Sterling Marlin and his Kodachrome-bright number 4 car won the Pepsi 400 the old-fashioned way: one vehicle, one victory by Ed Hinton Sterling Marlin continued his uncanny domination of Daytona, earning his third victory in six races at the superspeedway. (Margin of victory: .104 of a second) Sterling Marlin, Chevrolet, 117 laps at 161.602 mph Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 117 laps Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 117 laps Dale Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 117 laps Ernie Irvan, Ford, 117 laps 1 hour, 48 minutes, 36 seconds; 3 flags, 11 laps run under caution Jeff Gordon 188.869 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,266(160) 2 Terry Labonte 2,261 (170) 3 Jeff Gordon 2,229 (170) 4 Dale Jarrett 2,029 (155) 5 Sterling Marlin 1,978(185) They are a study in glorious simplicity, one good ol' boy and one "ol' hot rod," as Sterling Marlin calls the single Chevrolet in which he has flown in the faces of all the trendy, high-tech, multicar, multidriver teams in NASCAR. Together they have now won three of the last six Winston Cup races at Daytona International Speedway. In the late laps of the Pepsi 400, Marlin was chased by the most formidable posse yet: the three-Chevy Hendrick Motorsports squadron of Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader; the two-Ford Robert Yates Racing team of Dale Jarrett and Ernie Irvan; and the ominous black Chevy Monte Carlo of Dale Earnhardt. Yet Marlin's third win at Daytona since February 1994 looked to be the most effortless of all. By the time torrents of rain red-flagged the race after 117 of a scheduled 160 laps, Marlin had his opponents so thoroughly whipped that they seemed glad it was over early. Of the Hendrick trio's concerted but futile effort to team up on Marlin, third-place finisher Gordon said, "It shows how strong Sterling is when three guys are working as hard as they can, together, to get by him and there's no chance." Said Earnhardt, who finished fourth, "That 4 car is really in a class by itself." Marlin and his "ol' hot rod" have Daytona figured. photograph by Paul W. Melhado And yet, said Marlin, "It's the same ol' car" in which he won the 1994 and '95 Daytona 500s and the last two races at Talladega—this year's Winston Select 500 and the DieHard 500 in '95. "It used to be a Lumina. We just reskinned it [put new sheet metal on to make it a Monte Carlo]." What makes this particular car so quick on the superspeedways? "It sniffs the draft particularly well," said Marlin. As for what goes into the engines prepared by his Morgan-McClure team, he said, "I don't ask. I just say, 'Is it a good one?' And they say, 'Yeah.'" Against the big-bucks teams, which brought two or three cars per driver to test at Daytona, batting .500 over three years at the storied track is simply spectacular for one ol' hot rod. And one good ol' boy.