The Wide World of Dirt

After a 3rd-place finish in the points in 2001, Sterling Marlin looked forward to the opening of the next season, confident that his team could make a run at the title.

The son of former Cup driver Coo Coo Marlin, Sterling grew up in his father’s shadow, even making his first start in his father’s ride in the mid-70s due to an injury to Coo Coo.

Sterling picked up spot gigs until 1983. Driving Roger Hamby’s Chevrolets and Pontiacs, the younger Marlin claimed rookie of the year honors after a 19th-place points finish.

A four-year stretch followed where Marlin couldn’t find consistent work before landing with championship owner Billy Hagan for 1987 after the departure of Terry Labonte.

The tenure with Hagan proved beneficial for the owner and the driver, landing in the top-10 in points over a few seasons together, but the duo failed to find victory lane, leading to Marlin seeking out other opportunities going into 1991.

Legendary owner Junior Johnson gave Marlin his big break, re-opening a second team to steal sponsor Maxwell House away from owner-driver Alan Kulwicki.

In Marlin’s two years with the team, he landed a seat at the drivers’ banquet both years before taking a one-year deal with the Stavola Brothers for 1993 where he came painstakingly close to claiming his first career win at North Wilkesboro and New Hampshire.

His performance with the underfunded team caught the eye of Morgan-McClure Motorsports who were left without a driver after the swift departure of Ernie Irvan.

Piloting the orange #4 Kodak Chevy, Marlin immediately made an impression, taking the lead from Irvan with 21 laps to go to win the Daytona 500. Marlin wasn’t able to repeat his brilliance in 1994, fading to 14th in points by season’s end.

1995 was the year the Marlin established himself and MMM as a bonafide contender.

The 4 team returned to Daytona where they eXemplified eXceptional pace throughout Speedweeks, winning the Busch Clash and defending their Daytona 500 crown by leading 105 of the race’s 200 laps.

Sterling and the team kept their foot to the floor, scoring another win at Darlington and never finishing worse than 13th in the first eight races before mechanical issues at Talladega resulted in a 39th-place finish.

Over the next 14 races, Marlin went on a tear, only finishing outside the top-10 twice while scoring his third win of the season at Talladega in July. He even led the points for a bit before phenom Jeff Gordon snatched the lead away for good after the New Hampshire race.

The Kodak Krew stumbled with the title in sight, failing to finish at Richmond and Martinsville due to mechanical issues. Two more middling runs at Phoenix and North Wilkesboro in the final stretch sealed their fate.

With Atlanta hosting the finale, third spot was still in range. Title rival Dale Earnhardt dominated the day, leading 268 laps while Marlin mirrored the Intimidator’s every move. Sterling came home second with Mark Martin finishing a disappointing 17th, locking up 3rd place in points.

Morgan-McClure brought Marlin back the next year, certain they had what it took to take their performance to the next level. They flexed their muscle at Daytona again, but the engine ruptured only 80 laps into the event.

A rash of solid finishes repaired their pursuit of the championship, and a Talladega triumph launched the 4 team back into the top 5 in points, only 200 points behind Earnhardt.

Another engine failure in Dover was but a mere hiccup on their way to more strong showings, including another commanding victory at Daytona in July. Marlin found himself in fifth in points yet again, but he was now 300 points out of the lead at midseason.

If they wanted to contend, MMM had to make the most of this momentum.

They didn’t.

The July Daytona race would be their last win together. The rest of 1996 quickly turned into an abject nightmare, falling out of the three of the next four races due to crashing.

When they could keep the car on track, they weren’t running well, scoring a solitary top-10 at the Southern 500. An accident with less than 50 to go at Martinsville furthered their bad fortune, and with five races to go, the 4 team was about to lose their banquet invite.

For the most part, the 4 team remembered they were an elite race team again as the season came to a close, only finishing outside the top-15 at Phoenix to secure 8th in points. Sure, it wasn’t title contention like the year before, but top-10 in points still pays out pretty well.

Late in 1996, Morgan-McClure made a change, firing longtime crew chief Tony Glover with owner Larry McClure sitting on top of the box for the last few races.

With Glover out of the picture, MMM hired Tim Brewer, a crew chief who built his reputation in the late 70s and early 80s with Junior Johnson’s outfit, winning three titles with the likes of Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough.

