NASCAR Winston Cup Goody's Headache Powders 500 Preview: #4, Sterling Marlin
19 August 1997
#4 Sterling Marlin, Kodak Gold Film Chevrolet Monte Carlo NASCAR Winston Cup Series Goody's Headache Powders 500 Advance Bristol Motor Speedway STERLING MARLIN NOTES & QUOTES: GOODY'S HEADACHE POWDERS 500 BRISTOL, TN - The Kodak Gold Film Chevrolet team heads home to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway this week, hoping a trip to their own backyard can cure the ills of bad luck it has faced throughout the season. The car, driven by 40-year-old Sterling Marlin of Columbia, Tenn., is fielded by Morgan-McClure Motorsports of Abingdon, Va., located just a few miles down the road from the .533-mile speedway. In April's Food City 500 at Bristol, the team appeared headed to one of its best races of the early season. Marlin qualified second and appeared headed to a real run for victory. Even after losing a cylinder, Marlin was able to lead the race but the team was still able to pull off a 20th-place finish. The race is as important as any the Kodak Gold Film Chevrolet team run all season. The proximity to its shop in Abingdon - not to mention Morgan-McClure auto dealerships in New Castle and Coeburn - bring thousands of team fans to the high-banked, .533-mile speedway. The thoughts of Kodak Gold Film Chevrolet driver Sterling Marlin heading into Bristol: "It's a good feeling to be heading home. Especially when things haven't been all that well, it's a good feeling to be headed home. We've been fighting this luck thing for so long it's almost hard to remember a time we haven't been fighting it. Bristol is the type of place that could turn things around for us because it's a place where we've had good runs over the years and because we know we're going to have a lot of people pulling for us. "I figure those boys at Bristol ought to put in another couple hundred thousand seats just to handle the Morgan-McClure people who want to be there. This is their biggest race of the year. For a lot of them it's the only chance they get all season to come to the race track. They pretty well figure we're going to run good and they pretty much plan on us winning at Bristol. I can't blame them. Hey, that's their race. "For the Morgan-McClure driver, the races at Bristol might be the most important of the whole season. You are almost afraid not to have a good run there. That's their stomping grounds there and they want to see some stomping. I really believe if we covered the field and had two laps on everyone, they'd want to see us get at least three or four laps on everyone. That race is way too important to them, and to all of us with this Morgan-McClure team, to do anything less. "Those folks expect a lot out of this race team, and they should. This is a good team with a good history. This team has won the Daytona 500 and won at Bristol. They've won on road courses and they've won at Darlington. Just because we're going through a little spell of bad luck right now doesn't mean the end of time is coming over the hill and it doesn't mean this group has forgotten how to win. There are peaks and valleys with just about everything in life, and racing's no different. We're going through a little bit of a valley now but we'll start uphill soon. When we start doing that, people better watch out. "We're going into Bristol with every intention of winning the thing. Forget the bad luck and forget high-fiving over a top-10 finish. Our sights are set on winning the thing, plain and simple. The boys on this Kodak Gold Film Chevrolet team have kept their heads up all season long and they haven't let the weird things and the bad luck get them down. Everytime something strange happens, they just bear down a little harder and work a little longer. We will lick this thing. "Bristol is the kind of track where you get the unexpected. There have been surprises crop up there over the years, in qualifying and in the races. You see some new names near the top just about every race there. Like everything else, though, the cream rises to the top and the good short track racers are the ones who are going to be winning races there. "I'd certainly consider this team as one of those 'cream-risers,' and I sure do consider us among the better short track teams. Nobody knows what's in the future but you can bet just about everything you own this Kodak Gold Film Chevrolet team is going to be back and it's going to be back winning like crazy." By Williams Company of America, Inc.