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Sterling effort Marlin cruises to second victory of season
Updated: Sunday October 07, 2001 10:41 PM
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com CONCORD, N.C. -- It was a rout in the classic sense of the word. Sterling Marlin had his way with things Sunday, beating Tony Stewart by more than six seconds to win the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Ward Burton finished third, almost 15 seconds behind Marlin. The win was Marlin's second -- and Dodge's third -- of the year, but it was Marlin's first at Charlotte and it comes on the heels of nine consecutive finishes of 31st or worse at the track. "We had a great car," Marlin said. "We didn't do anything to it, put on four tires every stop. Every time we've run [this car], it's been top-five and won two. All we needed were green-flag laps."
And he got them. Though the race was slowed by eight cautions (for 40 laps), there were none in the race's final 150 miles. And though Marlin and Stewart were clearly the two best cars on the track (Stewart led five times for 130 laps) it was, essentially, Marlin's race to lose once things settled down. Though Stewart's car was good on short runs, Marlin's was far better over the long runs. "With fresh tires, we could go out and run the pace and almost identical lap times to Sterling," Stewart said. "Once we would get in traffic where the air was getting dirty, it was [hard]. Then he would run right up to us and not even lose time." Case in point: Marlin, who led 135 of the race's 334 laps, entered the pits for the final time under green on lap 295 with a lead of almost seven seconds. When he exited the pits, his lead was down to a manageable three seconds, with Stewart still in second.
That was as close as anyone would get. When Marlin and Stewart came upon lapped traffic late in the race, Marlin was able to expand his lead with ease. "Sterling drove a great race," Stewart said. "He was real patient and he drove traffic real well. Every time he'd go by was right about the time we'd get to traffic, so I could watch what he was doing. He was very, very methodical about where he was passing and where he was catching guys. There's no shame in finishing second to him." No shame, but frustration: Stewart cited both Marlin's easy runs through traffic and his huge margin of victory as proof that his Pontiac Grand Prix needs help if it is going to compete. "NASCAR helped the Dodges out earlier this year," he said. "It's time to give the Pontiacs what they deserve now. It's time to even out the competition. That wasn't a good show, I didn't think." But given his years of futility at Charlotte, a show was probably the last thing on Marlin's mind. "It's the best [car] I ever drove here in the last practice," he said. "I knew if we didn't have trouble, we'd be tough." The start of the race was briefly delayed as word of the U.S. attacks against Afghanistan first broke, with coverage shown on the big-screen television in the infield that was propped just above the waiting drivers on pit road. After Marlin crossed the finish line, his crew ran to him with an American flag, but NASCAR refused to let Marlin take the customary victory lap. He instead drove straight to the winner's circle, carrying the flag out his window. "I was going to make a lap around the track with the flag, from what went on this morning we just wanted to show support overseas and for the armed forces," Marlin said. "But the NASCAR posse got us." NASCAR said it prohibited Marlin from taking the lap because it was unsafe due the amount of people who had raced out to the finish line. The decision disappointed the crew, which sent partial team owner Felix Sabates to express that to NASCAR. "Today was a special day for the U.S.," said team manager Tony Glover. "To win a Winston Cup race is a total team effort, so I thought it would have been very neat if Sterling could have jumped up and have our entire team let the U.S. know we supported them." Many drivers said they learned of the attacks before they got into their cars, but some didn't find out until they saw it on the TV screen while waiting to start the race. Stewart said he was more excited for the attacks, and revenge against Osama bin Laden, then he was for the race.
"My first thought was 'Go get 'em," he said. "If I could go and help right now, I'd go. It's time to finish this guy off, as far as I'm concerned."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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