Sterling Marlin
Marlin in 1996
Born	Sterling Burton Marlin (1957-06-30)June 30, 1957 (age 68) Columbia, Tennessee, U.S.
Achievements	1994,1995 Daytona 500 winner 1996Winston 500 winner 1980–1982Nashville Speedway USA Track Champion
Awards	1983 Winston Cup SeriesRookie of the Year 1995, 1996 Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year 2002 Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year Nominee Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame (2009) Named one ofNASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers (2023)
NASCARCup Series career
748 races run over 33 years
Best finish	3rd (1995,2001)
First race	1976Music City USA 420 (Nashville)
Last race	2009TUMS Fast Relief 500 (Martinsville)
First win	1994 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Last win	2002Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 (Darlington)
Wins Top tens Poles 10 216 11
NASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
77 races run over 17 years
Best finish	29th (2005)
First race	1986Winn-Dixie 300 (Charlotte)
Last race	2008Pepsi 300 (Nashville)
First win	1990All Pro 300 (Charlotte)
Last win	2000Cheez-It 250 (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles 2 22 1

Sterling Burton Marlin (born June 30, 1957) is an American former professionalstock car racing driver. He last competed in theJEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour. He formerly competed in theNASCAR Cup Series, winning theDaytona 500 in1994 and1995. He is the son of late NASCAR driverCoo Coo Marlin. He is married to Paula and has a daughter, Sutherlin, a son,Steadman, a formerNASCAR Xfinity Series driver, and a grandson Stirlin who races for Sterling in Sterling’s No. 114Super Late Model. Marlin is a member of theNASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers list.

In 1983, Marlin was hired byRoger Hamby to drive his No. 17 Hesco Exhaust-sponsoredChevrolet. He posted a tenth-place finish atDover International Speedway and finished nineteenth in the standings, clinching the Rookie of the Year award. Despite finishing fifteenth in the1984 Daytona 500 for Hamby, Marlin spent most of the season running for Sadler Brothers Racing, posting two top-ten finishes. He also competed in one race forJimmy Means and Dick Bahre respectively. Marlin only made eight starts in 1985, seven of them coming for Sadler, his best finish being twelfth atTalladega Superspeedway. He ended his season atCharlotte Motor Speedway in theMiller High Life 500, driving the Helen Rae Special. He finished 29th, after suffering flywheel failure.

Marlin moved over to the No. 1Bull's Eye Barbecue Sauce-sponsored car owned byHoss Ellington in 1986. His best finish that season came at theFirecracker 400, where he finished second. Marlin got a full-time ride in 1987, when he was hired byBilly Hagan to drive the No. 44Piedmont Airlines-sponsoredOldsmobile. He had four top-fives and finished eleventh in points. The following season, he had seven finishes of eighth or better in the first ten races and finished tenth in the standings. In 1989, the team received sponsorship fromSunoco and switched to the number 94. He tied a career-best thirteen top-ten finishes but dropped to twelfth in the final standings. He left the team at the end of the 1990 season. During the 1990 season, he won his first careerBusch Series race at Charlotte, driving the No. 48Diamond Ridge-sponsored Chevrolet owned by Fred Turner.

Marlin signed to drive the No. 22Maxwell House-sponsoredFord Thunderbird forJunior Johnson in 1991. He had a second-place finish at Daytona to start the season and won two poles atTalladega Superspeedway and the Firecracker 400, and had a total of seven top-fives and sixteen top tens, finishing sevenh in the standings. The next season, he had six top fives, thirteen top-tens and five poles, finishing 10th in the standings. Marlin departed to drive the No. 8Raybestos-sponsored Ford forStavola Brothers Racing. In 1993, he had just one top-five and eight top-tens and fell to fifteenth in the standings.

Marlin's first career win came in his 279th career start at the1994 Daytona 500 driving forMorgan-McClure Motorsports in the No. 4Kodak-sponsored Chevrolet, the most starts for a driver before his first win beforeMichael Waltrip's win at the2001 Daytona 500. In 1994, he had one win, five top-fives and eleven top-tens, and rose slightly to 14th in the standings. He went on to win the 500 again in the following year, becoming only one of five drivers to win consecutive Daytona 500s. The other four men that have accomplished that feat wereRichard Petty,Cale Yarborough,Denny Hamlin, andWilliam Byron. 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 (at Darlington and Talladega) for a total of three wins, nine top fives, 22 top tens, 472 laps led, an average finish of 9.84, and ranking a career best 3rd in the standings. In 1996, Marlin had two wins, five top-fives, ten top tens, and finished eighth in the standings. In 1997, he scored just two top-fives and six top-tens, and dropped to 25th in the standings, leaving the No. 4 team at year's end.

