moved over to the #1 Bull's Eye Barbecue Sauce car owned by Hoss Ellington in 1986. His best finish that season came at the Firecracker 400, where he finished second. Marlin received a full-time ride in 1987, when he was hired by Billy Hagan to drive the #44 Piedmont Airlines Oldsmobile. He had four top-fives and finished 11th in points. The following season, he had seven finishes of eighth or better in the first ten races and finished tenth in the standings. In 1989, the team received sponsorship from Sunoco and switched to the number 94. He tied a career-best 13 top-ten finishes but dropped to 12th in the final standings. He left the team at the end of the 1990 season. During the 1990 season, he won his first career Busch Series race at Charlotte, driving the #48 Diamond Ridge Chevrolet owned by Fred Turner.

1991–1997

1997 car at Pocono

Marlin signed to drive the #22 Maxwell House Ford Thunderbird for Junior Johnson in 1991. He had a second-place finish at Daytona to start the season and won two poles at Talladega Superspeedway and the Firecracker 400, finishing seventh in the standings. The next season, he won an additional five poles and had six top-five finishes. Despite his career-high pole total, Marlin departed to drive the #8 Raybestos Ford for Stavola Brothers Racing. He had just one top-five finish and fell to fourteenth in the standings.

Marlin's first career win came in his 279th career start at the 1994 Daytona 500 driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports in the #4 Kodak car. He went on to win the 500 again in the following year, becoming only one of three drivers to win consecutive Daytona 500s. The other two men that have accomplished that feat were Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough. He also became the only driver to have his first two career wins at the Daytona 500. Marlin won two more times during the 1995 season and finished a career high third in the point standings, during a four-year run with Morgan-McClure Motorsports. In 1997, he did not return to victory lane but dropped to twenty-fifth in the final standings. He left the #4 team at year's end.

1998–2006

In 1998, he joined SABCO Racing to drive the #40 Coors Light Chevrolet. He opened the season by winning the Gatorade 125, a qualifying race for the Daytona 500, but three weeks later, he failed to qualify for the Primestar 500, the first race he had missed since 1986. He finished in the top-ten six times and had a thirteenth-place points finish. In 1999, he won his first pole since 1995 at Pocono Raceway, but dropped down to sixteenth in the standings. In 2000, he won his second career Busch Series race, driving SABCO's #82 entry at Bristol Motor Speedway. During the season, he lost teammate Kenny Irwin, Jr. in a practice crash at New Hampshire International Speedway. After finishing in the top-ten seven times, he fell back to nineteenth in the overall standings.

In 2001, SABCO's majority ownership stake was purchased by CART (now IRL) championship owner Chip Ganassi and the team switched to Dodge Intrepids. In his first race with the new team, Marlin won the Gatorade 125 qualifying race at Daytona. Three days later at the Daytona 500, Marlin appeared to make contact with Dale Earnhardt, causing Earnhardt to crash into the Turn 4 wall, an impact that would kill him. In the following days, Marlin and his family received hate mail and death threats from angry fans who wrongly felt that Marlin was responsible for Earnhardt's death. He was eventually publicly defended by two of Earnhardt's drivers, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Michael Waltrip, and was also cleared of any wrongdoing by NASCAR's investigation into the accident. He won Dodge's first race in its return to NASCAR at Michigan International Speedway, as well as winning the UAW-GM Quality 500. He tied his career best points finish of third that season. Had the current Chase for the Sprint Cup points system been in place in 2001, Sterling Marlin would have been the 2001 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.

