One of Sterling Marlin's favorite stories of survival to tell is from when he was a kid and tagging along with his father, former NASCAR driver Clifton "Coo Coo" Martin, to a race at Talladega. This was back in the day when drivers hauled their racecars behind them on open trailers.
"We were coming out of there one day. The road dead-ended and turned right. He was running about 85 [mph] after driving that racecar all day, and he's towing the racecar behind us," Marlin said. "I was sittin' in the middle of the cab in his truck and I was thinking, 'Man, he needs to be slowin' down.' He went to hit the brakes and I remember seeing the brake light come on. There wasn't no brakes.
"He hit the curb and flipped, and we slid across the highway on the roof. The racecar come loose and like to have run through some poor woman's house. It didn't hurt the truck. It knocked the mirrors off, but we flipped it back over, put some oil in it and the next day we drove it home. We had to weld the trailer back together a little bit, but that was about it."
Marlin part-time? Many drivers seem convinced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will accept an offer to drive for Bobby Ginn [Racing #01,#13,#14], even though Ginn, a Florida real- estate developer, is new to the sport, with less than a year on the circuit. Ginn has been spending lavishly to turn the Jay Frye-run Chevy team into a top-flight operation. Driver Mark Martin led the Nextel Cup standings early this season and even after missing three of the year’s 12 races he’s still 15th in the points. Martin’s teammate #14-Sterling Marlin is planning to cut back to a partial schedule, and Ginn said that would open the 14 car and its top-35 exemption for Earnhardt.(Winston Salem Journal)(6-1-2007)
My current take is Jr. to the 14. Jr. has a lot of respect for Coo Coo Marlin and Sterling and would be proud to make the 14 a number that was truly his. Mark and Sterling could share the 01. That leaves Joe Nemechek in the 14. Regan Smith would get the new team. Craig Kinser would move up to the Busch Series.
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