By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
When Chip Ganassi tossed his chips into the NASCAR Winston Cup pot for the 2001 season, veteran driver Sterling Marlin hit the jackpot.
One of only three drivers to win back-to-back Daytona 500s, Marlin's career was beginning to stall when Ganassi purchased the Felix Sabates team and became one of the new owners as Dodge made its return to Winston Cup stock-car racing.
In four previous seasons from 1997-2000 while driving for Morgan-McClure and then Sabates, Marlin had no wins and only five top-five finishes in 133 races. His finishes in the Winston Cup standings were 25th, 13th, 16th and 19th.
Marlin comes into this Sunday's Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway leading the standings by 106 points. He has two victories (Las Vegas, Darlington) and seven top-five finishes, including a third at Pocono last Sunday, in his Coors Light Dodge. Last year he scored Dodge's first victory in its return to the sport, at Michigan Speedway, and finished third in the final standings.
"It's been real good," Marlin said. "Chip really brought new life into the team and sided with Dodge to come along with us. Since we've come together last year, we've been running good in a lot of races. So it's still a lot of fun."
An indication of how the fortunes have changed for Marlin, the 45-year-old son of former NASCAR driver Coo Coo Marlin, is just by examining his finishes in the Brickyard. He had not placed in the top 10 in the first seven NASCAR races at Indianapolis, and in 1996-97 he sputtered to 39th and 43rd places, respectively.
It was a complete reversal last August with Ganassi and Dodge. Marlin chased Jeff Gordon home in second by a mere .943 of a second.
"With Chip being here, there hasn't been anything that we wanted or needed for," Marlin said. "I mean, anything we felt we need to do to the race car, anything we need for the car, he'll buy it or go get it to make us go faster. That's one thing I think Chip's all about, about winning and what it takes."
Ganassi scored a victory with Juan Pablo Montoya at the Indianapolis 500 as an owner in 2000 and got a close second with Marlin with a stock car one year later.
So obviously Marlin didn't think he was gambling by siding with a rookie NASCAR owner and a new make of car.
"They had done their homework with the truck series and won a lot of races there," Marlin said of Dodge. "They weren't going into the Winston Cup and make a halfway showing. It was feet-first and try to win."
Marlin noted the team was competitive from the very beginning. His win at Michigan was the first for Dodge since Neil Bonnett at the late Ontario Speedway on Nov. 20, 1977. Marlin also won the fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.
"We should have had more than we did last year," he said, "but we were glad to get a couple of wins."
Marlin took the 2002 points lead with a second at North Carolina Speedway in the second race of the season and has continually held off the challenges of veterans Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon and young contenders like Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch. He is fighting for his first championship.
"It's pretty tough," he said about winning a title in a grueling 36-race schedule. "We've got to stay focused and try to win each week. Can't win, get us a top five and can't do that, pull out a top 10. We've got a good race team with the Coors Light team, so we're ready for the final push."
That starts with the Brickyard 400. The race has been a pivotal one for the champion very year since its inception in 1994. Last year, Gordon won for the third time and went on to capture his fourth championship.
"It would be really neat," Marlin said about winning at the storied 2.5-mile oval. "We came close to winning last year and ran second to Gordon. We feel like we want to come back this year and say we did our best. It would be good to win here."
Marlin also knows his car's handling on race day will have much to do with his outcome at the checkered flag due to the tight, flat turns at IMS.
"It's pretty hard," he said about passing in the turns. "The car's really got to drive good. It's a pretty critical balance here."
He hopes that balance will move him up one position from last year.
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