In 2002, Sterling Marlin won his final two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races that season. Sterling Marlin's first win in 2002 was the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sterling Marlin's last win was the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway back in 2002. Sterling Marlin failed to win races the rest of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. Sterling Marlin's last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race was the 2009 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Marlin took the points lead after the second race of the season^[1] and did not let it go for the following 24 weeks. For most of that time he held a comfortable lead, which reached triple digits several times and was still 91 points ahead of second place entering the Chevy Monte Carlo 400 in September. However, Marlin finished that race in last place after an early accident^[2] and saw his points lead all but evaporate as Mark Martin, who had entered the race 125 points behind Marlin, gained 116 points and moved into second place in the points as Marlin's lead shrunk to nine points (Jeff Gordon, who had leapfrogged Martin for second place in the standings with a win the week before, also gained on Marlin but dropped to fourth due to the strong finishes from both Martin and rookie Jimmie Johnson, who gained 95 points on Marlin to move into third).^[3] At the New Hampshire 300 the next week Marlin lost the points lead as Martin finished four places ahead of him, gaining 15 points.^[4] The next week Marlin dropped to fourth in the standings after a 21st place finish at Dover.^[5]

One week later, at the Protection One 400 at Kansas, Marlin crashed hard after 147 laps and finished 33rd.^[6] Due to the crash, he was later diagnosed with a cracked vertebra in his neck and would be forced to miss the remaining seven races. Marlin was replaced by Busch Series driver Jamie McMurray, who had recently been signed by Chip Ganassi Racing to drive for the team in the 2003 season. McMurray won the UAW-GM Quality 500 in his second start in Marlin's car, and Marlin telephoned McMurray during the post-race festivities to congratulate him. Marlin finished eighteenth in the final season points with eight top fives and ten top tens.

Marlin did not finish in the top-five in 2003, but had 11 top-tens and matched his previous year's finish of eighteenth in points. Despite three top-fives in 2004, he fell to 21st in points. During the 2005 season, Ganassi announced Marlin would be replaced by David Stremme for the 2006 season in order to attract the younger male demographic.

#14 Marlin battles #55 Michael Waltrip at the 2006 spring Bristol race.

Marlin joined MB2 Motorsports for 2006 to drive the Waste Management Chevy, running with the #14 in tribute to his father, Coo Coo Marlin, who died during the 2005 season. Marlin's only Top 10 finish in 2006 was ninth place finish at Richmond. His 2006 season was shadowed by bad luck and #14 finished 36th in owner points.

2007–2010

Marlin was able to qualify via speed for each of the first five races of the 2007 season, his Pep Boys #14 team was the only team out of the top 35 from 2006 to do this. Marlin's run in the #14 ended on July 17, 2007, when Ginn Racing announced Regan Smith, who had been splitting time with Mark Martin in Ginn's U.S. Army-sponsored #01 car, would replace him beginning at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis. He attempted to qualify for two races in 2007, but he failed to qualify for either. He tried to make the Sharpie 500 at Bristol in the #78 car as a replacement for Kenny Wallace, and the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega, replacing Mike Wallace in the #09 car. However in November he managed to qualify the #09 and drove at Phoenix for a 25th place finish, and a week later at Homestead finishing 33rd.

#09 Cup racecar in 2008

Marlin failed to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500 in the #09 car, but qualified at Talladega and the following week at Richmond as well. For Darlington, Marlin raced in his old #40 car and qualified 14th, and also at the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the #40, still in for the injured Dario Franchitti. He finished out the rest of the season driving for Phoenix Racing. In March 2009, Marlin participated in and won the Saturday Night Special, a charity event at Bristol Motor Speedway which included NASCAR Legends. He led the entire event in a car painted similar to the one he drove with Morgan McClure Motorsports, and wearing an older-style Coors Light uniform from his days while driving for Chip Ganassi. He will continue to drive part-time in the Sprint Cup Series for Phoenix.

For the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Marlin continued to run a limited schedule in the #09 Phoenix racing Miccosukee Resort & Gaming Chevrolet. His best finish for the '09 season was 35th at Martinsville, which also proved the last of his 748 career starts. Sterling Marlin's last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race was the 2009 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

An announcement was made preceding the Cup Series finale weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway that Marlin would attempt the race in the #70 Chevrolet for TRG Motorsports. He announced that it would be his final race and that he would be retiring shortly afterwards. These plans were later denied by Marlin. They are not true and he has no plans to drive at Homestead at all.

On March 18, 2010, it was announced that Marlin said that he is finished racing in the Sprint Cup Series.

Marlin owns a Dodge dealership in Dickson, Tennessee.

References

External links

• Driver's page at racing-reference.info
• Sterling Marlin at The Crittenden Automotive Library