Look, Bill can tell a story better than I can, so why would I want to add to it or detract from it. Check out these excerpts and then the full article if you have time. It's a good piece. Cheers!
Sterling said most of the legal issues -- meaning contract and money -- have been worked out, so he can look for a ride. He said he doesn't have one.
"I can drive if I want to," Marlin said. "Next year I was going to cut back anyway, wasn't gonna plan on running the full deal, unless a really good car come along to run. I was gonna cut back to 15 or 20 races, and if that didn't come off it didn't. So maybe I would run a few Busch races just to keep your hand in it, have a good time. You enjoy racing so if I don't do that we'll drive a Late Model at Nashville."
So at least we can watch him race there! I'm hoping we'll see him somewhere else before that, but, maybe not.
The fan reaction to the Sterling Shuffle has been predictable. I'm not talking about the Internet, I'm talking about fans that come up to you and ask, "What happened to Sterling?" "Why did they do that to Sterling?" The rear windows of the Chevy Tahoe I saw driving around Indianapolis when I arrived on Wednesday: "Save Sterling from Ginn Racing ... the last resort", a shot at another business interest of car owner Bobby Ginn.
Marlin, make that Sterling -- it's hard to call Sterling by his last name -- knows all about the fan response.
"Yeah, I heard the Web site stuff was crammed full and I guess the Ginn Web site got blasted, I don't know, but I want to thank all the fans for all the years and it's been great. The fans are what make it all go 'round so I want to thank them all for supporting me all the years."
It took approximately 10 days but Bobby Ginn finally took the time to talk to Sterling Marlin about the status of his contract. Ginn caught Marlin Thursday while Marlin was on the way to do an interview with Nashville Tennessee's Channel 5 TV. That interview is the original source of this report.
Marlin intends to get paid for the rest of the year via his contract with Ginn. Towards that end he is taking no chances. He has been contacted by two persons regarding other rides but feels forced by his contract with Ginn to turn them down at this time.
Most telling is a conversation Marlin had with former Ginn CEO Jay Frye. Jay told Sterling he could go ahead and drive for somebody else if he got an offer. Marlin asked Frye for that in writing.
Sterling Marlin says he has had calls from other teams but can't drive for any team until he gets issues resolved with former employer Ginn Racing.
"A couple of guys called, but I can't do nothing. Part of your contract, if you drive somebody else's car, you null and void your contract. So I'll sit and wait here and see what the lawyers say."
Marlin said the team still owes him money, and while he won't like to sit around and wait, he will.
"I haven't talked to Bobby [Ginn]. [They] haven't returned calls to my lawyers," Marlin said. "They're kind of just leaving me hanging. ... I'd like to get something worked out and at least finish the year out with somebody if I could."
"There was a lot of stress and a lot of hard work," Marlin said. "I'm really proud of all of the guys that worked on the team. We ran the gauntlet there for seven races - we had to make it [on speed] the last two races [last year].
"We made them, and a lot of guys can't say that. A lot of teams with good drivers and the money and didn't do it. We were the only ones to do it, and it's all for naught now. It's like being kicked in the groin."
Sterling is a little bit perturbed I'd say. He is smart enough to leave getting paid up to his attorneys though. And he is smart enough to not risk compromising the contract he has by driving another car too soon. He ain't no dummy. He didn't just fall off of the turnip truck yesterday.
Bowles-Eye View · Thomas Bowles · Frontstrech - Monday July 23, 2007
As the 2007 season enters its final 16-week stretch, Sterling Marlin has recently found himself stretching for any help he can get – his career sidetracked by way of the unemployment line, courtesy beleaguered car owner Bobby Ginn. After releasing Marlin and fellow veteran Joe Nemechek this week due to team restructuring, Ginn made it clear that lack of sponsorship – both men were running without full-time support – proved the biggest motivation behind making changes to his team. Fans have been merciless in their criticisms ever since; for all I can tell, Ginn’s about as popular in NASCAR-land right now as Kyle Busch with Hendrick Motorsports.
In some ways, those fans have a beef. As I pointed out in Sports Illustrated two weeks ago, there’s no doubt Ginn hasn’t been the best of owners – right now, the way he’s running his team into the ground makes Britney Spears’ fall from grace look pleasant by comparison. But behind all the yelling and screaming from the old-time crowds and some of my fellow talking heads, Ginn does make one point about Marlin’s release that carries weight. To make an organization work at NASCAR’s top level, you need sponsorship to make it happen – and in order to snag sponsorship, you need to produce. Unfortunately for Marlin, now 50 and in the midst of what he claimed was his last full-time season, that hasn’t happened for quite sometime.
