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.
Sterling Marlin may not be without a Nextel Cup ride for long. Late Tuesday a team source at Morgan-McClure Racing which currently fields the no. 4 Chevy with veteran Ward Burton said that officials there are in discussions with Marlin for a possible second team. Marlin scored six of his ten career wins at Morgan-McClure while driving the No. 4 from 1994-1997.
Sterling wants to keep driving some. He just likes driving. The money is good. But he doesn't need it.
More than one driver has stayed out there too long. Richard Petty did. Darrell Waltrip did. More recently, Kenny Schrader, Kenny Wallace, Ward Burton and Ricky Rudd are.
I have a lot more respect for people like Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin and Terry Labonte who know when to say when. Bill Elliott is in a class by himself. He has proven to have an uncanny ability to drive anyone's car and help them out. See his recent renaissance in the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing car.
If Sterling goes to MMM, I'll give him a chance to pull off a miracle this year before giving up on him.
I do not like the way things at Ginn went down. However, all you had to do was look at Ginn's business record to know that he might do something like what he did.
Given Ginn may merge with DEI, might MMM merge with Haas? Burton plus Marlin = two car team + Haas = four car team (franchise for 2009)?
Wouldn't it be sweet to see Sterling back in the 4 with Kodak on the side? Damn, I'm starting to dream again already.
And oh yeah, wasn't Ward going to pay Sterling back or something? How might this work out?
One more thought. 1997? Ten years have gone by already?
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.
23-year-old Regan Smith led a career-high 24 laps in Friday night's Busch Series Diamond Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway, the second most behind race winner Denny Hamlin. He also moved to eighth-place in driver points, up two spots from last week. http://www.mb2mbvmotorsports.com/photo_view.cfm?i mageid=2298
"We had an awesome car tonight. We come to the track each week knowing that we're going to be competitive and that's a good feeling," continued Smith. "We're having a great time and I can't wait until we get our first win."
The Busch Series will have next weekend off before returning to the track on May 26 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Keep an eye on Regan. I believe he will run full time for Ginn racing next year. I am thinking he will inherit the Waste Management ride from my man Sterling Marlin after he retires. From what I see the kid is alright. Only The Shadow knows.
Regan Smith has competed in three Busch Series events at Phoenix International Raceway, and has notched two top-five starting spots, a third (Nov. '05) and fourth (Nov. '06).
"We get to the track each week and the No. 4 Chevy is fast off the truck," Smith said. "We're taking a pretty sporty Shea HomesChevy to Phoenix this week so we're just focusing on that event and working toward delivering a top-10 or better finish."
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