(born
June 30 ,
1957 in
Columbia, Tennessee ) is a
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver who drove the #14
Waste Management Chevrolet Monte Carlo for
Ginn Racing until being replaced by Regan Smith July 17, 2007. His future plans are uncertain at this time. He is the son of former NASCAR driver
Coo Coo Marlin . 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.
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 season 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 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 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. He left the #4 team at year's end.
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 Intrepid s. 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 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 actually led the
2002 Daytona 500 with six laps remaining until a
Red Flag caution caused all drivers to have to stop and hold their positions. While waiting for the race to resume, Marlin climbed out of his car to re-position some loose sheetmetal on his hood. Under NASCAR rules, no work of any kind is allowed to be performed on any car being scored as running in a race during a
Red Flag caution period. Marlin was ordered to the back of the lead lap as a penalty.
Ward Burton would go on to win, and Marlin finished eighth.
Marlin led the 2002 points standings for 25 straight weeks, holding a triple-digit advantage through most of the run. He lost the points lead to
Mark Martin after the
Sylvania 300 , and would stand fourth in points going into the
Protection One 400 at
Kansas Speedway . During the race Marlin crashed and suffered a severe neck injury, causing him to miss the remainder of the season. 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. Also that year, Sterling had a few good chances to win races, but fell short. One notable example was in the
Sharpie 500 at
Bristol Motor Speedway that year. Sterling was having a good race and had led quite a bit of it but on Lap 374, he was spun out by
Kurt Busch , leaving the home crowd mad and leading some people to question
NASCAR 's treatment of the situation. 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.
at the 2006 spring Bristol race.]]
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. His 2006 season was shadowed by bad luck and #14 finished 36th in owner points. However, the #14 team came back strong in 2007. Sterling made it on speed for the
2007 Daytona 500 and was able to give his teamate,
Joe Nemechek a spot in the 500 during their Duel race.
Marlin was able to qualify via speed for each of the first five races of the
2007 season, his #14 team was the only team out of the top 35 from last year to do this.
Sterling has had good runs so far this season, but last year's bad luck has spoiled those bad finishes. In Las Vegas, Marlin was running in the top 10, and with around 20 laps to go closing in on a top 5 until his engine failed. At Martinsville, Marlin was making his way to the front with a very strong car until he was spun out by
Scott Riggs , Riggs got the top 10, Sterling finished 21st. His team currently sits within the top 35 in owner points, thereby assuring Sterling a starting position (regardless of qualifying speed) in upcoming races.
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.
- "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." {Link without Title}
- "I got run over by a bug-eyed dummy." in reference to an incident with Greg Biffle in 2004 at Watkins Glen.
- "I can get up and look in the mirror and know I've done everything right. I don't think that's the case on the other side so I'll just leave it at that" After being replaced by Regan Smith on July 17, 2007 in the #14 Ginn Racing Chevrolet
''Last Updated: July 5, 2007''