It’s not like the driver wasn’t given every opportunity to make things happen. After three crew chiefs plus an owner change, the No. 14 has been through several transformations – and none of them have worked. Twenty races in, Marlin’s lone distinction is the only driver to make every race and not come up with a Top 10 finish. When added to last season’s collection of disappointments, the best Marlin’s been able to come up with since sitting in this seat is a 9th at Richmond – over one year and 45 starts ago.
If those are the most recent numbers on your resume, it’s hard to get sponsors to invest in you, even if you once were a lucky break away from taking the 2002 Cup title. Ironically, should Marlin have held on that season he would be in high demand, the first in line for the Past Champion’s Provisional made famous this year for keeping both teams and careers afloat. But alas, a hard crash in Kansas kept Marlin sidelined for the final seven races that year– leaving him in the category of “better” and not the “best.”
Despite being repeatedly acused of "only" cutting and pasting, sometimes I think other authors are perfectly capable of summing things up very well. I think Thomas did that right here. Consequently, I see no need to add my 2 cents at this point. On the other hand, in the tradition of newsgroups, that later developed into blogs, I am happy to share this information with you and will gladly discuss it with you. Feel free to add your comments.
The plans for next year are for three cars: Mark Martin and a yet-to-be announced driver in the No. 01, Regan Smith in the No. 14, and Joe Nemechek in the No. 13. But only one of those vehicles -- Martin's U.S. Army car -- has sponsorship in place for 2008.
The odd man out appears to be Marlin, who turned 50 earlier this year. The former Daytona 500 champion would like to run a partial schedule next season like the one Martin is running now, but the prospects of doing that at Ginn seems dim.
"Sometimes thing happen for a reason, and you've got to step back and reevaluate where you're at, and it will make you better for a long time. I think that's where we're at," team CEO Jay Frye said. "We're backing up, we're evaluating where we're at, and that's going to help us better next year this time. Joe and Sterling's contracts are both up at the end of the year. If we continue like we are, what effect does that have? What do we do? What are we doing? Is that part of our future? Joe certainly could be. Sterling, probably not. If we have a part-time opportunity for him and we can put it together, great. Right now, I can't guarantee that's going to happen."
With the Busch team shut down -- right now, there are no plans to revive it -- Smith is losing out on valuable seat time. Frye said the team wants to get Smith in more Cup races, other than those he's splitting with Martin in the No. 01 car. How? "We're working through that, too," said Frye, also a minority owner of the team. "He's got to race every week, too."
Sponsorship would solve a lot of problems, but it's proven hard to find. Every week, Frye watches his three cars -- all inside the Top 35 in owner points -- make the race. And he watches other teams with big sponsors and better funding go home.
"We couldn't be more frustrated because of that," Frye said. "The sponsors that we have, they've been with us a long time. There's a reason. We provide a good value to them. It's a partnership. We're not just taking their money, not that other teams are. We're a good place to be, we think. You continue and continue, and it's like the twilight zone. Every week is the same thing. We do what we do, and others don't. I'm not knocking those teams, but it is what it is. How do we show that value to somebody? We're trying. Every day, we're trying."
"Unfortunately we did what we did a couple of weeks ago, and basically that was a derivative of, we grew so fast, and we just had to reevaluate where we were at people-wise," Frye said Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. "Again, even at that point, we didn't know what we were going to do. Did we have enough, not enough? We didn't know where we were at. It became apparent we had too many [people]."
"The core group here is still here and will continue to be here," Martin said. "The 01 is sponsored for '08 and the driver lineup is set for '08 and the crew chief is set for '08 and I know the team members are the same ones who have been involved at that place for a long time. Don't forget this is the little team that could, and I expect it to get back to that. Trying to go through explosive expansion is a really tough thing to do, and for various reasons, [Ginn isn't] being as successful at expanding as quickly as they had hoped. Getting back to that core group and getting stronger, it's exciting for me in that respect."
Did I just watch Sterling Marlin's last NASCAR Nextel Cup race? Will Regan Smith be announced as the new driver of the 14 on Tuesday? While it sounds like Joe may still be with Ginn, it doesn't sound like Sterling will be. Stay tuned.
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