With Sterling’s natural speed, Brewer’s pedigree, and MMM’s mechanical brilliance, it was thought the crew was poised to etch their names on that Winston Cup trophy.

All seemed to be well in 1997 when the familiar Kodak car rolled into Daytona with speed, leading some laps, and ending the 500 in the top-5, but it wouldn’t be until they came back to Daytona in the summer that Sterling would finish in the top-5 again.

Though 1997 included a DNF for the team in a quarter of the events on the 32-race schedule, the team was just flat-out bad most other times, so bad that they fired Brewer after the first Michigan race in June.

The team was barely hanging in the top-20 in points when Sterling wheeled the Kodak car to a 3rd-place finish at Daytona, but it was all downhill from there.

Interim crew chief Robert Larkins didn’t fare much better than Brewer, considering four of the team’s six DNFs in the final 18 races were engine-related, including a gut-wrenching exit from the Brickyard 400 on lap 3.

A team that contended for a championship two years before with a 9.8 average finish spent the latter half of 1997 treading water, finishing better than 20th only four times in the final 16 races.

Their six top-10s on the season almost encompassed all of their lead-lap finishes, leading to a jaw-dropping 25th-place finish in the points.

Dejected and defeated, Marlin and Morgan-McClure parted ways at season’s end.

For 1998, Marlin sought familiarity. When Robby Gordon was fired from Team SABCO toward the end of the previous season, owner Felix Sabates wanted to bring in a veteran, and with Tony Glover acting as team manager, Marlin found his new home.

The season got off to a rocky start for Marlin and the Coors Light crew. A win in his Gatorade Duel at Daytona was a misnomer as Marlin finished a lap down in 22nd in the 500.

Two more top-25s showed a lack of speed, but a DNQ in race four in Atlanta cemented that this team was just not ready to compete. The team wasn’t able to finish on the lead lap until the ninth race at Talladega, scoring their first top-10 in the process.

The good result sent a shot of adrenaline through the team as they managed eight-straight top-20 finishes. This good fortune continued throughout the rest of the season, only finishing outside the top-20 four times in the season’s final 25 races.

A far cry from Robby Gordon’s performance the year before, Marlin slowly but surely climbed his way back into the top-20 in points by the series’ first stop in Pocono and ended the year an impressive 13th in points after missing a race.

Hopes were high for 1999, but after an inconsistent start, crew chief Corrie Scott was let go in favor of Scott Eggleston. Eggleston spent the previous season and the start of 1999 with Marlin’s teammate, Joe Nemechek.

Marlin and Eggleston proved to be a solid partnership, yet they couldn’t get any higher than 15th in points throughout the season, settling in 16th after the finale in Atlanta.

2000 didn’t provide better results. Sabates brought in former Yates product Kenny Irwin Jr. to replace Nemechek, and an unfortunate accident in New Hampshire resulted in Marlin’s young teammate passing away. A dark cloud hung over SABCO for the rest of the season as Marlin placed outside the top-20 six times in the last nine races.

However, there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Midway through 2000, Sabates sold a significant stake of his race team to CART owner Chip Ganassi, bringing with him a new manufacturer for the sport and the team in Dodge.

Paired up with new crew chief Lee McCall, Marlin drove his new #40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid into Daytona and immediately made a statement, winning his Gatorade Duel and finishing seventh in the big race.

Marlin’s fine performance was overshadowed by contact made with Dale Earnhardt on the final lap that resulted in the legend’s death later that evening. Because of the incident, Marlin received death threats and negative fan interactions for the remainder of his career.

His connection with the tragedy didn’t slow him down, scoring almost as many top-10s in the first 10 races as they accumulated over the entire previous season.

At the season’s midway point in Chicago, Marlin sat fifth in the points with 5 top-5s and 10 top-10s, but a win eluded him, not having sniffed victory lane since the first Clinton administration.

The Silver Bullet came locked and loaded for the August race at Michigan. Starting 15th, Marlin fired through the field, taking the lead with 56 laps to go as inclement weather approached the track. When the sky opened up, Marlin was the leader, claiming the #40 team’s maiden victory and SABCO’s first win since September 1999.

McCall and Marlin soaked in the victory but didn’t slow down, notching a dominant win at the fall Charlotte race on their way to a 3rd-place points finish, tying Marlin’s career best.

A season with two wins, 12 top-5s, and 20 top-10s with an average finish of 13th is nothing to sneeze at, but Marlin and McCall knew they could do better in 2002.

