Saturday Dodge NASCAR Notes Tropicana 400

Saturday, July 13 , 2002					             Ray Cooper
Chicagoland Speedway                	                                                        Golin/Harris International

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)

NOTE: Marlin will start fourth in Sunday's Tropicana 400, and that's his best qualifying effort of the season. He started on the pole at Pocono, but qualifying was canceled and drivers lined up by points. Marlin has had only one other top 10 qualifying effort this season, a sixth at Rockingham in February. He finished second in that race, assumed the points lead and has held it since. The 45-year-old driver from Columbia, Tenn., will make his 557th NASCAR Winston Cup career start on Sunday. He has 11 career poles, 10 victories and 77 top fives.

"We found some stuff when we tested at Kentucky that's going to help us in qualifying. We went to Richmond and tested for two days and Kentucky and tested for two days and found some stuff. We worked on some different packages, and I think it's going to help in qualifying and in the race. The way the chassis stuff works now is just nuts. The stuff that's working shouldn't be working. I don't understand what's changed. It's the same tire we had last year, but the same setups don't work. I don't know if it's the tracks changing over the winter or the aero stuff changing on these cars, getting more downforce on 'em. I just don't know what it is.

"We've got some pretty smart people at Chip Ganassi Racing. Andy Graves and Tony Glover don't know what to make of it, either. Two years ago if you had under a car what's under it now, there wouldn't be any way you could drive it.

"You run real fast here, but you've just got to get in the car and drive it and not worry about getting hurt. You can get hurt at Martinsville. You can get hurt going down the steps.

"We'll know more after this morning about what to expect on Sunday in the race. We'll just go out and see what we've got. It's still too early to dwell on the points. We've just got to go out and do our deal and try win every week. If we can't win, then we'll shoot for a top five. If we can't do that, we'll go for a top 10. You can't run 12th or 15th every week and win the championship.

"I thought we could keep getting top fives every week. We started out pretty strong (five straight top 10s), and then the chassis started changing on us. I really don't know where we are compared to the Fords and other makes right now. It looks like the Fords might have a little bit of an advantage. I guess we need to go back to the wind tunnel and see what we've all got. We're supposed to have the same car as the Ford and we go to
Daytona and they have three inches less spoiler than we've got. I guess we need to start fighting harder for some changes.

"We're prepared for this 20-race stretch. We've got cars ready to go and motors ready to go. We'll slip off and go test a couple of days during that stretch. We've got two tests left. I'm not sure where we'll go to test. I'd like to go to Richmond and test under the lights. There's no need to test in the daytime. Maybe they'll let us test at night if we pay the light bill.

"You've got  to test to learn stuff. If you want to win, you'd better do it. You've got to do a lot of things you don't want to do to win. That's what we're in it for. We've got a shot here. We'll wait and see how practice goes, but I think we're going to be all right. The two times we've started in the top 10 this year we've finished in the top five (second at Rockingham and fourth at Pocono). 

"We've got some good tracks coming up. We had a good run at Indy last year. Pocono, Michigan and Darlington are just around the corner, but we're looking forward to all of them. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. This 20-race stretch should favor the bigger, more experienced teams, but you never know what's going to happen. We'll just get all we can get every week and see where it stacks up after Homestead. There's a lot at stake, but we're just going to do all we can do and hope that's enough. Everybody is working hard, but the competition is tough. There's no room to take a break. When it's all said and done, we'll know we gave it 100 percent."