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is a retired NASCAR Cup Series driver. He is the son of late NASCAR driver Coo Coo Marlin. He is married to Paula and has a daughter, Sutherlin, and a son, Steadman, who sometimes races in the Xfinity Series. While he attended Spring Hill High School, Marlin played high school basketball and football, earning the captain status his senior year, while he played quarterback and linebacker. In 1976, he made his NASCAR debut at Nashville Speedway, filling in for his injured father in the #14 H.B. Cunningham Chevrolet. He started 30th and finished 29th after suffering oil pump failure early in the race. He made two more starts in 1978, finishing ninth at World 600 and twenty-fifth at Nashville for Cunningham. He ran Nashville again in 1979, finishing seventeenth. In 1980, he posted two top-tens, eighth in the Daytona 500 for Cunningham, and seventh at Nashville for D.K. Ulrich. From 1980 to 1982, Marlin was a three time track champion at the historic Nashville Speedway USA. In 1983, Marlin was hired by Roger Hamby to drive his #17 Hesco Exhaust Chevrolet. He posted a tenth-place finish at Dover International Speedway and finished 19th in the standings, clinching the Rookie of the Year award. Marlin moved over to the #1 Bull's Eye Barbecue Sauce car owned by Hoss Ellington in 1986. His best finish that season came at the Firecracker 400, where he finished second. Marlin received a full-time ride in 1987, when he was hired by Billy Hagan to drive the #44 Piedmont Airlines Oldsmobile. He had four Top 5's and finished 11th in points. The following season, he had seven finishes of eighth or better in the first ten races and

finished tenth in the standings. Marlin signed to drive the #22 Maxwell House Ford Thunderbird for Junior Johnson in 1991. He had a second-place finish at Daytona to start the season and won two poles at Talladega Superspeedway and the Firecracker 400, finishing seventh in the standings. The next season, he won an additional five poles and had six top-five finishes. Despite his career-high pole total, Marlin departed to drive the #8 Raybestos Ford for Stavola Brothers Racing. He had just one top-five finish and fell to 14th in the standings. Marlin's first career win came in his 279th career start at the 1994 Daytona 500

driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports in the #4 Kodak car. He went on to win the 500 again in the following year, becoming only one of three drivers to win consecutive Daytona 500s. The other two men that have accomplished that feat were Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough. He also became the only driver to have his first two career wins at the Daytona 500. Marlin won two more times during the 1995 season. In 2001, SABCO's majority ownership stake was purchased by CART (now IRL) championship owner Chip Ganassi and the team switched to Dodge Intrepids. In his first race with the

new team, Marlin won the Gatorade 125 qualifying race at Daytona. Three days later at the Daytona 500, Marlin appeared to make contact with Dale Earnhardt, causing Earnhardt to crash into the Turn 4 wall, an impact that would kill him. In the following days, Marlin and his family received hate mail and death threats from angry fans who wrongly felt that Marlin was responsible for Earnhardt's death. He was eventually publicly defended by two of Earnhardt's drivers, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Michael Waltrip, and was also cleared of any wrongdoing by NASCAR's investigation into the accident. He won Dodge's

first race in its return to NASCAR at Michigan International Speedway, as well as winning the UAW-GM Quality 500. He tied his career best points finish of third that season. Sterling Marlin's last win was the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway back in 2002. Sterling Marlin failed to win races the rest of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. Sterling Marlin's last NASCAR Cup Series race was the 2009 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. In 2002, Marlin took the points lead after the second race of the season and did not let it go for the

following 24 weeks. For most of that time he held a comfortable lead, which reached triple digits several times and was still 91 points ahead of second place entering the Chevy Monte Carlo 400 in September. However, Marlin finished that race in last place after an early accident and saw his points lead all but evaporate as Mark Martin, who had entered the race 125 points behind Marlin, gained 116 points and moved into second place in the points as Marlin's lead shrunk to nine points (Jeff Gordon, who had leapfrogged Martin for second place in the standings with a win the week before, also gained on Marlin but dropped to fourth due to the strong finishes from both Martin and rookie Jimmie Johnson, who gained 95 points on Marlin to move into third). At the New Hampshire 300 the next week. Marlin lost the points lead as Martin finished four

places ahead of him, gaining 15 points. One week later, at the Protection One 400 at Kansas, Marlin crashed hard after 147 laps and finished 33rd. Due to the crash, he was later diagnosed with a cracked vertebra in his neck and would be forced to miss the remaining seven races. Marlin was replaced by Busch Series driver Jamie McMurray, who had recently been signed by Chip Ganassi Racing to drive for the team in the 2003 season. McMurray won the UAW-GM Quality 500 in his second start in Marlin's car, and

Marlin telephoned McMurray during the post-race festivities to congratulate him. Marlin joined MB2 Motorsports for 2006 to drive the Waste Management Chevy, running with the #14 in tribute to his father, Coo Coo Marlin, who died during the 2005 season. Marlin's only Top 10 finish in 2006 was ninth place finish at Richmond. His 2006 season was shadowed by bad luck and #14 finished 36th in owner points. It would prove to be his last full time Cup ride. He ran part time the next three season; and his final starts would come in 2009. He drove the Miccosukee Resorts Dodge at Martinsville, and finished 35th after his brakes failed. For his career Marlin ran 748 Cup events. He posted 10 wins; with five of them being at the huge fast

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STERLING MARLIN - 06/30/1957