The 44-year-old Marlin entered 2002 driving the #40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid for Ganassi and Sabates, primed and ready to win his first championship.

After a strong showing in the 500 the year before, Marlin sought to repeat that performance in 2002. While he couldn’t finish the job in his duel race, he intended to be in victory lane at the end of the Great American Race, by any means necessary.

Leading a race-high 78 laps, Marlin’s car was clearly head and shoulders above the competition, but on a late race restart, he found himself second behind Jeff Gordon. A stack-up on the restart caused a pileup, and in the mania that ensued, Marlin got a run on Gordon, bumping him before diving underneath him as they approached the exit to pit road.

With two tires on (not under) the yellow line, Marlin held his ground while Gordon came over, careening into the infield grass towards the entrance to turn 1. Marlin fought off Dodge compatriot Ward Burton and a vicious tire rub as the field stormed back to the caution flag, in what would’ve been a race to the finish.

If NASCAR hadn’t thrown the red flag.

With five laps to go, NASCAR stopped the field on the backstretch to allow for the safety workers to clean up the mess. The idle time gave Marlin an idea.

In a truly unprecedented move, Sterling lowered his window net, got out of his car, and ran over to the damaged right front fender. He desperately yanked on the fender to pull it away from the tire, figuring he could save a pit stop by fixing the car himself.

Though an ingenious thought, NASCAR rules explicitly prohibit work to be done on the race car under red flag conditions. Combine that with the dubious nature of Marlin’s overtake on Gordon, NASCAR had no choice but to penalize the Silver Bullet.

Sent to the tail end of the longest line for a two-lap shootout, Marlin fought his way back up to eighth before crossing the finish line.

Sterling didn’t let the embarrassment of defeat define him, going to Rockingham the next week and coming home with a formidable runner-up finish to take the points lead.

Despite a horrible qualifying effort at Vegas the next week, Marlin took advantage of a loophole in the rulebook to stay on the lead lap and service his car after causing a caution. He stayed up front for the remainder of the race, stealing the lead away from Jeremy Mayfield with 17 laps to go and holding on for the win after a late restart.

Atlanta gave way to another top-10 effort for the 40 team before a trip to the Lady in Black. Spending most of the race in the mix, Marlin drove by Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final run, leading the final 43 laps on his way to his second victory in three races.

Teammate Jimmy Spencer was the better Dodge at Bristol the next week, finishing in second place while Marlin struggled home to a 19th-place finish, one lap down. This didn’t hold down the 40 team long eight-straight finishes of 13th or better, ending with a bitter 21st at Michigan and blowing an engine 19 laps into Sonoma, relegating them to dead last.

Even so, Hendrick teammates Gordon and rookie Jimmie Johnson weren’t able to close the gap to Marlin after Sonoma as they both suffered mechanical issues placing them outside the top-30, giving rise to veteran Mark Martin.

Martin’s 7th-place run at Sonoma brought him up to second, only 62 points back behind Sterling. Mark wasn’t the only cause for concern as second-place finisher Tony Stewart drew much closer as well, sitting a mere 88 points behind in fifth.

The July Daytona race brought an opportunity for the 40 team to redeem themselves from the embarrassment in February, but a late-race caution that went on a bit longer than expected stymied their chances, having to settle for 3rd.

Trips to Chicago and Loudon didn’t do much to help the Coors Crew with finishes of 16th and 14th, but they outpaced their competition, maintaining a 55-point lead as the series headed toward the Pocono Mountains.

A wild weekend in Pocono ensued with multiple delays for rain plaguing the day. The weather didn’t hinder Sterling, snagging up 10 bonus points for leading the most laps, but Mother Nature came calling with 25 laps to go with Sterling having to settle for 3rd yet again.

Poor outings at Indy and the Glen brought Martin back within 60 points of the lead and brought more drivers in the title pursuit, with Ricky Rudd in 7th now only a race behind in points.

After a summer full of surprises and inconsistency, Marlin and the team shaped up, finishing no worse than 7th in their next three races. Unfortunately, an old foe in Gordon began heating up.

With his victory at the Bristol night race, Gordon snapped a 36-race winless streak, and he followed that up with another great performance at the Southern 500, leading 12 more laps than Marlin to claim the laps led bonus and beating him to the finish line.

