Jeff Wackerlin
Senior Editor Racingone.com

CONCORD, N.C. - Prior to last weekend's NEXTEL Open at Lowe's Motor Speedway, RacingOne sat down with Sterling Marlin to discuss a number of topics.

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RacingOne: With your strong run at Talladega do you think Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an eye on the team?

Marlin: You’ll have to talk to Junior and Bobby Ginn, I guess.  I don’t know.

RacingOne: If it were down to Ginn and Hendrick to sign Dale Jr. who do you think it would be?

Marlin: Ummm...I’d say Hendrick.

Hmm.  Does Sterling know something about the driver situation at Hendrick or was this just an off the cuff remark before Hendrick's "no room at the inn" statement was aired?

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Note:  I recently talked to another official board administrator about cutting and pasting articles after he copied an entire article to his board.  His response?  No worries.  My response? Hakuna Matata.

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Welcome to my newsgroup.  Love it or leave it.

RacingOne: Jamie McMurray said you were one of the best at playing practical jokes on the guys in the garage area.  What was the best one you played on a driver throughout the years?

Marlin: I’ve done a lot, but Earnhardt and I used to prank each other a whole lot.  Probably the best one on him was I put a bunch of wheel weights on his car.  We were in Sonoma.  I wheel weighted him real good and greased his windshield wipers and put a bunch of dust on his windshield wipers where he had to cut it on.  Come to find out, it wasn’t a rent-a-car, it was some dealer’s car.  He was hot!

Just one more reason I came to like Dale.  He and Sterling were better buddies than most people realized.

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RacingOne: How many more year's will we see Sterling Marlin behind the wheel of a Cup car?

Marlin: I don’t know.  I’m studying on it now and if I do run anything I might run 20 races or the whole schedule again.  I don’t know.  Kind of waiting on sponsors and see what they are going to do, and what Jay (Frye) and Bobby want to do, and work it all out.

RacingOne: When you do retire would you still be involved with something at the race track?

Marlin: I’d still come and hang out a little bit. I mean you won’t see me at Watkins Glen or Sonoma. But you'll see me at other tracks. I still have a bunch of friends still in it.

If Sterling doesn't make plans, they will be made for him.  I think he is letting fate help him make his decision.  That is not necessarily a bad thing.  It is wise to take inventory of circumstances.  I believe he will retire from full time Cup racing if he doesn't finish in the top 20 in points.

more...

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35488