In 1998, he joinedSABCO Racing to drive the No. 40Coors Light-sponsored Chevrolet. He opened the season by winning theGatorade 125, a qualifying race for the Daytona 500 but three weeks later, he failed to qualify for thePrimestar 500, the first race he had missed since 1986. He finished in the top-ten six times and had a 13th-place points finish. In 1999, he won his first pole since 1995 atPocono Raceway, but dropped down to sixteenth in the standings. In 2000, he won his second career Busch Series race, driving SABCO's No. 82 entry atBristol Motor Speedway. During the season, he lost teammateKenny Irwin Jr. in a fatal practice crash atNew Hampshire International Speedway. After finishing in the top-ten seven times, he fell back to nineteenth in the overall standings.

In2001, SABCO's majority ownership stake was purchased byCART &IndyCar championship ownerChip Ganassi and the team switched toDodge 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, on the final lap, Marlin's car made contact withDale Earnhardt's rear bumper in turn 4, causing Earnhardt tocrash into the turn 4 wall, an impact that would kill him instantly. In the following days after the race, Marlin and his family receivedhate mail and death threats from angry fans of Earnhardt as well as the sport in general who felt that Marlin was responsible for Earnhardt's death. He was eventually publicly defended by two of Earnhardt's drivers,his son and race winnerMichael 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 atMichigan International Speedway, as well as winning theUAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte. He tied his career best points finish of third that season. Had the 2004-2013NASCAR Playoffs points system been in place in 2001, Marlin would have been the 2001 champion.^[1]In 2002, Marlin had a strong car at theDaytona 500, and towards the end was battlingJeff Gordon for the lead when they made contact, sending Gordon spinning. NASCAR had then red-flagged the race so it would not finish under caution, and stopped the field momentarily on the backstretch. Concerned about a damaged right front fender, Marlin jumped out of his car and started pulling the fender away from the tire. As working on the car is prohibited during red flag conditions under NASCAR regulations, Marlin was sent to the tail end of the field for the restart. Marlin would finish in eighth.

The following week, Marlin finished second in Rockingham toMatt Kenseth. Marlin took the points lead^[2] 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. Marlin followed this 2nd-place finish with a win at theUAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but not without controversy: During the race, Marlin spun while making late race pit stop, causing him to break the pit road speed limit. NASCAR's penalty for being too fast entering pit road was to hold the car in its pit stall for an additional fifteen seconds, but the official at Marlin's pit stall was not informed of the penalty untilafter the crew had released the car. NASCAR determined that they had no precedent for forcing Marlin to return to the pits as his early release was their mistake (and they could not order him to return for a stop and go penalty). Following the incident, NASCAR changed the rule so that all speeding violations are enforced with a drive through penalty (forcing the driver to travel the length of pit road at the speed limit).

After this win, Marlin finished 9th the following week at Atlanta. The week after that, he won the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 atDarlington Raceway, which would be the final win of his Cup career.

With a series of strong finishes (seventh at Texas, fifth at Talladega, seventh at California, fourth in June at Pocono, third at Daytona, third at the second Pocono race, sixth at Michigan in August, seventh at Bristol, and fourth at Darlington in the fall), Marlin was still 91 points ahead of second place entering theChevy Monte Carlo 400 in September. However, Marlin finished that race in last place after an early accident^[3] and saw his points lead all but evaporate asMark 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 andJimmie Johnson, who gained 95 points on Marlin to move into third).^[4] At theNew Hampshire 300 the next week Marlin lost the points lead as Martin finished four places ahead of him, gaining fifteen points.^[4] The next week, Marlin dropped to 4th in the standings after a 21st-place finish at Dover.^[4]

One week later, at theProtection One 400 at Kansas, Marlin had a hard crash after 147 laps and finished 33rd.^[5] He was diagnosed with a cracked vertebra in his neck and would be forced to miss the remaining seven races. Marlin was replaced by Busch Series driverJamie McMurray, who had recently been signed by Chip Ganassi Racing to drive for the team in the 2003 season. McMurray won theUAW-GM Quality 500 in his second start with Marlin's car, and Marlin telephoned McMurray during the post-race festivities to congratulate him. Marlin ultimately finished 18th in the final season points with eight top-fives and ten top-tens. Marlin's injury was the beginning of a struggle for Chip Ganassi Racing to win races on a regular basis - a slump that would last from 2002 towards 2010.

Marlin did not finish in the top-five in 2003, but had eleven top-ten finishes and matched his previous year's finish of eighteenth in points. He did however come close to a win at the 2003 Sharpie 500 at his hometown in Bristol Tennessee. Marlin controlled the race early and mid-way and appeared to have victory in his hands until he was wrecked byKurt Busch with less than 150 laps to go.Kurt Busch went on to win the race but apologized in victory lane. Marlin however was not pleased with Busch in post-race ceremonies, stating "What a bone-headed move. I guess Spencer didn't punch him hard enough.", as a reference to Busch and Jimmy Spencer's altercation the previous week. Busch would later say in a post-race interview, and later in a 2020 podcast withDale Earnhardt Jr. that he offered to buy Marlin a six-pack of Coors as a peace offering, but was turned down.

