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Newsbytes, Tom Brokaw, and the EA Sports 500 from Talladega Speedway.
Newsbytes......... Sad to hear that Sterling Marlin's season has ended so abruptly. Sterling has always been one of my favorites. I've been known to get rather upset with him for being so laid back and not seeming to try hard enough over the years, but there has been lots of factors regarding his performance in the past few years that he has had no control over. Sterling had some great performances when Runt Pittman was building those super restrictor plate engines for him while he was driving the No. 4 Kodak Chevy for Morgan McClure Motorsports. His performance other than the restrictor plate tracks didn't amount to much, and to his favor, Bobby Hamilton and Mike Skinner haven't set the world on fire with that ride either. However, Hamilton did score a win for Morgan McClure at Martinsville in '98; I'll have to give the team credit for that one. Sterling's performance wasn't all that great when he first moved over to Sabatas Motorsports in 98. His performance that year consisted of six top ten finishes in 32 starts. In 1999 he had two top five, five top ten finishes, and one Bud pole in 34 starts. In the 2000 season he had one top five and seven top ten finishes. The emergence of Chip Ganassi Racing into the Felix Sabatas organization seemed to have done Sterling a world of good. The move to Dodge last season was also a good one for Sterling. In the 2001 season Sterling had two wins, 12 top five, 20 top ten finishes with one Bud Pole. His career had been revitalized. Sterling has been a championship contender most of this season. He has two wins, eight top five, 14 top ten finishes, and has won two Bud pole positions in the 29 races he has started this season. He was the championship point's leader in all but 4 of the races he ran this season, losing his edge in New Hampshire last month with a 21st place finish. Sterling's average start was 20.4, his average finish was 13.8. He had completed 92.7% of proscribed race laps, accumulated 3703 points, and $3.621 million dollars.
The copyright of the article The Steering Wheel Blues in NASCAR is owned by Thomas M. Sampson. Permission to republish The Steering Wheel Blues in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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