Marlin held a nearly 100-point gap to the field heading into the final 11 races of 2002, a healthy gap for a team that has been in contention practically every week.

It all came apart at the next race in Richmond.

Starting deep in the field, teammates Marlin and Spencer tangled with Roush driver Jeff Burton, crashing all three cars. Marlin was the worst off, the crash placing him in dead last.

Luckily for Sterling, Gordon bowed out of the event with engine troubles, and Stewart went to the garage with only a few laps to go due to a lost driveshaft. Martin and Johnson finished 6th and 13th, allowing them to close to within 9 and 72 points of Marlin, respectively.

A 21st-place finish at the rain-shortened return to New Hampshire was matched by Marlin at the next race at Dover, causing him to lose the point lead he’d held since Rockingham.

Over a three-race span, Sterling and the team gave up an astonishing 221 points to Mark, leaving him 81 points behind the 6 team heading into Kansas.

Dodge and Ganassi wanted to rally around their veteran contender, giving him a fast piece for Kansas where Marlin qualified 7th. Marlin hung around the back end of the top-10 for the opening stages before a pit stop after the 100-lap mark dropped him to 14th.

Slowly but surely, Marlin began making a charge, driving back into the top-10 right after the race’s halfway mark. A caution would stop his charge on lap 143.

Restarting 7th, Marlin felt good about his car heading into the race’s final 100 laps, but on lap 148, his entire season unraveled in an instant.

Racing under the lapped car of Mike Wallace, Sterling got out of the gas slightly coming out of turn 2, bringing Jeff Burton to his rear bumper. The two cars connected, shooting the Silver Bullet toward the wall at over 150mph.

Marlin pounded the outside wall and innocently slid into the infield grass without collecting anyone else. The booth mentions how the Richmond incident shook Marlin up a few weeks back, with Sterling saying he was running at 90% before the Kansas race.

Slow to leave his car, Marlin was transported to the infield care center where he was checked and released before talking to the media. In his interview, Sterling looked stiff and in pain, two things anyone would be with a championship fading further and further from view.

Sterling returned to the hospital later that week, and it was found that he cracked a vertebrae in his neck, forcing him out of his car for the final seven races of 2002.

The reality is that Jamie McMurray and Mike Bliss replaced Marlin in those final races. McMurray was impressive, winning the race at Charlotte and racking up another top-10, and Bliss finished on the lead lap in 14th at Martinsville.

Since I’m curious, I want to make some educated guesses on if Sterling Marlin could have won the 2002 Winston Cup Championship if the Kansas crash hadn’t sidelined him.

The series returned to Talladega the next week where Marlin finished 5th in the spring. Marlin would’ve been delighted at the sight of Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson tangling before the green flag, hurting their ability to gain points.

In what is currently the final NASCAR Cup Series race to go caution-free, the 2002 EA Sports 500 was more of a race of mechanical attrition. All four Hendrick cars lost engines, leaving Johnson and Gordon stewing in 37th and 42nd, respectively.

McMurray’s day featured some mistakes, particularly on pit road, that a veteran in Marlin would not have made. On the race’s first stop, he stalled the car, but he was able to get the car refired and stay with the lead pack.

The second stop went by without a hitch, allowing McMurray to race with the leaders before making his third stop. McMurray ran out of gas on lap 104, causing the Silver Bullet to stall yet again. This time, the pit crew had to push McMurray halfway down Talladega’s long pit road to get the rookie refired before rejoining the action one lap down.

The 40 car clearly had speed, and I believe that McMurray’s inexperience led to the poor result. To make an educated guess, Sterling would’ve finished 6th with a lap lead, giving him 150 points on the day.

With the troubles of his championship rivals, Marlin would make up tons of ground on everyone but Stewart after the 20 car’s runner-up finish to Dale Jr.

The following race at Charlotte was the scene of McMurray’s famous first win in only his second start. Driving the car Marlin won with the year before, McMurray led a race-high 96 of the race’s 334 laps on his way to victory lane.

No disrespect to McMurray, but I imagine Sterling would have done the same thing, grabbing max points in an attempt to get back into the title fight. Problem is, Stewart, Gordon, and Johnson all finish well and led laps, blunting Marlin’s potential gains.

The series returned to the Paperclip with Mike Bliss in the car for his lone Cup start of the season, running a steady race all day on his way to a modest 14th-place finish.