Despite three top-fives in2004, he fell to 21st in points. During the2005 season, Ganassi announced Marlin would be replaced byDavid Stremme for the2006 season in order to attract the younger male demographic. It was also said thatRichard Childress Racing had offered Marlin a deal to drive the No. 07 Jack Daniels-sponsored Chevrolet, However, Marlin honored his contract with Ganassi and finished out the 2005 season. He did however miss one race-the 2005Sirius at the Glen to attend the funeral of his fatherCoo Coo Marlin who died of lung cancer one day before the race. Road ringerScott Pruett replaced Sterling in the No. 40 and finished fourth in the race.

He reached as high as sixth in the points standings, but would later fall to thirtieth in the final standings.

Marlin joinedMB2 Motorsports for 2006 to drive theWaste Management Chevy, running with the No. 14 in tribute to his father,Coo Coo Marlin, who died during the 2005 season. Marlin's only top-ten finish in 2006 was ninth place at Richmond. His 2006 season was shadowed by bad luck and No. 14 finished 36th in owner points.

Marlin was able to qualify via speed for each of the first five races of the 2007 season, hisPep Boys No. 14 team was the only team out of the top-35 from 2006 to do this. Marlin's run in the No. 14 ended on July 17, 2007, when Ginn Racing announcedRegan Smith, who had been splitting time withMark Martin in Ginn'sU.S. Army-sponsored No. 01 car, would replace him beginning at theAllstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis. He attempted to qualify for two races in 2007, but he failed to qualify for either. He tried to make theSharpie 500 at Bristol in the No. 78 car as a replacement forKenny Wallace, and theUAW-Ford 500 at Talladega, replacingMike Wallace in the No. 09 car. However, in November he managed to qualify the No. 09 and drove at Phoenix for a 25th place finish, and a week later at Homestead finishing 33rd.

Marlin failed to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500 in the No. 09 car, but qualified at Talladega and the following week at Richmond as well. For Darlington, Marlin raced in his old No. 40 car and qualified 14th, and also at the Coca-Cola 600 atLowe's Motor Speedway in the No. 40, still in for the injuredDario Franchitti. He finished out the rest of the season driving forPhoenix Racing. In March 2009, Marlin participated in and won the Saturday Night Special, a charity event at Bristol Motor Speedway which included NASCAR Legends. He led the entire event in a car painted similar to the one he drove withMorgan McClure Motorsports, and wearing an older-style Coors Light uniform from his days while driving for Chip Ganassi.

For the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Marlin continued to run a limited schedule in the No. 09 Phoenix Racing Miccosukee Resort & Gaming Chevrolet. His best finish for the 2009 season was 35th at Martinsville, which also proved the last of his 748 career starts.

An announcement was made preceding the Cup Series finale weekend atHomestead-Miami Speedway that Marlin would attempt the race in the No. 70 Chevrolet forTRG Motorsports, though Marlin later denied it.^{[citation needed]}

Marlin announced his retirement from racing on March 18, 2010, and formerly owned a Chevrolet dealership inAshland City, Tennessee and a Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep dealership inDickson, Tennessee. In 2012, Marlin publicly revealed that he had been diagnosed withParkinsonism.^[6] He has undergonedeep brain stimulation surgical procedures atVanderbilt University Medical Center as part of his treatment.^[7]

In late 2011, Marlin helped form Tennessee Racing Association, LLC, along with several other drivers (includingChad Chaffin andMike Alexander) and businessmen, in an effort to preserveFairgrounds Speedway and allow the track to remain active in the racing community.^[8] He is fully retired fromNASCAR competition, as well as the Pro Late Model Division atFairgrounds Speedway. Marlin lives on a ranch nearSpring Hill, Tennessee.^[9]

In 2003, game showFamily Feud hosted a NASCAR special with help from then-Family Feud hostRichard Karn. Sterling Marlin was one of the drivers who appeared in an episode, along with some crew members from theCoors team. Marlin played against fellow driverElliott Sadler and the #38 Robert Yates team, winning the game.

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toSterling Marlin.

• Sterling Marlin driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Sterling Marlin at The Crittenden Automotive Library

• Living people
• 1957 births
• Sportspeople from Columbia, Tennessee
• Racing drivers from Tennessee
• NASCAR drivers
• International Race of Champions drivers
• American Speed Association drivers
• NASCAR team owners
• People with Parkinson's disease
• Chip Ganassi Racing drivers
• Daytona 500 winners
• Daytona 500 drivers
• Coca-Cola 600 drivers
• Brickyard 400 drivers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2025
• Commons category link is on Wikidata