Speedway reels in Marlin, NASCAR buddies

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Two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin will run a stock car tonight on the dirt track of Red River Co-op Speedway. (PAUL KIZZLE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)

Big names on card

 

Red River Co-op Speedway NASCAR drivers racing event:

Featuring NASCAR drivers Kenny Wallace, Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin

Track located five minutes south of Winnipeg on Hwy. 75

Gates open at 5 p.m.

Autograph session 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Rush-seating tickets available at the gate for $50 each; advance tickets $45 at all Piston Ring locations while supplies last.

Racing divisions will include Super Trucks, Super Stocks, Modifieds, Late Models

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin will run a stock car tonight on the dirt track of Red River Co-op Speedway.

Yes, you read that right -- there are legends of NASCAR coming to the dirt track near you.

The 53-year-old Marlin, one of just three drivers in NASCAR history to earn consecutive Daytona 500 victories when he won in 1994 and 1995, is part of a four-star lineup that will rip up the 2/5-mile oval in special guest appearances.

Marlin, who retired last March from the Sprint Cup Series after more than 30 years in professional stock car racing, will be joined by Kenny Wallace, 46, Ken Schrader, 55, and Michael Waltrip, 47.

Schrader and Wallace will run cars in the Modifieds class, with Schrader driving his own car and Wallace borrowing a local car. All four will race borrowed Super Stock cars in a special Race of Champions event later in the evening.

"Dirt track?" Marlin said in a phone interview from his farm in Tennessee's Maury County. "When these things get put together, sometimes we don't know if we're going to a quarter-mile, half-mile, dirt track, asphalt track, but we adapt pretty quickly, have a good time and it's good to come out and see the fans that have always supported the Cup guys, sign their die-cast cars and hats."

He said the back-to-back Daytona 500 wins are easily his favourite memories of his career.

"It was a pretty special deal. Only two others have done it (Richard Petty 1973-74 and Cale Yarborough 1983-84)," he said. "We had a really good race team at the time and they really put a lot of effort into it and the Kodak car, I was just proud they let me drive the car."

The four drivers have one particularly historic race in common -- they raced in the 2001 Daytona 500 when Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed in a last-lap crash Feb. 18 and NASCAR racing's approach to driver safety was changed forever with the implementation of head and neck restraint devices for all drivers.

"(Earnhardt Sr.) was a good friend of mine, a hell of a competitor, and he'd be here today if his seatbelt hadn't broke," Marlin said, referring to the investigation that showed part of Earnhardt's seatbelt failed. He died of a skull fracture. "He passed away doing what he loved and we all still think about him."

Marlin got his start in the racing game at age 14 as a right front tire changer in the pit crew of his famous father, Coo-Coo Marlin, at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway.

These days, Marlin, who earned about $40 million in his stellar career, is back working the 800-acre family farm with 200 head of cattle and has gone back to his racing roots as well.

"I'm running short-track stuff here at home. I've retired from the Cup stuff and the Busch stuff. I've done it for 32 years. I just got burned out on it and just like the simple old short-track stuff now," said Marlin.

Known for his easygoing manner, he said he likes being just a face in the crowd when he goes to races now.

"I guess once you strap in and put your helmet on, it's just another guy or car you've got to pass, so (other drivers) probably don't pay any attention to it."

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 15, 2010 C7