Based on their performance at the spring Martinsville race as well as their poor performances at Loudon, I don’t think Sterling does any better than Bliss, leading no laps and finishing 14th as well. He would lose a spot to Johnson, now sitting 3rd in points, 99 points behind Stewart.

A rain delay in Atlanta pushed the race into the evening and eventually shortened the scheduled distance by nearly 100 laps, but it gave McMurray another top-10, finishing in 7th. Sterling’s 9th-place performance in the spring tells me that he matches his replacement for a second-straight week, coming home 7th without leading a lap.

Johnson’s poor run put Sterling in 2nd once more to Stewart, but another Stewart top-5 allows the 20 team to extend their gap a bit more to 118 points heading into the season’s final three races.

Coming back to the track where Sterling finished 2nd to Matt Kenseth earlier in the season, Rockingham looked like an even bigger opportunity for the Silver Bullet to shoot up the rankings, especially with McMurray’s win there in the Busch Series the day prior.

Despite their high hopes, fuel strategy got the best of most of the field, including McMurray, who led a lap but finished a lap down in 15th. I don’t think that happens to Sterling.

Having better fuel conservation and tire management experience, I think Sterling and McCall find their way to the top-5 by the time the checkers fly, coming home a solid 3rd behind Mark and Johnny Benson.

The laps led bonus and Stewart’s middling 14th-place run would propel Sterling to only 66 points behind, putting him within shouting distance of Stewart heading into Phoenix.

In 2001, Sterling’s day ended earlier than expected as a cut tire on lap 33 put the 40 team behind the 8-ball for the remainder of the day, ending the day 34th. Sterling was the first of over 10 different drivers who lost a tire randomly in that race, so I don’t think his finish was indicative of the speed his car had that day.

At the grueling dash in the desert, McMurray’s day came to an abrupt end on lap 27, crashing in turn 2 before taking the car to the garage for good after 253 laps, ending Ganassi’s run at an owner’s championship with a 40th-place finish.

Considering their poor performances on predominantly flat tracks, I highly doubt Sterling would’ve been able to race with a ton of speed that day, but I think he leads two laps during pit cycles and finishes 12th.

Phoenix was a race where the Coors Crew desperately needed more points, and much like rain in the desert, they weren’t falling out of the sky that day. Johnson had all but fallen out of the points battle, but Mark began to step up while Stewart snagged another top-10.

Going into the finale at Homestead, Mark and Sterling would be Stewart’s lone challengers for the title, being 86 and 76 points behind, respectively.

Surprisingly enough, one of Sterling’s best runs of 2001 was at Homestead. Leading a steady 24 laps, Marlin brought his Dodge around for a 5th-place finish at one of the circuit’s most interesting ovals.

McMurray didn’t fare as well, though. After qualifying 14th, McMurray struggled throughout the day, ending the season 22nd one lap off the pace.

With Sterling still in the thick of the title hunt, I think Chip and Dodge give the team the best engine and best car possible for this race. With some odd characters at the front of the field, I believe Sterling leads 53 laps and finishes 3nd.

Martin kept him honest with a 5th-place run, hanging between 3-8th all day long. Stewart stumbled, which was odd for a track that he practically owned the previous three seasons. Stewart ended the day 19th, with only 106 points to add to his total.

The 2002 season came to a close, and even in our alternative reality, Tony Stewart would still be the champion. Sometimes, things in this world are meant to happen a certain way.

Smoke closed out the season only 12 points ahead of Sterling, so even if he passed Nemechek and Busch at Homestead to take the win, it still wouldn’t be enough. Martin sulked in 3rd, 35 points behind the champion.

Sometimes, the protagonist wasn’t meant to win.

Sterling Marlin had what is perhaps the greatest season of his career ripped from his grasp in an instant, and maybe in a different universe, that wreck doesn’t hurt him, allowing him to go get the title he long desired.

I’d like to think that universe exists, but based on my estimations, I’m inclined to say it’s unlikely. Stewart went on an absolute assault of the point standings towards the end of 2002, and it seems like with everything breaking his way, no one was catching him.

The rest of Sterling’s career was underwhelming compared to his meteoric 2002 season, slowly fading out of relevancy as his age and injuries caught up with him. 

His last start was at Martinsville with underfunded owner James Finch in fall 2009 where he would complete 355 laps before his brakes failed. He brought it into the garage, never to hit the Cup Series circuit again.