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Sterling Marlin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Born: | June 30, 1957 (age 49) | |
| Birthplace: |  Columbia, Tennessee |
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| Awards: | 1980-1982 Nashville Speedway USA Track Champion
1983 Rookie of the Year 1994 Daytona 500 winner 1995 Daytona 500 winner 1995 & 1996 Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year 2002 Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year Nominee |
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| NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Statistics | ||
| 2006 NEXTEL Cup Position: | 34th | |
| Best Cup Position: | 3rd - 1995, 2001 (Winston Cup) | |
| First Race: | 1976 Music City USA 420 (Nashville) | |
| First Win: | 1994 Daytona 500 (Daytona) | |
| Last Win: | 2002 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 (Darlington) | |
| Wins | Top Tens | Poles |
| 10 | 216 | 11 |
| All stats current as of May 6, 2006. | ||
Sterling Marlin (born June 30, 1957 in Columbia, Tennessee) is a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver who currently drives the #14 Waste Management Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Ginn Racing. He is the son of former NASCAR driver Coo Coo Marlin. Sterling was named after the British Formula One legend Stirling Moss.[citation needed] Outside of racing he enjoys watching Tennessee Volunteers football and collecting Civil War artifacts. He is married to Paula and has a daughter, Sutherlin, and a son, Steadman, who sometimes races in the Busch Series.
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When he was in high school, Marlin played high school basketball and football, earning the captain status his senior year while he played quarterback and linebacker. 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 failiure 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.
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 nineteenth in the standings, clinching the Rookie of the Year award. After finishing 15th at Daytona for Hamby, Marlin spent most of the season running for Sadler Brothers Racing, posting two top-ten finishes. He also competed in one race apiece for Jimmy Means and Dick Bahre. Marlin only made eight starts in 1985, seven of them coming for Sadler, his best finish twelfth at Talladega Superspeedway. He ended his season at Charlotte Motor Speedway, 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 seasoon came at the Firecracker 400, where he finished second. He got a full-time job in 1987, when he was hired by Billy Hagan to drive the #44 Piedmont Airlines Oldsmobile. He had four top-fives and finished eleventh 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 thirteen top-ten finishes but dropped to twelfth 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.
Marlin signed to drive the #22 Maxwell House Ford Thunderbird for Junior Johnson & Associates 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 Brakes 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 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 being 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.
In 1998, he joined SABCO Racing to drive the #40 Coors Light Chevy. 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 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 made contact with Dale Earnhardt, causing Earnhardt to crash head-on 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 felt that Marlin had killed Earnhardt. 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.
Marlin scored two victories early in the 2002 season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway. He led the points standings for 25 straight weeks before his championship run was cut short by a neck injury in a crash at Kansas Speedway. He was forced to miss the rest of the season due to the injury. His replacement, rookie Jamie McMurray, won the fall Charlotte race in his second start. Marlin called the victorious McMurray on national television minutes after the stunning win, congratulating McMurray and the team on prime-time television. Marlin finished 18th in the final standings despite missing the final seven races. 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.
Marlin joined MB2 Motorsports for 2006 to drive the #14 Waste Management Chevy. Marlin runs 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.
Marlin was able to qualify via speed for each of the first five races of the 2007 season. His team currently sits within the top 35 in owner points, thereby assuring Sterling a starting position (regardless of qualifying speed) in upcoming races.
- "To drive a car with the same number that my father drove makes the move even more special."
- "The Chevrolet has had more nose jobs than Michael Jackson." [1]
- "I got run over by a bug-eyed dummy." in reference to an incident with Greg Biffle in 2004.
| Preceded by Dale Jarrett |
Daytona 500 Winner 1994, 1995 |
Succeeded by Dale Jarrett |
| Ginn Racing | |
| Nextel Cup drivers | Mark Martin (#01) | Regan Smith (#01/#39) | Joe Nemechek (#13) | Sterling Marlin (#14) |
| Development drivers | Ricky Carmichael | Jesus Hernandez | Kraig Kinser |
| Partnerships and affiliations | Hendrick Motorsports |
| Other | Bob Ginn |