Sterling Marlin '06 Preview:

Sterling Marlin moves from the Chip Ganassi #40 Coors Light Dodge to MB Motorsports as the driver of the #14 car, tentatively set for a 12 race sponsorship by Waste Management, Inc. Marlin chose #14 in honor of his father, who passed away during the summer of 2005. The move to MB means that Marlin will be driving a Chevy this year and the 2007 season, as he has signed on to drive for 2 years. This is the #10 car formerly driven by Scott Riggs, who took #10 and sponsor Valvoline over to Evernham Motorsports.

Sponsor: Waste Managment/CENTRIX Financial
Owners: Nelson Bowers, Bob Sutton, Jay Frye
Crew Chief: Doug Randolph
Team: MB Motorsports

2005 Stats:

0 Poles
5 Top Ten's
1 Top Five
30th in Final Point Standings


Marlin has traditionally been a strong competitor on the restrictor plate tracks, Talladega and Daytona, and finished as high as third in the final NASCAR Nextel Cup standings in 2001. He has 10 career wins, but is coming off a 2005 season in which he only had 5 top ten finishes, 1 top five, and his average finish was 24th. Moving to a new team may help improve a little bit due to his veteran status on the circuit. However, this team struggled last year with a young, promising driver in Scott Riggs and with Marlin towards the final years of his career, I don't see much of an improvement. Look for him to be strong with Hendrick engines at the Superspeedways, but struggle for most of the year. The team still needs a primary sponsor for the the second part of the season and without that, the team will struggle on and off the track.